short-hills-mall
An attorney for the owners of The Mall at Short Hills, pictured above in this September 2013 file photo, said at a July 31 court hearing that they could not have prevented a fatal carjacking there in December 2013. (Craig Warga/Bloomberg)
(Craig Warga/Bloomberg)
NEWARK -- At a hearing on Friday for a lawsuit over a 2013 fatal carjacking at The Mall at Short Hills, an attorney for the mall's owners said the shopping center could not have prevented what he called "a random act of violence."
Saying the incident was not foreseeable, attorney Stanley Fishman argued mall personnel could not have stopped the four alleged killers from coming into the mall and fatally shooting Hoboken attorney Dustin Friedland.
"We did everything we could possibly do," said Fishman, an attorney representing Michigan-based Taubman Centers, Inc., which owns the upscale mall in Millburn.
"We could've had a hundred police officers there, but a random act of violence is a random act of violence," Fishman added.
Fishman offered those remarks in response to allegations made by Bruce Nagel, an attorney representing Friedland's widow, Jamie Schare Friedland, in a pair of lawsuits she has filed over the Dec. 15, 2013 carjacking in a parking deck at the mall.
Nagel has claimed the mall's owners knew about the history of carjackings at the mall and could have prevented Dustin Friedland's killing, but failed to provide adequate security.
During Friday's hearing, Nagel added that, before the carjacking occurred, the mall's owners did not follow a consultant's recommendation that they install security cameras in the parking decks due to the risk of criminal activity.
Dustin Friedland and his wife, Jamie Schare Friedland. She is pursuing a lawsuit over the Dec. 15, 2013 fatal shooting of her husband at The Mall at Short Hills. (Facebook)
"Despite the recommendation that they put security cameras in, they were cheap and spent zero and rejected it," Nagel told Superior Court Judge James S. Rothschild, Jr. during the hearing. "They had direct knowledge they were vulnerable and put their head in the sand."
Nagel has previously said the alleged killers could be seen on surveillance videos driving around the mall on the night of the carjacking. That footage came from two security cameras mounted on the outside of mall buildings, Nagel said.
Fishman later countered during the hearing that the mall has hundreds of security cameras and had security guards and Millburn police officers at the mall at the time of the incident.
"We did everything we could," Fishman said. "We cannot stop four people from coming into the mall and committing an act of violence that...in no way was foreseeable."
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Four criminal defendants - Basim Henry, Hanif Thompson, Karif Ford and Kevin Roberts - are facing murder, felony murder, carjacking and weapons charges in connection with Dustin Friedland's shooting death.
About three months after the incident, Jamie Schare Friedland filed a lawsuit in March 2014 against Taubman Centers; California-based Universal Protection Service, which has provided security services at the mall; and the Millburn-Short Hills Volunteer First Aid Squad, among other defendants.
First aid squad members had trouble accessing the crime scene when an ambulance could not fit under the parking deck's ceiling, forcing emergency workers to roll a stretcher up the ramp and then wheel Dustin Friedland back down, according to that lawsuit.
The hearing on Friday dealt with a second lawsuit Jamie Schare Friedland filed in June 2015 to resolve a dispute over the insurance coverage available to Taubman Centers under certain insurance policies. In addition to Taubman Centers, the defendants in that lawsuit include various insurance companies.
In that lawsuit, Nagel is asking Rothschild to rule that the policies in question cover Taubman Centers for claims relating to "negligent security," court documents state.
Without clarifying those coverage issues, Nagel said the parties cannot move forward with possibly reaching a settlement in Friedland's first lawsuit.
At the end of Friday's hearing, Rothschild directed the attorneys to report back to him in the next few weeks about efforts being made to resolve the insurance coverage dispute and reach a settlement.
Bill Wichert may be reached at bwichert@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillWichertNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.