A tow truck that was the subject of a lawsuit filed by a Bank Street resident against a towing company was vandalized by someone who permanently affixed a “No Parking” sign on the door, according to its owner. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
A Red Bank man who has waged a decades-long legal war with the borough over junk-filled vehicles he parks outside his house claims two of them were repeatedly vandalized recently.
William Poku, of Bank Street, says someone adhered metal “no parking” signs to the doors of two trucks, not long after he got them back from a towing company.
Red Bank police officers were on the scene outside his home at about 6 am last Tuesday morning as Poku told them his bucket truck and tow truck had metal signs permanently affixed to them, seemingly with glue or other permanent adhesive.
He also said someone had written lines on the tires with chalk and deflated a tire on a trailer attached to the bucket truck parked on Tilton Avenue, around the corner from his home.
“This is vandalism,” Poku said pointing to his tow truck.
Poku called it the latest attempt by people to gentrify a neighborhood long home predominantly to working class people of color.
“The people that are moving into Red Bank don’t want people that look like me out here,” he said. “They don’t. They want this to be an affluent white community.”
Red Bank Police Chief Mike Frazee confirmed the department had received reports of vandalism to the vehicles parked on Bank Street and Tilton Avenue.
Poku’s vehicles are frequently parked on the street near his home. While his property has a driveway and large yard, that space is entirely occupied by more than a half-dozen other vehicles, piles and containers of trash and other materials which Poku says he uses for his livelihood.
The property has been the subject of numerous code violation summonses and $11,080 in fines, for which a municipal court approved a $65 a month, 12-year payment plan in 2021.
The five vehicles parked on the street – including two Nissan SUVs, a bucket truck, a tow truck and a trailer piled high with lumber and scrap materials – were towed away by a borough-contracted towing company on January 7.
The street was under a temporary parking ban during a town-wide lead water line replacement program to ensure safe drinking water, with signs posted along the street in the days leading up to the work. (See photo below).
In February, court records show, Poku sued Taylor’s Towing for the return of the vehicles, saying the company violated the New Jersey Predatory Towing Act, had fraudulently obtained a towing license and was breaking numerous laws by not returning them and storing them improperly.
On March 25, the towing company returned two of the vehicles, calling it a “show of good faith,” court filings show.
The documents show a back and forth over the ensuing months, with Poku demanding roughly $1 million in damages, including $53,000 for the remaining three vehicles, $314,000 for defamation, and more than $628,000 for emotional distress caused by the ordeal, court documents show.
In April, Taylor’s Towing retained attorney and former Red Bank Mayor Ed McKenna, who filed a counterclaim seeking $17,000 in storage fees it said Poku owed the towing company, along with reimbursement for legal fees. McKenna argued Poku’s suit was “filed in bad faith and constitutes a frivolous and groundless claim with no basis in law or equity.”
On June 29, Taylor’s Towing returned the last three vehicles to the locations on the street they had been towed from seven months earlier. Court documents show Poku subsequently agreed to drop his $1 million demand. The case has not been formally dismissed by the judge, with upcoming deadlines dates still showing on the case management web site.
RED BANK: NEIGHBORS DEMAND CLEANUP WHILE JUNK MAVEN SUES BORO AGAIN
For decades, Poku has been a near-constant litigant with the borough over parking and property maintenance issues. He is also a longstanding advocate for more affordable housing in the borough.
In February, Poku’s repeated legal actions sparked the ire of Red Bank’s borough attorney after Poku sent a letter to the mayor and borough council asking for concessions in a since-dismissed suit regarding “property tax assessment and housing equity” he had filed on behalf of the Greater Red Bank Chapter of the NAACP.
“We’re not going to waste taxpayer money continuing to answer your frivolous lawsuits,” Borough Attorney Greg Cannon told him at the
“Over the years, Poku has proven not to be an ordinary resident, but instead a vexatious litigant,” Cannon added later in an email to redbankgreen. Cannon cited other legal actions, including a slip-and-fall suit against the Borough and a challenge to a law outlawing the parking of unhitched trailers on the street.
Cannon called the latter, “a challenge that is clearly intended to maintain his own unhitched junk trailers on the street – another result that the Borough will not countenance in this circumstance.”
Poku also appears to be in at least one other disagreement, this one with the state NAACP over his status with the organization.
Over the past year Poku has identified himself while speaking before the planning board and borough council as the President of the Greater Red Bank Branch of the NAACP, a position he has held in the past.
And in June, Poku manned a table at the Borough’s Juneteenth celebration, signing up new members for the Red Bank chapter.
But in a May email to redbankgreen, Bruce Morgan, 1st Vice President of the New Jersey State Conference NAACP said, “Mr. Poku is not and has not been the president of the Greater Red Bank NAACP branch since at least November 2018. Since that time Mr. Poku has not been authorized by the NAACP to speak for, on behalf of, or in the name of the organization.”
Morgan said the Red Bank chapter is “inactive/noncompliant.”
Poku, however, told a reporter he deals directly with the national NAACP, showing a reporter a receipt from a web portal through which he said he recently submitted batches of new member signups.
“To whoever called you to tell you, to tell you whatever it is, first of all, they’re acting out of NAACP norms,” he said. “Whatever is going on should be coming from the national organization, not from some rogue actor,” he said, referring to Morgan. “You need to let him know.”
As for who vandalized his trucks, Poku has at least on theory: redbankgreen. Speaking to a police officer in front of his home, Poku pointed at this reporter and said, “I think he may be responsible.”
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
