Twenty of the 49 township devices tied to a five-year RLUIPA case cannot be found, the township's own law firm wants off the case and the insurance money is gone.
Methfessel and Werbel, the law firm defending Toms River in a five-year-old federal religious-land-use case, says the township greets its requests for cooperation with "a refusal to meaningfully engage." The firm, assigned by the Ocean County Joint Insurance Fund, has asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Justin T. Quinn twice to let it withdraw, most recently in a filing this month saying the firm has stopped getting paid.
On September 16, with that request pending, the two Orthodox congregations suing the township filed their second sanctions request in the case, per the Asbury Park Press. Their lawyer, Roman P. Storzer, wrote in an August letter that 20 of the 49 township-issued laptops and cell phones tied to the case cannot be located and 10 more sit locked, encrypted or wiped, figures he said come from the township's own submission. The letter counts 24 laptops and 25 cell phones.
The 11 missing laptops include machines used by former Mayor Maurice B. "Mo" Hill Jr., four former council members, two former business administrators, the former township planner, two former zoning officers and a former code enforcement officer, per the letter. The lost phones include former Mayor Thomas F. Kelaher's and former Township Attorney Ken Fitzsimmons's.
Five phones can no longer be searched: wiped, restored to factory condition or locked behind passwords no one can open without township sign-off, per the letter. Three laptops are encrypted, including sitting Councilman David Ciccozzi's; the other two belong to former council members. "This is inexcusable," Storzer wrote in his August letter. The letter also put the township on notice to preserve electronically stored information when the suits were filed in February 2021.
Toms River has turned over more than 3,976 electronically stored documents, according to the September 14 filing by Tiffany Werdel of Methfessel and Werbel. The same filing says Mayor Daniel Rodrick, Ciccozzi and Business Administrator Jonathan Salonis handed over devices, and Councilwoman Lynn O'Toole a laptop, in July.
Khal Anshei Tallymawr and Bais Brucha filed their federal suits in February 2021 after the township turned back their zoning applications to build small shuls, or synagogues, in the North Dover section, their complaints say. The suits allege an "orchestrated campaign" against the Orthodox community's expansion in Toms River. Neither congregation has sought site-plan approval from the township's zoning board, according to the filings.
The next month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed its own complaint and a proposed consent order resolving allegations that the township's zoning code boxed houses of worship into a handful of districts while letting secular assembly uses build more freely. A federal judge approved the order on March 11, 2021.
The order cut the minimum lot for a house of worship from 10 acres to two in many districts, opened minor collector roads, treated houses of worship on equal terms with nonreligious assembly and committed township officials to training on the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
On February 29, 2024, U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi granted the congregations partial judgment on the pleadings. He ruled that the township's old regulations violated the equal terms and exclusion-and-limits provisions of RLUIPA and the First Amendment's free exercise clause. He denied the equal protection count.
Quraishi found that anti-Semitic animus was "a motivating factor" behind the rules. His opinion recounts township officials describing the growing Orthodox community as "an invasion," a 2016 remark that press accounts attributed to then-Mayor Thomas F. Kelaher, who later apologized. The opinion also cites graffiti carved into a playground and bench reading "Burn the Jews" and "Jews go back to Lakewood," and a residents' group called "Toms River Strong" organized to keep Orthodox families from buying homes.
The congregations' damages claims survived the township's code amendments because the alleged misconduct predated them. What remains, per the opinion, is the damages phase.
The records fight has kept the case on hold. Quinn held Toms River in contempt on March 27, 2025, over court-ordered items the township never produced, and denied the congregations' bid for default judgment, per Doc. 177. He gave the township 60 days to comply. On October 15, 2025, he ordered it to pay $29,750 in fees, cutting the $100,276.25 request for 224.65 hours of work to 70 hours at a $425 blended rate. "It simply is not reasonable for counsel to claim that they spent over a month's worth of billable hours on one partially briefed motion," Quinn wrote.
The defense money has come from the Ocean County Joint Insurance Fund, which has paid out $2 million in coverage. That money is exhausted, and any settlement or trial judgment could now land on township taxpayers, according to the Asbury Park Press.
The township went to Ocean County Superior Court in May, suing the Municipal Excess Liability Fund, a statewide coverage pool whose members are New Jersey towns and other public bodies, and demanding $4 million more on the theory that a RLUIPA case is a civil-rights matter, a category that carries a higher coverage limit than land-use disputes, according to the township's suit. MEL argues the land-use limit controls.
MEL's lawyer, Craig A. Domalewski, told the court that forcing broader coverage "would violate public policy because it would improperly shift costs to other municipalities and public entities for Toms River's wrongful conduct." Ocean County Superior Court Judge Christian Leitner declined to order MEL to fund the defense immediately; that case is pending.
