A businessman was so angry about negative articles about him in the Newark Star-Ledger that he registered Web sites in the names of the editor and publishers — and rigged them to redirect users to hard-core porn sites, a new lawsuit claims.
“I was shocked to have my name used in that way . . . We want him to turn over the domain,” publisher Richard Vezza told The Post.
Vezza and editor Kevin Whitmer said the newspaper ran an exposé about Alfred Demola, owner of a waterproofing firm, exposing shady behavior such as failing to return customers’ deposits.
The articles, which appeared in the business column “Bamboozled” from 2010 to 2013, enraged Demola, who called the editor, demanding the paper stop writing about him, the lawsuit in New Jersey federal court claims.
Whitmer later got a message from the waterproofer, threatening to publish his personal information using “.com names,” court papers state.
He then visited the Web site Kevinwhitmer.com — and discovered it redirected him to “allfreeb–wjobs.com,” according to the lawsuit. Vezza discovered the same thing.
Demola, of the firm Aqua-Dri, said, “I didn’t do that. They’re messing with me.”