“That was the longest ride home ever to get that hug from the
wife and kids,” Marchione gushed.
When we last left you, the three-day trial was ending on Oct. 4
and culminated with Marchione’s testimony. After seven months,
Judge Jacobson notified Gray that her decision was coming on
May 5. He had scheduled a day off that day and wound up taking
the conference call while walking around New York City.
“I walked all the way from Battery Park to Chelsea Markets,”
he said of the decision reading that lasted more than 90 minutes.
“Judge Jacobson took her time to make sure every issue that ev-
erybody raised was covered, and she rendered a thorough and
well-thought-out decision.”
After Marchione called his family, he reached out to Colligan,
who had been texting messages of support weekly. The PBA Pres-
ident rendered his own opinion to help members – and their em-
ployers – understand that the union won’t sit back and watch this
type of nonsense.
“Judge Jacobson saw through the charade performed on Frank,”
Colligan submitted. “If somebody deserves to be terminated, you
better have a case. You can’t terminate somebody just because
you don’t like them.”
In addition to Colligan’s continuous contact, Marchione ex-
pressed gratitude to Mercer County Conference Chair Mike Pel-
legrino, the Ewing Township Local 111 State Delegate, for keep-
ing him involved in PBA activities. Pellegrino invited him to state
meetings to provide personal updates, and that’s why it’s so im-
portant to Marchione to close the book with one more announce-
ment.
“I can’t tell you how much the support from the PBA means
when you go through something like this, and every time I left
one of those meetings, it gave me an extra push,” he explained.
“I had to fight this for my family and show my son what was
right. I’ve been forced to relive the worst day of my life for four
years.’” d
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