Will Anyone Stop This Small Town Politician From Willfully Spreading Disinformation?
In the small upstate Village of Woodbury, New York, a Democrat named James Frieband is trying his hand at being the local equivalent to Donald Trump with disastrous results for the community.
Above: The gated home of Bernard “Bernie” Jacobowitz, an original plaintiff in a lawsuit to dissolve the Village of South Blooming Grove to allow for a mega real estate project to proceed over the objections of area residents. The company behind the mega-development, known as Clovewood, has received a quarter of a million dollars in fines from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and has ignored numerous stop-work orders, resulting in at least one near-fatal injury and lawsuit.
This was supposed to be a short post today since I need the research time to investigate the man behind the gates pictured above.
But then I got to writing and realized there was a serious issue in Woodbury that had national ramifications.
What happens when a member of the Democratic Party decides to act like former President Donald Trump?
Specifically, what if a Democrat on a small village board in upstate New York decided to spread disinformation willfully, despite the best efforts of members of his own party, village employees, other village trustees, and the public, do their best to fact-check him?
First, some background:
Village Trustee James Freiband was elected to the Village of Woodbury Board of Trustees in upstate New York following the November 2023 election. This was his third attempt to win a seat on the board and fourth overall attempt at winning public office in the Village.
Mr. Freiband finally won elected office in 2023 thanks to large turnouts in two voting districts, which Grand Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum of the Satmar religious dynasty said to be under his control. (I’ll explain this in the letter below.)
Freiband had previously run for a seat on the Village Board in 2015. He lost. So, in 2019, James Freiband decided to run for Mayor of Woodbury. In his statement explaining why he was running for mayor, Freiband said in part, “When you vote for James Freiband, you are voting for open government. I respect the knowledge of those who have spent their lives living in and serving Woodbury; I want to hear from them.” Later, while serving on the Woodbury Village Board of Trustees, Freiband would do the exact opposite, including one incident caught on film where he got up and walked out of the room while one of those Woodbury residents he claims to respect was speaking during public comment.
Freiband would lose the 2019 race for mayor by 115 votes.
In 2022, Freiband again ran for the Village Board of Trustees in Woodbury. While running for the same seat he was defeated for in 2015, Freiband promised voters, “I plan to hold bi-weekly work sessions open to the public.” After being seated as a Village Trustee in 2024, Mr. Freiband has not kept this promise.
He also said in 2022, “The business of the village should be “what’s good for residents, not developers.” Since getting into office in 2024, Freiband has actively tried to end Woodbury’s building moratorium — created because the Village and Town of the same name do not have enough water to supply any more residents or to be used in new construction. He’s worked to lift this moratorium, over the objection of all over Woodbury Village Board of Trustees, entirely on behalf of Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum and the developers among the leadership caste of the City of Kiryas Joel, known as Hanhallah, who want, you guessed it, more building.
I guess what’s suitable for the developers precedes what’s good for the residents when those developers help you finally obtain your dream of holding elected office. Story as old as time.
Whatever Village Trustee James Freiband claimed to be was not what Woodbury residents got once he made it into office.
That alone isn’t unusual, especially in this region of New York. But what is unusual is the amount of willful disinformation Freiband spread once his term as a Village Trustee began.
What you’ll find below is a letter that Woodbury residents can send to their current Board of Trustees, Freiband included, that details the problem. It also requests that the Village Attorney, Kelly Naughton, act on a recently released report by the American Bar Association. One that states that lawyers all across America are uniquely qualified and obligated to stand up for Democracy, which as the ABA states in the report (linked below) includes calling out the spread of disinformation.
Like many Village employees, elected officials, and residents, Mrs. Naughton has frequently done so regarding Trustee Freiband, often with Freiband attacking her (among others) verbally. Thus far there has been no recourse against Mr. Freiband.
The letter below is a request for Mrs. Naughton to follow on the American Bar Association’s Taskforce recommendations and to have Mr. Freiband removed from office.
As we get closer to the 2024 Presidential Election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, we will see the guardrails of our democracy tested in a way we haven’t seen since Reconstruction (and January 6th.)
