Caught Lying, Local Democrat Hides Behind Charlie Kirk’s Death
Woodbury Village Trustee James Freiband is a cheap suit stuffed with bullshit.
In February 2026, The Monroe Gazette will turn 2 years old.
One of our first stories, published in February 2024—a month after he was sworn into office as a Village of Woodbury trustee—involved local Democrat James Freiband. He, and fellow newly elected Village of Woodbury trustee, Matthew Fabbro, wanted to end the Village’s building moratorium.
Despite claims to the contrary made on the official Woodbury Democratic Committee Facebook page in November 2023—pictured above—Jim Freiband was immediately rude to Woodbury residents, dismissive of experts and public officials, often grandstanding during his board comments, and otherwise working to disrupt what was, until his arrival, a relatively smoothly functioning Woodbury Village Board.
Does that mean the previous village board was perfect? I can’t say. I certainly have some thoughts about CJ Graziano, who, as of this writing, has not yet apologized publicly to The Monroe Gazette.
But.
I can’t tell you much about the previous Village Board in Woodbury. Not because of any personal bias, but because I only started covering the town and village boards of both Monroe and Woodbury in October of 2023. I started writing for The Photo-News around that month, the election happened, and then the current Village Board was done.
What I can say with certainty is that it was clear early in 2024 that something was off with James Freiband. Whether he was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam or maybe has a collection of ears in his dresser at home, I can’t say. But the man was “off.” “A mean old bastard” is what one local Democrat said to me when I asked what Woodbury residents can expect upon his swearing-in to office.
This assessment is not based on personal opinion but on comments made at Village Board meetings shortly after he took office. These comments concerned his behavior, his refusal to apologize for it, and his campaign to seemingly entangle the village in as many lawsuits as he could, beginning with the New York State Thruway Authority and continuing to this day with the Village of Kiryas Joel.
Statements seemingly made for no other reason than that he wanted to run for re-election claiming the Village Board was dysfunctional. How do I know this is true? Well, you should look carefully at Mr. Freiband’s 2025 palm card. It’s item No. 3. That’s right. Despite being 90% responsible for the village government dysfunction—the other 10% is generated by Rhonda Fabbro’s special little boy, Matthew, who seems incapable of speaking unless his mother is drinking water.
I’ll also stop here and direct your attention to Freiband, who on the front of the palm card states he is dedicated to green space, and on the back, under item No. 4, says he wants to speed up the Planning Board approval process. A process that is in place specifically to … You guessed it. Dedicate to preserving green space and minimizing environmental harms caused by overdevelopment.
Further proof that Mr. Freiband is in the pocket of real estate developers is that comment in the following sentence about “imposing large fees” which are paid for by … Yes. You guessed it again. Real estate developers.
In August 2024, Mr. Freiband was caught willfully spreading disinformation, which we then reported to the Village of Woodbury board. Over the past year, The Monroe Gazette has actively reported instances of malfeasance by everyone we cover. For example, just last week, we reported the Town of Woodbury board for violating the New York State Open Meetings Law to the NYS Committee on Open Government, and we’ve been in touch with the New York State Comptroller’s office concerning the alleged misuse of taxpayer money by the Woodbury Public Library.
We are also investigating why, despite being told in January 2024 that it was inappropriate for the town of Woodbury to handle FOIL requests concerning the library, in September 2025, the Woodbury Public Library doesn’t appear to have its own FOIL appeals officer or FOIL procedures—a potential violation of NYS FOIL Law, and something The Monroe Gazette will absolutely sue them over. We don’t take this action lightly. We take it because the Woodbury Public Library ignored—not once, not twice, but three times—factually verifiable evidence of violations of trustee ethics statements by WPL Board President Cathy Schmidt, and took no action. So it’s clear that someone needs to step in and ensure this agency, like any other agency in the state, complies appropriately with local and state laws to ensure maximum taxpayer transparency.
James Freiband’s Tales From The Crypt
Pictured Above: Woodbury Village Trustee, James Freiband, looking like he’s about to host an HBO Max revival of “Tales From The Crypt”
It’s been about a year since we first reported on Trustee James Freiband, and nothing has changed.
Mr. Freiband hasn’t adapted to his new role, which is something I mentioned in one of my first stories, trying to be fair and giving him the benefit of the doubt. His treatment of Woodbury residents has not improved. He shows up late to meetings. He lies at meetings. He bullies and antagonizes elected and public officials, particularly women. And he’s gotten away with it because the Village of Woodbury does not appear to have a functional Board of Ethics. This is something that I hope village residents will speak up about and request to have addressed. (To date, neither Fabbro or Freiband have answered questions concerning whether they, or Fabbro’s mother Rhonda, or Freiband’s wife Willa through her PR firm Strategic Advantage Consulting, accepted any of the $19,600 spent by James G. Skoufis to influence the recent Republican mayoral campaign in Woodbury.)
