![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Leo-Pellegrini-e1741456009790.png\")
<\/a>By John Heinis\/Hudson County View<\/p>\n\u201c1. Leave of Court to Take the oral deposition of federal prison inmate, Pantaleo Pellegrini, at the Federal Correctional Institution \u2013 Fort Dix, is provided and same shall be served upon the facility Warden and Legal department,\u201d Hudson County Superior Court Judge wrote in an August 14th order<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201c2. The deposition shall be completed by October 15, 2026. If any counsel cannot appear they must obtain coverage. 3. The Court recognizes the deponent as an essential witness to the case at bar for the purposes of granting this Order but makes no findings as to the statements to be provided.\u201d<\/p>\n Nature\u2019s Touch filed suit in\u00a0July 2024<\/a>, spurned by claims made by Pellegrini in his own litigation with the city in May 2024<\/a>, alleging quid pro quo, retaliation, and defamation before pleading guilty to embezzlement last December, all as HCV first reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pellegrini was sentenced to two years in federal prison<\/a> in January 2025 for embezzling nearly half a million dollars while serving as health director for the City of Hoboken.<\/p>\n While his civil case has been dismissed, Nature\u2019s Touch was given the green light for their case to proceed<\/a> by the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division at the very end of last year.<\/p>\n Pellegrini, who also sat on Hoboken\u2019s Cannabis Review Board, said through counsel that at a January 14th, 2022 lunch meeting with Bhalla and some of his top staffers, then-Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop called Bhalla angry about the Nature\u2019s Touch license since it was close to where Story Dispensary would be opening in a building co-owned by his wife.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the same meeting, Mayor Bhalla allegedly stated he would be \u2018quashing\u2019 Nature\u2019s Touch\u2019s application and that, in exchange, Mayor Fulop promised to provide legal work for Mayor Bhalla\u2019s private law firm,\u201d the December 2025 appellate decision summarizes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe statement \u2026 is part of a certification made by Pantaleo Pellegrini who has filed suit against the City of Hoboken, has whistle blower status and will be called to affirm the certified statement during discovery and at the time of trial,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n The Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA) approved a $50,000 no-bid contract for the law firm Schenck, Price, Smith, & King LLP, where Bhalla served as of counsel at the time, on April 19th, 2022, a copy of the resolution<\/a> signed by then-Executive Director Diana Jeffrey says.<\/p>\n Coincidentally, D\u2019Elia\u2019s ruling came on the same day that Hoboken revealed they were parting ways with Corporation Counsel Arlene Qui\u00f1ones Perez<\/a>, who was succeeded by Jeffrey<\/a> on August 17th, both as HCV first reported.<\/p>\n Jeffrey was the head of the agency at the time<\/p>\n As of this writing, the Nature\u2019s Touch case is set to to go trial on December 14th, according to public court records.<\/p>\n \u201cThis complaint stems from false claims brought by a convicted felon. They are frivolous in nature and the City will continue to vigorously defend this matter in court,\u201d Bhalla, now an assemblyman in the 32nd Legislative District, said in a statement after the appellate ruling.<\/p>\n Daniel Antonelli, a shareholder and partner at Antonelli Kantor Rivera PC \u2013 counsel to the defendants in the case \u2013 did not return an email seeking comment on Tuesday.<\/p>\n After this story was published, 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher expressed concerns about Antonelli representing all four defendants.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe Antonelli Kantor Rivera\u2019s representation of all four defendants presents a serious conflict of interest and raises significant ethical concerns,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cHoboken and its taxpayers\u2019 interests are not aligned with the interests of Bhalla and Fulop, who are accused of using their public power for personal financial benefit. Hoboken should have independent counsel whose sole duty is to protect the City and its taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note: This story was updated with a comment from 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Hoboken lawsuit filed by a medical cannabis license business just over two years ago alleging that then-Mayor…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1025227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,410146,262663,410147,410148,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,173161,145234,410149,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1025226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-hoboken-cannabis-review-board","tag-hudson-county-superior-court","tag-leo-pellegrini","tag-natures-touch","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-ravi-bhalla","tag-steven-fulop","tag-superior-court-of-new-jersey-appellate-division","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117161858916498394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1025226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1025227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1025226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1025226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1025226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}