My hope in sharing this letter with all of you, even if you live thousands of miles away from Woodbury, is to encourage other local elected officials all across America to find, identify, and remove from office anyone who willfully continues to obstruct the people’s business in the name of theocracy (in the case of Mr. Freiband) and in the name of fascism (in the case of Mr. Trump and the MAGA Republican movement.)
This letter, and the case against Village Trustee James Freiband, a Democrat using MAGA Republican tactics to bully and harass his constituents and co-workers, is included below. If you’re reading this, I encourage you to send this letter to the people listed below. And if you find yourself with a James Freiband of your own across this country of ours, that you ask your Town, City, and Village attorneys to take up the American Bar Association’s recommendations and have them removed from office.
The stakes are too high to continue humoring these people.
To:
Victor Ferrarelli: TrusteeFerrarelli@gmail.com
Susan Ciriello: Trusteeciriello@gmail.com
Matthew Fabbro: TrusteeFabbro@gmail.com
Andrew Giacomazza: Mayor@villageofwoodbury.com
Kelly Naughton: Knaughton@naughtontorrelaw.com
James Freiband: TrusteeFreiband@gmail.com
Subject Line: It’s Time To Act Against Trustee James Freiband
Body:
I agree with all of this: https://www.monroegazette.com/p/woodbury-residents-its-time-to-act
Please follow the guidance of the American Bar Association and take action against Trustee James Freiband immediately.
Dear Kelly,
I want to direct your attention to the following video:
In the words of J. Michael Luttig, a former Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, "Lawyers in America are uniquely qualified and uniquely obligated to support and defend America's democracy in this time of need."
This statement was partly provided to support a bipartisan task force report by the American Bar Association urging lawyers across America to help defend our democracy from local, state, and federal officials operating in bad faith. One of their recommendations is encouraging attorneys to “stand up for American Democracy and the rule of law.” I write this letter to urge you to do just that.
I stress the word bipartisan here, given Woodbury Village Trustee Matthew Fabbro's frequent insistence that all investigations, such as the one I'm proposing, be politically neutral. I believe the bipartisan findings and request for actions by the American Bar Association meet Mr. Fabbro’s threshold, assuming that Trustee Fabbro is being truthful and honest in raising this concern. His response to this letter will reveal where he actually stands in representing the interests of Woodbury residents.
I encourage you to follow the guidance provided by the American Bar Association's bipartisan task force and intervene during Woodbury's time of need.
The walls are closing in on this community. This, verifiably, will be the last chance Woodbury residents have to stop the community as a whole (both Town and Village) from becoming a theocracy like South Blooming Grove. Of our two representative governments, we’ve already lost one.
The Woodbury Town Board is unresponsive to the needs of the community, only offering bullshit and grievance to Woodbury residents when asked to do anything beyond what Supervisor Kathryn Luciani wants to do.
As just one example, when asked about transferring the Town-controlled Woodbury Police Department to the Village, Supervisor Kathryn Luciani said, “If it’s not broke, why fix it? You know our police department’s doing great. They’re doing a great job. They’re doing a great job for the town.” However, as Woodbury residents know, the Town Police Department is broken and needs intervention from the New York State Comptroler.
If this response from the Woodbury Town Board and its Supervisor concerning the Town Police sounds familiar to all Southern Orange County residents, it should.
Because it’s the exact response, The Village of South Blooming Grove gave — exclusively to the Haredi members of the community and not to any of the Jewish or secular residents — about the Village’s Water issues: Bullshit and Grievance.
Specifically, after blaming “past administrations” for the water issues — despite being in office for nearly four years now— the Village of South Blooming Grove told residents, “there is an abundance of water and one only needs to go through all the procedures of the necessary tests required by the State and the Department of Health to comply with all the regulations, as we hope that in the coming months the village will be able to take in hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day in the village water inventory. As usual, we will keep the public informed with all further developments.”
None of that is true, according to documents FOIL-ed from the Orange County Department of Health, and from statements from the State Department of Environmental Conservation.
