Federal suit filed against SCCC

Lee Coffey, a former international student at Sussex County Community College (SCCC), has filed a federal lawsuit against the college and is asking for $6 million in damages.

In a 115-page suit filed Friday, Feb. 13 in the U.S. District Court in New Jersey, Coffey says he “became a target of a coordinated campaign of retaliation” after attempting to expose what he believed to be an “unlawful housing scheme.”

The suit says Coffey and 20 other international students were placed into housing orchestrated by SCCC and overseen by then-college president Jon Connolly through housing provider Kevin Shaw.

“This arrangement, situated at 96 High St. in Newton, N.J., was presented to plaintiff and others as a secure housing option but was in fact unregulated, exploitative, overcrowded, and failed to meet adequate safety and living standards,” the suit says.

The lawsuit accuses Shaw, Connolly and SCCC of engaging “in a coordinated scheme, profiting from the coerced participation of vulnerable international students recruited from overseas.”

According to the suit, Connolly, Shaw and SCCC administrators used threats of visa revocation, academic sabotage and police intervention to maintain control of the students.

The suit says Shaw put hidden cameras on his property without Coffey’s knowledge “in an effort to collect compromising material for use in blackmail attempts for financial control.”

It also alleges that the college endangered Coffey’s student visa status.

Coffey left the college in January 2023. He previously sued SCCC and Shaw in state court. That case was settled, and according to Coffey, the SCCC board refunded tuition of $18,893 to him.

Shaw’s response

Shaw accused Coffey of filing frivolous lawsuits and said Coffey assaulted him in January 2023.

Coffey was convicted of third-degree aggravated assault after a four-day jury trial before Superior Court Judge Michael Gaus in Newton on Sept. 27, 2024.

Jonathan McMeen, an assistant Sussex County prosecutor, said a judge issued a bench warrant for Coffey’s arrest after he “absconded halfway through trial” involving Shaw. He has not been sentenced.

Newton Police Chief Joseph D’Annibale said he was not aware of Coffey’s lawsuit and had no comment.

Coffey said his attempts to inform the Sussex County Board of County Commissioners about his complaints fell on deaf ears.

When asked about Coffey’s lawsuit earlier this month, Chris Carney, director of that board, said he was not aware of the suit and had no comment.

Cory Homer, SCCC’s interim president, said the college is aware of the lawsuit and has no comment.

Jasper Cramp, a former SCCC soccer player who lived in the international student housing along with Coffey, said he too suffered while living there.

“What ... started as a very promising, kind relationship with the landlord turned to a very sour, ugly relationship, which ultimately I have been in therapy for, received numerous medications for and continue to suffer from for years now,” according to the lawsuit Cramp filed against Shaw last year.

That suit was settled. Cramp would not disclose the terms.