Local news site Red Bank Green wins free speech showdown over police blotter post

A Monmouth County man who filed a citizen’s complaint against a local news outlet that refused to remove a police blotter item detailing his now-expunged arrest withdrew the charge Thursday, as the judge noted he would have ruled against the man anyway.

The decision would have been an about-face for Red Bank Municipal Judge Frank LaRocca, who late last month decided that Kyle Pietila’s complaint against hyperlocal news website Red Bank Green could move forward.

The case threatened to have far-reaching effects on local news, which Red Bank Green publisher Kenneth Katzgrau said could become targets of a weaponized statute wielded by anyone with a gripe against the media.

“It would create an immense number of legal issues and legal costs, and I think it could be existential for a lot of outlets,” Katzgrau told The Jersey Vindicator this week.

But Pietila’s lawyer, Mitchell Ansell of Ocean Township, yanked the complaint during a virtual hearing Thursday.

“After consulting with my client, he wishes to respectfully withdraw his complaint this morning and asks the court to dismiss [it],” Ansell told LaRocca, who is the same judge that dismissed Pietila’s charges earlier this year.

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LaRocca agreed and said he hadn’t been aware Red Bank Green added an editor’s note to the blotter item saying the case had been expunged when he first ruled Pietila’s complaint could move forward.

“That statute indicates that if there was a continued publication … of a record of expungement, it could result in potential criminal liability,” LaRocca said. “So I found probable cause.”

But when he researched case law, he found Red Bank Green’s attorney, Bruce Rosen, had been correct when he wrote in his July 11 motion to dismiss that the outlet had no obligation to pull the story.

“The civilian brought a complaint because he felt that he [was] aggrieved by the statute,” LaRocca said. “Mr. Rosen is correct; the case was clear. The press does not need to take that down … that would have been my ruling today.”

The controversy stemmed from a September 2024 police blotter listing that detailed Pietila’s arrest on simple assault charges near his Reckless Place home on Aug. 31, according to Rosen’s motion.

Seven months later, the court dropped the charges against the 41-year-old and expunged his record.

Afterward, Pietila began to hound the outlet to take the blotter item down.

But editor Brian Donohue declined and pointed to the website’s policy, which states that “once information is published, it should stay published as-is unless a correction or clarification is warranted,” according to court documents.

Donohue followed that policy — which is similar to many other news organizations’ — and tacked the editor’s note onto the original story.

Pietila continued to push for total removal. When he didn’t get it, he filed the citizen’s complaint.

Rosen contended in legal papers that there was “no legal basis” for the idea that Pietila could compel the outlet to pull the item.

“If anything, Red Bank Green should be commended for, after being informed of the expungement, adding a note explaining that the arrest had been expunged,” the Hackensack attorney wrote.

“It had no legal obligation to do so, but did so in accordance with its own policies and desire to report fairly and accurately to the public.”

Creating such an obligation would violate the local news site’s right to free speech, he added.

The outlet and its publisher, Kenneth Katzgrau, would face only a fine of about $200 if the court ruled against them, Rosen said.

But it was the principle.

“You can’t edit history, and things are what they are,” Rosen said.

Katzgrau expressed his relief about the outcome on Thursday afternoon and what it means for journalism, but also acknowledged the impact information published online can have on people’s lives.

“This was, at its core, a battle and victory for the right to report the truth and preserve journalistic integrity — the importance of which cannot be understated,” Katzgrau said. “But there’s no denying the real and lasting impact that the truth about someone’s past can have on their future. That tension won’t be forgotten. There’s work to be done to better reconcile those two truths.”

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