So, let’s be clear: Woodbury residents no longer have a representative government when it comes to their Town Board.
When residents come to speak to the Town Supervisor at Woodbury Town Board meetings, the response they get is no different than what South Blooming Grove residents experience at Planning Board meetings in their interactions with Mr. Tom Shepstone. Or when going to Zoning Board of Approval meetings and speaking with Mr. Gardiner Barone, the ZBA attorney who operates the meetings.
Woodbury residents cannot afford for the Village government to continue in the same direction as the Woodbury Town Board and join it on the path to becoming another theocracy empowered by kleptocrats.
Unfortunately, Woodbury has at least one Village Trustee — perhaps two — operating in bad faith.
That would be Village Trustee James Freiband, who, despite the best efforts of residents, Village officials, his fellow Trustees, and other parties, continues to willfully make false statements at public meetings and in communications with the public.
This includes at least one comment made during a Village Board meeting concerning the New York State Thruway Authority that he intentionally revealed to the public despite that discussion occurring during Executive Session. This comment may be used against the Village in future legal battles with the Thruway authority.
These willfully false statements also include a recent email newsletter sent by Trustee Freiband, where he states that New York State Senator Skoufis's proposed legislation would save residents money and reduce the inefficiency of duplicative services.
As you know, the functions of the Town and Village do not overlap, meaning there would be no cost savings on that front. That means Mr. Freiband, once again, lied to the public despite having been corrected on this matter.
As you also know, the amount of money taxpayers would save would be minimal and speculative at best if one unified board oversees village and town functions. Mr. Freiband, once again, has misled the public.
Woodbury residents have a more than reasonable impression that the elected officials that could represent them on such a unified board may not act in ways that provide this financial cost savings.
To provide another example involving the now undemocratic Woodbury Town Board:
Supervisor Luciani introduced and passed a law (Local Law 1 of 2024) in early 2024 that raised her salary for the Supervisor position despite it being a part-time role, making her the highest-paid Town Supervisor in the town's nearly two-hundred-year-history.
The next law that she is looking to pass, Local Law 3 of 2024, would amend the Town Ethics Code and allow, in her own words, for the Town Board members to hire their children to work full-time for the Town. This would be despite the ethical and moral implications of doing such a thing, commonly found in kleptocracies and not functional democracies. To say nothing of the Town's fiduciary responsibility to its residents. (It can factually be said that Supervisor Luciani has misled the public, stating there were few to no applicants for the same position she hired her son for. This was not the case. There were other applicants.)
Therefore, there are no guarantees that reducing town and village officials' salaries would translate to cost savings for Woodbury taxpayers when elected officials in the Town of Woodbury already demonstrate a reckless and wanton disregard for how those tax dollars are spent.
Village Trustee James Freiband knows all of this, has been told this by his fellow trustees and the public at meetings, and has been repeatedly corrected by Village employees, yourself included.
Despite this knowledge, Trustee Freiband continues to willfully act in a way that violates his moral, ethical, and fiduciary responsibility to Woodbury residents.
This includes an incident where Trustee Freiband intentionally slandered the character of Woodbury Planning Board Christopher Gerver through false statements about his credentials. As pointed out by multiple parties, Mr. Freiband's same credentialing concerns were not shared about any other members of the Planning Board or ZBA. Much like his comments about the Thruway Authority, these comments from Freiband concerning the Planning Board Chair could raise the level of a potential lawsuit against the Village, given Mr. Freiband's willingness to make false statements before the public.
Trustee Freiband continues to willfully spread misinformation harmful to Woodbury residents and advantageous to the local theocracy that elected him. One of the recommendations from the ABA Taskforce is to “Actively dispel election misinformation and disinformation in your community as it arises.” While you have corrected Mr. Freiband numerous times, as has every Woodbury Trustee and employee, there comes a point where action needs to be taken when an elected official continues to spread disinformation after such corrections have been made. That time is now.
