COURTS TO DROP JETS FANS CASE

Court poised to drop fraud suit by Jets fan against Patriots.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- The clock is running down on a lawsuit by a New York Jets season-ticket holder that seeks millions from the New England Patriots and coach Bill Belichick for "deceiving customers" by videotaping opponents' signals.

Carl J. Mayer filed the lawsuit in September that maintained that the Patriots' secret videotaping violated the contractual "expectations and rights" of Jets ticket holders "to observe an honest match played in compliance with all laws and regulations."
But Mayer, a lawyer in Princeton known for filing legal actions against New Jersey politicians, has done virtually nothing since to advance the litigation, which sought class-action status.

Records at U.S. District Court in Newark indicate Mayer's last action was a failed effort to serve the defendants with a copy of the complaint in October.

As a result, the court clerk advised Mayer last week that the lawsuit would be dismissed June 30 unless he gives a federal judge a reason it should continue. The clerk's notice cited a court rule allowing dismissal if no proceeding had occurred for 120 days -- four months. No action had been taken for eight months.

Mayer insisted on Thursday that he does not intend to abandon the case, which he filed with a frequent collaborator, lawyer Bruce I. Afran.

"There's another angle in the litigation we're going to pursue," Mayer said. "We haven't dropped the ball."

He declined to specify what other defendants or issues might be included in an amended or new lawsuit. But he said the new allegations relate to the efforts of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the Judiciary Committee's ranking Republican and a critic of the NFL's response to what has been called "spygate."

"He (Specter) uncovered additional facts regarding videotaping. We've been working to incorporate those with regard to other defendants," Mayer said. "Could we have pressed on earlier? Yeah, but tactically, we are doing what we need to be doing."

A message seeking comment Thursday from the Patriots was not immediately returned.

The Patriots were caught taping signals by Jets' coaches, a violation of league rules, during the opening game of the 2007 season. New England won 38-14 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell fined Belichick $500,000 and the team $250,000 for that incident, and stripped New England of a first-round draft choice.

Goodell in May essentially declared an end to spygate after meeting with former New England video assistant Matt Walsh, a central figure in the scandal, saying there was no new information that would warrant a further penalty against the Patriots.
Another lawsuit against the Patriots was withdrawn in March. It had been filed by a former St. Louis Rams player and three fans plan who accused New England of cheating in the 2002 Super Bowl. Former Rams player Willie Gary and the fans had sought to secure sworn testimony from Walsh regarding whether the Patriots taped a walkthrough practice by the Rams before New England's Super Bowl win, but dropped the lawsuit after deciding Walsh would not talk.

In May, the Boston Herald newspaper sports writer who reported that New England taped the walkthrough apologized for writing an erroneous story.

Mayer's lawsuit asserted that because other teams found illicit videotaping by the defendants, Jets ticket holders should be compensated for all games played in Giants Stadium between the Jets and Patriots since Belichick became head coach in 2000.
The suit calculated that because customers paid $61.6 million to watch eight "fraudulent" games, they're entitled to triple that amount -- or $184.8 million -- in compensation under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.

Mayer and Afran have regularly sued or demanded investigations of New Jersey politicians, but have found little success. Both have lost bids for elected offices, and Mayer once served as a presidential campaign adviser to Ralph Nader.
Their demand in March 2007 for a probe of Gov. Jon S. Corzine's gifts to a former girlfriend was rejected by a federal prosecutor. In 2006, a judge vetoed their effort to block Corzine's appointment of Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., to fill his U.S. Senate seat after Corzine was elected governor.

They also failed to get a court to order a special election to replace Gov. James E. McGreevey when he resigned in 2004.

AP-ES-06-12-08 1315EDT