Given the way things work in Southern Orange County, where wealthy and well-connected individuals—primarily real estate developers but not exclusively—buy local politicians—Exhibit A is Woodbury Village mayoral candidate Brandon Calore and Monroe town supervisor Tony Cardone—you’re going to need these ethics boards to be operational and armed with the capability of penalizing and removing elected officials like James Freiband. Officials who, much like state Sen. James G. Skoufis, decide that they’re only going to work for the real estate developers and nobody else.
You’ll notice state Sen. Skoufis only got around to addressing that hydrogen sulfide issue in the village of Monroe, caused by his big campaign donors in South Blooming Grove, after other media outlets covered the story. It’s here I’ll point out that nobody would be talking about the hydrogen sulfide situation at all without The Monroe Gazette. You can thank us by subscribing:
Without these Ethics Boards, Woodbury residents are going to find themselves in a South Blooming Grove situation with no recourse and nobody coming to help when the local government starts to abuse its power at the expense of its own residents. The concept of a Calore-Fabbro-Freiband Village Board majority and a Luciani-Rinaldi-Luongo Town Board majority will spell the end of Woodbury as you know it. The people who were running around last year saying, “Woodbury is the next South Blooming Grove” are going to find themselves to be absolutely right. The connections are already there. We documented Calore’s support from Mordechai Kellner in Woodbury Junction, his campaign contributions by South Blooming Grove’s often-absent village attorney, Scott Ugell, his work for CIOFFI, which has deep ties with the village—and is currently being sued by Orange County for helping SBG to create an illegal road through county-owned Gonzaga Park—and Ziggy Brach, the Clovewood developer, and his generous campaign contribution to Kathryn Luciani when she ran for state Assembly. You don’t need to see someone driving a Lambo and delivering a cake to Calore to figure that one out.
So, at this point, we can factually say that this is who James Freiband is: A self-serving, loathsome old man who brags about his military service in Vietnam while disrespecting the flag and constitution he swore an oath to protect. Because in James Freiband’s America, corporations and the wealthy get equal treatment under the law, and you get nothing at all.
This brings us to the video from September 13, 2025.
Typhoid Elias
There are a couple of things to pay attention to in this video.
First, the pamphlets. Freiband was out around the same time as MAGA Republican candidate Brandon Calore, and Calore was distributing flyers on behalf of Fabbro, Freiband and David Yaffee. All are Democrats.
By the way, every single time Elias Rosado-Cunningham, campaign manager for both Brandon Calore and Tony Cardone, appears, I’m obligated to show you this photo of Elias happily posing with RFK Jr.
Any time Elias comes near you or to your doorstep, you should absolutely ask him if he’s vaccinated and to please wear a mask. We all know how RFK Jr. feels about vaccinations, particularly your ability to get them. I’m not saying you should call the kid Typhoid Elias. But … I’m sure as shit going to put on a mask if he gets anywhere near me.
Here’s a quick tangent. You’ve got two hardcore MAGA types, Calore and Cunningham, handing out flyers for the Democrats.
The Democrats—Fabbro, Yaffee and Freiband—are supporting a violent, deeply unqualified man, Brandon Calore, for mayor.
So … Someone explain to me how that squares with the Woodbury Democrats posting stuff like this:
Then again, the Woodbury Democratic Committee also posted this … (Remember that weird guy, Paul Phelan, who wouldn’t get off people’s lawns? He’s on the left.)
So, given that the Woodbury Democratic Committee backed the pro-real estate developer candidates in Monroe—all three of whom hilariously lost big—I guess fidelity to the Constitution and opposition to those who want to trample it in the name of the Trump regime is optional when that’s what the wealthy and well-connected want, right?
Because, as I keep saying, MAGA members aren’t Republicans. The situation in America isn’t red vs. blue, or Democrats vs. Republicans. It’s all of us, as Americans, against the fascist, authoritarian MAGA movement first. And second, it’s all of us against the corporate Democrats and Republicans. It’s a war on two fronts. One fought, at least by the side of true Americans, without violence and through peaceful organization and opposition. (Remember that point. It’s going to be important later.)
I deliberately took you through this process to demonstrate that both the Monroe Town Democratic Committee and the Woodbury Town Democratic Committee, alongside state Sen. James G. Skoufis, are the corporate Democrats I’ve been warning you about.