The Theocracy Next Door
I can safely and factually assert that Trustee Freiband is violating his ethical, moral, and fiduciary responsibility to Woodbury residents on behalf of Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum and Hanhallah (the leadership caste of the City of Kiryas Joel) by reviewing the voter breakdown from the Fall 2023 Village Board elections, where Mr. Frieband (and Mr. Fabbro) received an inordinate amount of votes within District 3 and District 5 (Woodbury Junction and Highland Lake Estates.)
Without the votes from these two districts, Mr. Freiband (and Mr. Fabbro) would not be on the Village Board.
While it's true that you, the people who will read this email, and I will logically conclude that Districts 3 and 5 residents are Woodbury residents, this is only superficially true.
In a speech given by Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum in the Fall of 2023, he explicitly stated that Highland Lake Estates (District 5) and Woodbury Junction (District 3) fall under his purview and are part of what he refers to as the City of Kiryas Joel, not Woodbury.
In fact, the Rebbe went as far as to rename both neighborhoods, with Woodbury Junction now referred to by him as Chasam Sofer and Highland Lake Estates as Beis Yosef.
As part of a federal lawsuit and countersuit between Highland Lake Estates residents and its Board members, the countersuit claims that the Satmar board members and residents are actively working to push out the secular residents.
My reporting on the activities of Mr. Richard Cattagio — an Highland Lake EStates Board Member and Trustee Freiband’s pick for Woodbury Planning Board Chair should Mr. Keleman and Mr. Etzel Jr. be elected to the Village Board — and former Building Inspector Michael Panella, as well as the three Satmar Board members, confirms the claims in this countersuit.
So much so that acting on that reporting, the Mayor removed Mr. Cattagio and Mr. Panella from their positions within the Village.
While non-Haredi residents live within these districts, for now, most Haredi residents — specifically Arronite Satmar residents — follow a strict adherence to the word of Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum.
If a chunk of Woodbury residents believe they do not live in Woodbury, and follow strictly what the Rebbe says — as this is an essential part of being an Arronnite as opposed to other Haredi sects where the word of the Rebbe holds far less sway — then it stands to reason that these voters are voting in such a way as to further the wishes of Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum as part of the larger plan to push out secular residents from all of Woodbury. As I’m sure you know, this is discrimination. It just so happens that the discrimination is coming from a religious sect acting against local, secular residents. In New York State, it is against the law to take harmful action against someone because of your religious beliefs. That’s what New York State defines as a hate crime.
Now, some residents will ask why Arronite Satmar members don’t speak up or speak out against the Rebbe. Many of them hold private feelings that disagree with the actions of Hanhallah. However, publicly, making such statements can be dangerous. For example, the Rebbe has actively and verifiably retaliated against those who disagree with him within this religious sect, as documented in numerous histories of the creation of the Village of Kiryas Joel, such as the book "American Shtetl" a peer-reviewed book published by Princeton University Press written by two legal scholars, David N. Myers and Nomi M. Stolzenberg. Mrs. Stolzenberg teaches Constitutional Law at USC in Los Angeles, and Mr. Myers teaches Jewish History at UCLA.
The Rebbe’s retaliation against followers of his brother, Zalman Teitelbaum, led to the lawsuit against the Village of South Blooming Grove; and when that lawsuit failed, its plaintiffs went on to form the company known as Keen Equities. Much of the trouble in South Blooming Grove is a direct result of the Rebbe’s retaliation against those Satmar who chose to speak up against him. This is fact. And that is why it’s so important not to discount or dismiss his words and actions and their impact on surrounding non-Haredi communities.
The Rebbe's activities in Districts 3 and 5 consist of using free and fair elections to further the desires of a religious leader at the expense of all secular residents of Woodbury, and they begin to rise to the level of constitutional violations on both the federal and state levels.
Especially when elected officials such as Trustee James Freiband repeatedly bring issues that only the Rebbe would be concerned with to the floor to be voted on.
