By JOHN T. WARD
[Update: please see the editor’s note at the end of this article.]
Sea Bright Councilman C. Read Murphy, right, is due in municipal court next month on a citizen complaint of harassment.
Perry Feigenbuam, of Asbury Park, claims Murphy threatened him in front of witnesses outside an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on Ocean Avenue in Sea Bright on June 9.
Murphy, though, claims Feigenbaum has been stalking and harassing Allison Peduto, the daughter of a late friend and Feigenbaum’s ex-girlfriend.
Feigenbaum and Peduto have registered a series of complaints against one another in recent months. Feigenbaum, who claims he and Peduto broke up in May, said a local court dismissed a restraining order Peduto had obtained against him, and he filed allegations in Asbury Park that she “destroyed” his car after they split as a couple.
Feigenbaum said that on June 9, while standing outside a church in Sea Bright after an AA meeting, Murphy ran across Ocean Avenue and threatened him.
“He said, ‘you’re a dead little bastard,'” Feigenbaum, who said Murphy invoked the specter of his own son, a borough police officer, in the threat. “I walked to the police department and filed a complaint,” Feigenbaum told redbankgreen.
“I want this to stop,” said Feigenbaum, who said he’s been sober for nine years and attends AA meetings in Sea Bright. “The two of them have been terrorizing me,” he said of Murphy and Peduto.
Murphy denies threatening or harassing Feigenbaum. He said he walked across the street and told Feigenbaum, “‘listen, just stay away from her.’ I didn’t even raise my voice to him.”
To avoid a conflict of interest, the case was moved by Sea Bright officials to Red Bank municipal court, where it is scheduled to be heard August 9, according to court records.
Editor’s note: The original version of this article contained quotes that unfairly disparaged Perry Feigenbaum. Though redbankgreen has a policy of preserving all published material and correcting or clarifying information as necessary, the quotes have been removed in the interest of fairness and in acknowledgement that they should not have been included in the first place. We apologize to Perry Feigenbaum and our readers for this lapse in judgement.
