A courtroom in the Staten Island courthouse.

A former Staten Island court clerk who was surreptitiously recording conversations with judges and others around the courthouse has dropped his defamation suit against a union head who installed a giant, inflatable rat bearing the clerk's name in front of the courthouse.

Michael Pulizotto, a former chief clerk on Staten Island who has since been transferred to the Office of Court Administration in Manhattan, was previously represented by controversial attorney Richard Luthmann, who faces an 11-count federal indictment that includes charges of kidnapping, extortion and fraud and who has been in federal lockup since December.

Last year, Staten Island's judicial system was shaken up when it was revealed that Pulizotto secretly recorded conversations around the borough's courthouse.

The revelation prompted Dennis Quirk, president of the New York State Court Officers Association, to set up the rat in the public square outside the Staten Island courthouse in the borough's St. George section on Sept. 7.

In October, Luthmann, who in 2015 drew headlines by challenging another attorney to trial by combat, filed a defamation suit against Quirk in Manhattan Supreme Court on Pulizotto's behalf, in which he referred to Sept. 7 as “The Day of the Rat”—in all capital letters—throughout the complaint.

Pulizotto, who is openly gay, also accused Quirk of threatening him on “The Day of the Rat,” and, two days prior, making defamatory statements about sexual activities between Pulizotto and another courthouse employee.

In December, Luthmann filed another suit on Pulizotto's behalf in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York accusing state Supreme Court Justice Judith McMahon, court officers and other court officials of retaliating against Pulizotto for turning his recordings over to OCA's office of the inspector general.

But just days later, Luthmann was arrested on federal charges, and Pulizotto hired Alan Serrins of Serrins & Associates to represent him in both cases. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York is prosecuting Luthmann and his two co-defendants.

On Wednesday, Serrins filed a motion of discontinuance with prejudice in the state defamation case. An initial conference in the federal case is scheduled for Feb. 16.

Bruce Baron of Baron Associates, who represented Quirk, said in a news release that his initial reaction when Pulizotto filed the suit is that it was “as bogus as it gets.”

“While Dennis has always believed in the system, it was appalling how far these clowns crossed the line and annihilation was the only option,” Baron said.

Serrins said that after consultation with Pulizotto, they decided to pursue the federal complaint and not the state case, but declined to comment further.