Tricia Mezzacappa, Independent Journalist

West Easton's Tricia Mezzacappa is many things. A candidate who's lost every race in which she's run. A NJ school district business manager fired for her bad attitude. A bankrupt. An R.N. unable to hold a job. A political blogger who lost a defamation action. Defender of a mass murderer. A constable whom no judge will use. Now she's invented a new title for herself. Independent journalist. That's how she refers to herself in messages she's sent on Facebook, trying to dig up dirt on West Easton Borough Council Prez Matt Dees. She thought Dees was stepping down, and went nutzo when he not only stayed in office, but got himself elected Council President. On her West Easton Boro Constable Facebook page, she posted a lengthy diatribe when she got the news. There were 44 comments to her screed, and all of those came from her, too! It's safe to say she's come unhinged.

Now, in addition to habitually placing Dees in a false light with crude distortions of his image, she wants people to say bad things about him. Tricia Jenn, as she refers to herself on Facebook, is hoping his own family will smear him. Here's what she's sent to all the Dees' of this world.

"I am an independent journalist doing a story on Matthew A Dees of West Easton Borough. He was recently named Borough Council President, but has been silent about wether [sic] or not he has family members. Please reach out here or at [redacted], if you would like to add anything. A number of people in the Borough think he is unfit for public office."

In addition to dirt on Dees, Independent journalist Mezzacappa recently wanted to smear two West Easton residents who dared to criticize Donald Trump. She sought their local tax records, hoping to humiliate these Trump critics. But the state office of open records rejected her request because private citizens still do have at least some privacy rights.

Not Dees. She routinely posts his salary, hours and even his mileage as an IU-20 bus driver. She wants to harass him out of office, and has abused the Right-to-Know Law for that purpose. Over the course of 2019, she filed 16 of the 42 Open Records appeals heard by the state from Northampton County. She flooded tiny West Easton Borough with, by my count,82 vexatious requests. In fact, her conduct has led to the state legislature to consider a bill giving some small municipalities like West Easton relief from the Tricia Mezzacappas of this world

She can call herself an independent journalist. But in my view, the title that best suits her is criminal defendant Mezzacappa. She's been charged with false reports to the Pa State Police, and her trial is scheduled February 3.