NJ judge muddies Gadhafi visit by halting work on Libyan mansion’s pool, driveway

NJ judge halts work on driveway at Libyan estate

ENGLEWOOD, N.J. — A judge on Monday ordered a halt to work being done outside a mansion where Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi wanted to stay during his first U.S. visit and pitch a ceremonial Bedouin-style tent to entertain guests.

Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes had sought to stop all renovations to prevent Gadhafi from staying at the 5-acre estate when he visits the United Nations in September. Bergen County Superior Court Judge Peter Doyne gave the city a partial legal victory, ordering a halt to work on the estate’s pool and lengthy driveway.

Wildes said he was happy with the ruling because it leaves the grounds unsuitable for a head of state. He said that’s the only way to assure the Libyans keep their promise last week that Gadhafi won’t travel to New Jersey, which lost dozens of residents in an airplane bombing widely believed to have been the work of Libyan intelligence.

“This is a victory for the people of New Jersey, because Gadhafi won’t come here if he doesn’t have the kind of opulent presence worthy of a national leader,” Wildes said. “But this is a Band-Aid on a long-term problem for our community because we don’t want the Libyans here if they’re not going to be good neighbors.”

The dispute arose after a Scottish court recently freed a man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and let him go back to Libya, where he received a warm welcome. The bombing killed 270 people, including 38 from New Jersey and 59 from New York.

Talk of Gadhafi’s possible visit to Englewood sparked angry protests by residents, who said he wasn’t welcome.

Englewood attorneys claim the Libyans failed to secure all the construction permits and plans they needed in the upscale community of 28,000 residents about 12 miles north of Manhattan. The judge ruled renovation may continue inside the mansion and a poolhouse.

Neither side appealed the ruling. The next court date is Sept. 18, days before Gadhafi’s U.S. visit begins.

The Libyans have promised Gadhafi will stay elsewhere. Attorney Joseph Elhilow, who represented the Libyan government in court Monday, said there was no need for the mayor’s injunction request.

Gadhafi’s visit to the U.N. was expected to be the culmination of a yearslong effort to repair his international image, which has included denouncing terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and compensating the families of the victims of Pan Am 103. He celebrated his 40th year as ruler of the oil-rich North African kingdom Monday by blaming unnamed “foreign powers” for stoking conflicts in Africa.

Local opposition to the Libyan strongman peaked Sunday at a rally outside the Englewood mansion attended by Gov. Jon Corzine, who described the bombing as a precursor to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which also took a disproportionately heavy toll on area residents, many of whom worked at the World Trade Center.

The Libyans have had as many as 100 workers renovating the property since Aug. 3. They continued construction after the city issued a stop work order Aug. 24. Monday’s injunction allows police to enter the estate to stop work barred by the ruling.

Rubble from the concrete driveway, which was to be replaced by decorative pavers, still shares the grounds with a line of large wooden crates containing the costly material. Stacks of lumber surround the pool area. The lawn has been churned to mud in many places by backhoes.

Prominent theologian Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who lives next door, filed a separate civil lawsuit Monday seeking compensation for part of his fence and some trees, which he says Libyan workers tore down without consulting him.

“We’re not in Libya,” he said after the hearing. “Gadhafi doesn’t write the laws here.”