The calm judge who will soon rule in contentious day-care case

For six weeks, the squabbles in the high-profile Kiddie Kollege toxic day-care trial shattered the usual hush in the historic Woodbury courthouse.

"It's like a circus," confided a sheriff's officer who monitored camera images from the court drama in Gloucester County.

While a dozen lawyers sparred, New Jersey Superior Court Judge James E. Rafferty never raised his voice.

But soon, the mild-mannered judge will be heard loud and clear. In December, he expects to issue a long-awaited ruling in a case that shocked the sensibilities of working parents nationwide.

At trial, government officials struggled to explain how a day care could open inside an abandoned Franklinville thermometer factory.

The case closed Nov. 19, but questions remain. Should the 100 babies and children who inhaled hazardous mercury vapors between 2004 and 2006 receive long-term medical monitoring? Who should pay into a fund that could amount to millions?

The answers will come from the diminutive, slightly hunched judge who began hearing the mountain of Kiddie Kollege cases four years ago.

It will be Rafferty's last decision and likely his most significant. He has announced plans to retire early next year.

"I would be surprised if there would be any other case in the world where children are exposed to mercury in a day-care center," he said. Rarely had he "encountered a case with so much complexity on so many different issues."

Rafferty is known as a no-nonsense, hardworking jurist, but he faced some criticism in his handling of the contentious day-care case.

After 15 years on the bench, he plans to step down four years before the state's mandatory retirement age of 70. He mentioned he enjoys fishing, but declined an interview.

"I'd rather not," he said, shrugging.

A law graduate of Widener University, Rafferty was appointed with the help of his former law partner, John Matheussen, who at the time was an influential state senator on the Judiciary Committee. Now chief executive of the troubled Delaware River Port Authority, Matheussen still occasionally has lunch with Rafferty.

"Jim is always an even-keeled person, very slow to temper . . . very genuine," Matheussen said. "He has a great deal of knowledge in civil areas of the law."

Rafferty, who lives in Washington Township, is a widower with three daughters. After serving as a family judge in Cumberland County, he went to Gloucester and became a general-equity judge. In that well-respected position, he had power and discretion to rule as he believed was fair, rather than adhering to the strict letter of the law. General-equity judges handle injunctions and settle disputes over land, estates, labor contracts, and other matters.

Rafferty has decided several Kiddie Kollege issues already but he won't retire until he closes the bulging, 3,700-document file - even if that takes him into February, he said.

What remains are the children's class-action lawsuits that blame Franklin Township, the county, and the state for issuing approvals that allowed the day care to open in February 2004. It was closed in July 2006 and later demolished.

Claims the children's lawyers filed against the building owners and day-care operators were settled last month for $1 million.

During the trial, Rafferty gave the lawyers leeway to choreograph their cases and overruled nearly all objections so he could hear everything he could.

"I'm curious," he would say, staring intently at the witnesses and clasping his hands.

The testimony revealed government missteps and agencies blaming one another.

When the images of numerous documents were projected onto a courtroom wall to emphasize a point, Rafferty paid close attention, noting later that he found the testimony "mentally stimulating."

Keith A. Bonchi, who has appeared often before Rafferty in other matters, said the judge's strong suits were being well prepared and thorough.

"He's been a wonderful judge, always professional, always courteous, very even-tempered. And there's always a very practical side to him," said Bonchi, general counsel for the state Tax Collectors and Treasurers Association.

"He's the straightest shooter of a judge as there is," said Adam D. Greenberg, a real estate lawyer from Cherry Hill. "He's more of a commonsense and look-at-the-facts kind of judge."

In the Kiddie Kollege case, however, some parents questioned why Rafferty spent so much time listening to disputes over the deed to the toxic building and over who had the authority to demolish it. The children's claims, they said, were the last order of business.

"I can't believe it took so long for this to come to trial . . . it felt a little insulting," said Jamie Franks, whose two children attended Kiddie Kollege. The mercury vapors children at the day care inhaled can impair the brain and harm the kidneys.

Joe Fabrizio, another parent, said his son exhibited signs of mental slowness. He was frustrated with the four-year delay in the trial.

The parents say they are still waiting to find out whether their children can receive specialized testing so they can get early intervention if problems are detected.

The lawyers who represent the government agencies in the case also have criticized Rafferty and some of his decisions.

M. James Maley Jr., Franklin Township's attorney, often clashed with the judge, telling him he was "wrong on the law" when he allowed the case to proceed. Because government has so many responsibilities and limited resources, it cannot be sued each time it fails, he argued.

But there are exceptions to such immunity, Rafferty said, and they should be explored in a trial. Isn't it the government's duty to protect children - especially when so many officials knew the factory was heavily contaminated, he asked.

Last month, questioning his impartiality, Maley asked Rafferty to recuse himself from the case.

Rafferty said he was surprised by the request, which was seconded by the county's lawyers. But after much debate, he dismissed it. "This is a bunch of go-around about nothing," he said gruffly.

It was one of only a few times that Rafferty issued a sharp rebuke from the bench.

The government lawyers also blasted Rafferty's 2009 decision to void the deed to Kiddie Kollege. The judge said the township did not adequately warn Jim Sullivan III, buyer of the abandoned building, that it was toxic when the town put the tax liens up for sale.

Maley appealed, saying Rafferty's decision unfairly placed a burden on tax collectors. He said purchasers are supposed to do "due diligence" before they buy liens and foreclose on properties that might have problems.

Sullivan testified that he had misread an environmental report on the property and was not fully aware of the contamination. But he also admitted he did not ask any questions.

Bonchi joined Maley's appeal - which is pending - on behalf of the tax collectors in the state. But he still believes the heart of Rafferty's decision was sound. The state should provide a list of toxic properties to the tax collectors, he said, so "innocent buyers" are protected from purchasing toxic sites they may have to clean up.

The judge, Bonchi said, understands tax liens because he used to buy them as investments when he was a lawyer. The purchases help towns pay their bills, Bonchi said.

Now, Rafferty must turn his attention to whether the town and the other government agencies should pay for the proposed medical fund.

Before he heard the closing arguments, he instructed the attorneys to file final written arguments by Dec. 10 and said they should expect a decision soon after. As he settled into his seat, he looked relieved.

"The last day," he said with a sigh.

But then he smiled and continued. "No, not the last day."

His heady work was just beginning.