A state judge awarded Newark’s top non-elected official a $500,000 judgement in a defamation suit against a resident who claimed that the official accepted bribes from developers on behalf of Mayor Ras J. Baraka, according to documents obtained by NJ.com.
Newark Business Administrator Eric Pennington on April 2 filed the complaint in state Superior Court claiming Kevin Jenkins, the husband of former Newark City Council member and longtime Baraka political opponent Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins, had made “false statements of fact about (Pennington) on social media platforms accessible to members of the public” in March. Baraka was not a plaintiff in the case.
The date of the post was two months ahead of the city’s May 12 non-partisan elections, when Baraka won his fourth four-year term as mayor and Chaneyfield Jenkins ran unsuccessfully for council after having she gave up her seat in 2018 to run against Baraka for mayor…