Charles Centinaro, the Office of Attorney Ethics director accused in a lawsuit of showing hostility to women and running his agency like a “boys club,” has been dismissed from the case.

The ruling by Mercer County Superior Court Judge Janetta Marbrey leaves the Office of Attorney Ethics as the sole defendant in the sex discrimination suit brought by Melissa Urban, who claims she was passed over for the job of first assistant ethics counsel in favor of a less-qualified male applicant. The judge granted the motion to dismiss Centinaro after his lawyer argued Centinaro could not be found individually liable under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination for his decision not to promote Urban.

The law provides that an employer is liable for acts of discrimination, and Centinaro is not considered Urban's employer under the language of the statute, his attorney John Mueller argued in court papers.

The LAD also includes a prohibition on providing substantial assistance to a principal violator, but where an individual supervisor is the alleged principal violator, a plaintiff cannot demonstrate that the supervisor provided substantial assistance to himself, Centinaro said in court papers. The concept that a principal wrongdoer cannot aid and abet his own wrongful conduct is not only commonsense, but proves dispositive under controlling precedent, Centinaro said.

Urban filed the suit in February 2018, claiming Centinaro has frequently advocated on behalf of male attorneys in the office who were requesting salaries above their pay range. She claims in the suit that when she requested a similar favor from Centinaro, he declined to assist her.

An answer filed by lawyers for the Office of Attorney Ethics said Centinaro advocates for salary increases for employees irrespective of their gender. The lawyer for the Office of Attorney Ethics said in an answer to the suit that Urban “does not have the same qualifications and/or experience as” the man who was selected for the job of first assistant ethics counsel. The lawyer for the OAE also said the Law Against Discrimination does not provide for individual liability against Centinaro under the claim asserted.

Urban also claimed that Centinaro displayed open disdain and hostility toward female employees and frequently made offensive comments regarding their bodies, wardrobe and appearance. She also said in the suit that Centinaro demanded she bake him a birthday cake because he helped her get her job and a raise. Centinaro never made any such demand of male attorneys in the office, apparently because he believed that Urban had not earned her job, but that he had it given to her, she claimed.

Urban's lawyer, David Koller of Koller Law in Philadelphia, did not return calls seeking comment.