In 2021, then-Assistant Township Attorney Anthony Merlino and religious-land-use expert Marci Hamilton advised the council to accept the federal deal, warning of a $10 million fine if Toms River refused, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Quinn refused the firm's first request to withdraw on July 1, warning that new counsel this deep into the case would bring more delay and prejudice the congregations. In a September 14 brief, firm lawyer Eric L. Harrison wrote that "efforts to obtain the cooperation necessary to provide effective representation and ensure compliance with the Court's Orders are routinely met with a refusal to meaningfully engage."
He also wrote that "Counsel is thus placed in the untenable position of remaining responsible for Defendants' representation and compliance with the Court's Orders while being denied the cooperation necessary to fulfill those obligations." Storzer is fighting the firm's exit. Quinn could rule on the second request as early as September 21.
Township lawyers have argued from the start that they are meeting their obligations and that the demands exceed what the case requires; Merlino called the discovery requests a "fishing expedition."
Toms River's first two Orthodox shuls, both brought by other applicants, won zoning board approval in 2024, on Whitesville Road and Stevens Road in North Dover.
Quinn has rejected requests from both sides before: he turned down the congregations' earlier sanctions request in July and refused the defense firm's first bid to leave.
Rodrick's administration maintains it has done nothing wrong. Donald F. Burke Jr., the mayor's special counsel in the case, said in an emailed statement: "The Township has cooperated fully with its counsel in the Tallymawr and Bais Brucha matters, selected by the Joint Insurance Fund rather than this administration." Burke also said his office added $1 million in coverage, taking the primary policy to $2 million before it ran out.
Rodrick served on the township council from 2018 to 2023. He cast the council's only no vote against the DOJ settlement in March 2021 and against the implementing ordinance that July. He won the 2023 mayor's race and took office in January 2024. The device fight now runs through his administration, though the record shows most of the missing machines belonged to people who served before him.
It is the second time this year that Toms River records have disappeared. On March 31, NJBallot documented a council meeting video vanishing from the township's official YouTube channel within hours of posting. In both cases, the records belonged to Toms River.
As of September 21, Quinn had not ruled on the firm's second request to withdraw. The sanctions motion remains pending before him.
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Sources
• Bais Brucha Inc. and Rabbi Mordechai Sekula v. Township of Toms River and Toms River Zoning Board of Adjustment, U.S. District Court (D.N.J.), No. 3:21-cv-03239, Doc. 125 (February 29, 2024)
• Khal Anshei Tallymawr Inc. v. Township of Toms River, U.S. District Court (D.N.J.), No. 3:21-cv-02716 (December 3, 2021)
• Khal Anshei Tallymawr Inc. v. Township of Toms River, U.S. District Court (D.N.J.), No. 3:21-cv-02716, Doc. 177 (March 27, 2025)
• Khal Anshei Tallymawr Inc. v. Township of Toms River, U.S. District Court (D.N.J.), No. 3:21-cv-02716, Doc. 215 (October 15, 2025)
• United States v. Township of Toms River, U.S. District Court (D.N.J.), No. 3:21-cv-04633, consent order (entered March 11, 2021)
• JTA, "Mayor Declares Attempts By Orthodox Jews To Buy Up Homes an 'Invasion,'" Forward (March 17, 2016)
• JTA, "Orthodox Rabbi Accuses New Jersey Town of Bias in Lawsuit," Forward (March 23, 2016)
• Mikle, Jean, "Toms River to allow houses of worship on 2-acre parcels under settlement with feds," Asbury Park Press (March 10, 2021)
• Mikle, Jean, "Toms River OKs house of worship zoning change after threat of $10M federal fine," Asbury Park Press (July 14, 2021)
• Mikle, Jean, "Toms River's new mayor takes charge: Dan Rodrick sworn in," Asbury Park Press (January 1, 2024)
• Mikle, Jean, "Toms River synagogue seeks township OK to more than double in size," Asbury Park Press (July 22, 2026)
• Mikle, Jean, "Toms River faces punishment over missing computers in Orthodox suit," Asbury Park Press (September 16, 2026)
• Murphy, Colleen, "NJ town fined in Orthodox Jewish lawsuit must pay nearly $30K in legal fees," NJ.com (October 17, 2025)
• Flores, Jacob, "Toms River Faces 8,000 New Homes After Chaotic 3-2-2 Vote Kills Protective Ordinance," NJBallot (March 31, 2026)
• Patch, "Toms River Fined Nearly $30K In Federal Synagogue Lawsuit," Patch (October 21, 2025)
• Friedman, Matt, "Sherrill-Caldwell tension simmers ahead of budget fight," Politico (September 17, 2026)