Former Democratic candidate for Sheriff in Salem County, Bob Gant, may soon face his toughest opponent ever – my mom. When she reads this blog post and learns Gant has named The Bob & Steve Show in a Notice of Tort Claim she’s going to be mad, and she’s a lot tougher than a handcuffed inmate.
Seriously though… yesterday Bob Greco and I were notified by radio station management that the Notice of Tort Claim was delivered to the station for the “Bob and Steve Radio Show.” Management was upset at first because they thought they were being sued, after it was explained to management that it was for “Bob and Steve” they were trying to figure out why we were laughing.
We were laughing because Gant’s Notice of Tort Claim is a bunch of garbage.
In his Notice of Tort Claim Gant writes, “October 9, 2018 Said named individuals wrongly released the Claimants personnel file.” The problem with this claim is The Bob & Steve Show released legal documents that were obtained through OPRA requests after he denied ever assaulting an inmate at the old Salem County Jail. The Bob & Steve Show doesn’t have, nor ever had, his personnel file.
Another obvious problem with Gant’s claim is The Bob & Steve Show didn’t write anything about Gant on October 9, 2018. And, since October 9, 2018 was a Tuesday and our radio show airs on Saturdays we certainly didn’t talk about Gant on October 9, 2018. We didn’t even know who he was on that day. The only post on The Bob & Steve Show blog on October 9, 2018 was about Vincent Squire. The headline was, “Did Camden County Freeholder Candidate Vincent Squire Break The Law Again.”
The fact is the first time The Bob & Steve Show ever mentioned Bob Gant was on October 11, 2018 in a blog post titled, “Challenger Sheriff Candidate Gets Paid To Campaign. Is He Costing Salem County Taxpayers Money?”
Perhaps Mr. Gant should come clean and admit the reason why he is threatening to sue 19 different entities and/or people with his Notice of Tort Claim is he is angry that after denying he ever beat an inmate at the old Salem County Jail The Bob & Steve Show found the former inmate, interviewed the inmate on the radio show and then proved the inmate was being truthful by releasing legally obtained legal documents and not a personnel file.
Every blogger, news reporter and radio personality should pay close attention to Gant’s threats of a lawsuit as it is nothing more than a frivolous attempt at suppressing our First Amendment rights. As a reminder the First Amendment is clear, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” And, bloggers and radio personalities, like us or not, are members of the press.
This story gets better, in his Notice of Tort Claim Gant states, “The claimant has and continues to suffer both mentally, physically and emotional and economically as a result of the aforementioned breach.”
Gant lists four items, “mentally, physically and emotional and economically” after the word both. Maybe it’s a good thing he doesn’t work in the jail because the counts would be off considering he obviously does not understand “both” means two and not four? Perhaps the reason he answers the question “State the total amount of your claim and the basis on which you calculate the amount claimed” with $350,000 is so he can pay to go to college and learn what the word “both” means.
What is it with this guy? Is he so upset that we didn’t back down from the attacks by him and his buddies on social media and exposed his lies that he is now going to try to bully us through the courts?
Of course, I am very curious as to exactly how Gant “continues to suffer both mentally, physically and emotional and economically.” My guess is all the time he spent trying to bully Bob and I into not breaking the story of him having once beating an inmate caused a mental strain which led to the physical problem of erectile dysfunction that led to emotional stress and losing the election made him economically unable to afford Viagra. So, now he wants to sue. If you have a better explanation, I’ll listen.
Gant tried to bully us once and failed. This frivolous Notice of Tort Claim is just more of the same. This story likely isn’t going to go away soon, so expect to see more.