This includes Mr. Freiband's support of providing a tax break to the Village of Kiryas Joel because some of their water facilities rest within Woodbury's borders. The Village of Kiryas Joel has made a proposal to Woodbury for many years that has been roundly rejected. Yet Trustee Freiband voiced his support for it despite the fact that there does not exist anywhere in New York State a comparable situation to the request Kiryas Joel was making to Woodbury.
Trustee Freiband's behavior also includes continuously pushing to lift the building moratorium despite comments from the Water Superintendent, members of the public, former board members, and other parties advising that there is not enough water at this time. In fact, there is also no sewer capacity at this time, as Orange County Sewer District 1 is at capacity.
Despite these facts, Trustee Freiband has demonstrated that he works on behalf of the Rebbe and not the people of Woodbury, who do not support lifting a building moratorium. While these votes from Districts 3 and 5 are constitutionally valid, all elected officials are expected to behave in a way that benefits all residents and not just the ones who elected them.
This is especially true given Woodbury's unique circumstances of having a religious sect and a religious leader actively working to destabilize a democratically elected government to replace it with a theocracy, as we’ve seen in neighboring South Blooming Grove.
The behavior of Trustee Freiband, as well as the current Woodbury Town Board, provides a preview for all residents of Woodbury as to what their government will look like if the Rebbe is successful in his attempt to destabilize the local Village government this Fall. Whether it be in the form of a political gift given to him by State Senator Skoufis in the form of a unified Town Bord, or through the election of future board members such as John U. Keleman and Tyler Etzel Jr.
Finally, I want to direct your attention to the New York State Constitution's Establishment Clause, which says, "The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed in this state to all humankind; and no person shall be rendered incompetent to be a witness on account of his or her opinions on matters of religious belief; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this state." (Emphasis added.) Licentiousness has a few different meanings. Most relevant here are: "unrestrained by law or general morality; going beyond customary or proper bounds or limits; disregarding rules."
Given everything laid out for you here, I believe Trustee James Freiband has verifiably committed acts of licentiousness in his capacity as Village Trustee, operating on behalf of a religious leader and his voters who are actively working to push out and discriminate against the Jewish residents (including Non-Arronite Satmar Residents) and non-Jewish residents of Woodbury.
Yes.
It is possible for secular people to be discriminated against. As Project 2025 and its authors have demonstrated, it is incumbent on all people to identify and resist religious extremism in all its forms, in particular, in its efforts to corrupt our democracy.
I believe Village Trustee Freiband, like Woodbury Town Supervisor Katrhyn Luciani, is a corrupting force for our local democracy, and should be removed from office.
I am formally requesting that, as the attorney empowered to operate on behalf of Woodbury Village residents, given the facts above, the process commence to remove Trustee James Freiband from office on the grounds of his violations of the NYS Contitution's Establishment Clause, the Federal Constitution’s Establishment Clause, and his repeated and willful deception to local voters.
If this process involves the Woodbury Ethics Board, I request that they take up this issue immediately so that they can act on the findings of a thorough, fair, and honest accounting of the issues identified in this letter as soon as possible.
If we, as a nation, are to heal and recover from the repeated traumas of the 21st Century driven by religious extremists, beginning with 9/11 and bringing us to today, to hundreds of thousands of preventable COVID deaths due to religious-backed vaccine disinformation campaigns, to right now with Project 2025, it's incumbent that we act on every level of government to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions.
And when they are found to be furthering the ends of theocracy at the expense of a democracy, they are to be stopped and removed from office before any irreversible damage can be done.
This isn’t about Democrats. This isn’t about Republicans. This isn’t even about Haredi and non-Haredi. This is a specific instance of a bad faith actor, elected to public office by a theocracy on his fourth try, using that public office to specifically benefit a religious leader and his followers over and above the needs of all residents collectively.
If America has any hope of surviving the 21st Century, it will come from identifying the bad actors elected to office or working as Village employees, as is the case with South Blooming Grove, and removing them from office.
You have an opportunity and, according to the American Bar Association, a duty to act. I am simply requesting that you do so now.
I'll have more on Woodbury soon. Before we switch gears, I just have one more thing to wrap up on the South Blooming Grove front.