Judge Prompts Review of Truck Beach Lawyer

A Suffolk County court judge has referred a Southampton-based attorney to the grievance committee after the jurist accused the lawyer of disrespecting the court and misleading clients in the Truck Beach case.

Judge Paul Baisley cited in his August 30 order attorney Dan Rodgers’ comments in local newspapers concerning the ongoing litigation over the disputed stretch of beach in Napeague that pits commercial fishermen against oceanfront homeowners.

“Rodgers has demonstrated a continuing brazen pattern of misinforming and misleading his clients as to the status of this matter,” Baisley wrote, adding that the attorney “demonstrated disrespect” to the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division. “Further, Rodgers’ conduct is prejudicial to the administration of justice.”

In March, Baisley dismissed two lawsuits in which the Town of East Hampton and over a dozen fishermen raised issues with Truck Beach, siding with a group of oceanfront Amagansett homeowners who were defendants in the lawsuits and previously won related litigation over the land where the court ruled in 2021 that the public did not have a right to drive off road onto the shore. Attorneys argued that the ruling improperly violated longstanding rights of fishermen.

“My clients … have every intention of driving on the beach with motorized vehicles for the purpose of engaging in fishing-related activities,” Rodgers told The East Hampton Press before leading a group of fishermen in an act of civil disobedience, driving on the beach, despite the court order. “I believe this decision to privatize the beach is simply unenforceable against my clients.”

Rodgers made similar comments to Dan’s Papers over the years in his quest to restore the ability of commercial fishermen to drive on Truck Beach to launch their dories.

“Seems they are attempting to remove me from the battlefield,” Rodgers said of the review.