And for those of you who asked, I am unsure if the Woodbury Republican Committee has rules against its candidates cross-endorsing those from other political parties. I was told that was the case, but I wrote to the Woodbury Republican Committee to clarify. They did not respond before this article was published, but it will be amended if they provide a statement.
Get Off My Lawn, Weirdo
After being told to leave, James Freiband did what he’s done for almost two years to a Woodbury resident: He lied to them.
Mr. Freiband can be heard saying, “You know he [Mayor Andrew Giacomazza] is going to let them annex the … uh [intelligible] from KJ.”
Now, you should know just based on voting records that whenever there’s been something beneficial to the village of Kiryas Joel, such as getting a tax break on water infrastructure based within Woodbury, only James Freiband has voted in favor of that tax break.
When the ACE Farms annexation came up, James Freiband and Matthew Fabbro were the only two village trustees to vote against granting the village of Woodbury lead agency status in the ACE Farm annexation process. Despite being the only two no votes, both Fabbro and Freiband are now campaigning on a ballot line called “No Annexations.” Look carefully at the domain name and the language on their ActBlue website:
And you can see in the video here that Freiband is actively lying about the intentions of the current village board majority, including the mayor, who have publicly and repeatedly stated they do not want ACE Farm to be annexed into Kiryas Joel. So, what you have here is Fabbro and Freiband attempting to pull a Jedi mind trick, where they’re telling you they don’t want annexations. But literally the first thing Fabbro and Freiband are going to do—based on how they’ve already voted—is support the ACE Farm annexation request into the village of Kiryas Joel. (The second thing they’re going to do is lift any remaining moratoriums constraining building, despite Woodbury’s limited water and sewage capacity.)
If all of this sounds familiar, it should. Last year’s election saw fellow Woodbury Democrat Tyler Etzel Jr. and Republican-turned-Woodbury Democrat John U. Keleman putting out Batman villain-style videos with the same disinformation spewed by James Freiband.
(Remember, kids: Misinformation is shared by someone without the intent to deceive. Disinformation is shared by someone with the intention to deceive.)
The Woodbury resident then posted the Ring video to the Woodbury United Facebook Group (which I administer and is one of very few Facebook groups that are Woodbury-focused where Freiband, Fabbro, and the Calore-Luciani regime are not allowed to post their disinformation.)
Now, it’s been a while since Freiband put out a misleading newsletter. Lucky for you, I took some screenshots. And that brings us to what this all has to do with Charlie Kirk.
Don’t Shoot People, Even If They’re Creeps
As you might have guessed, I had some questions for Mr. James Freiband about his invocation of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. A topic I had zero interest in discussing with anyone. Mom always said, if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything. But. Mr. Freiband left me with no choice.
Here’s the email received by Mr. Freiband and the Woodbury Democratic Committee, which they have declined to respond to. Should they do so, I will go and update this post:
Hi There,
I noticed Mr. Fabbro and Mr. Freiband don't like to answer questions, such as where Mr. Skoufis's $19,600 went that he reported spending as part of his Independent Expenditure Committee filing recently for the June 2025 election cycle.
So, since Mr. Freiband has decided to cite Charlie Kirk in his "Call for Unity" (linked below) I have some follow-up questions.
Mr. Freiband said, "In the wake of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, you’d have to be tone deaf not to understand what people all over the country, and from every political perspective, are saying as they call on each of us to be more civil and to end divisive language in our politics"
Source: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Woodbury-s-Decision-.html?soid=1102455566612&aid=57jm6wUAf_Q
While the argument can be made that Mr. Freiband is, generally speaking, tone deaf, I would like to ask:
Has Mr. Frieband ever called out the threats of violence by Charlie Kirk's followers to professors and other academics such as Stacey Patton?
Charlie Kirk has a long, and documented, history of making anti-semitic remarks on The Charlie Kirk Show, would Mr. Freiband like to explain his invocation of an anti-semite in calling for Woodbury residents to "be more civil?" Clips from Mr. Kirk's show can be found here: https://www.mediamatters.org/antisemitism/charlie-kirk-turns-antisemitic-stereotypes-amid-israel-hamas-war
The Evergreen High School shooting occurred on the same day as Mr. Kirk's murder. Has Mr. Freiband, condemned the shooter, Desmond Holly and his anti-semitic, and pro-white supremacist views that were depicted as motivation for the shooting?
I couldn't help but notice the Woodbury.Democrat Facebook Page has posted events promoting the first No Kings event. However, in the video Mr. Freiband is crying about, he can be clearly seen holding pamphlets for Brandon Calore, who once threatened to murder another Republican for not being "MAGA Enough," Mr. Calore can also be seen photographed handing out pamphlets for other Woodbury Democrats, such as David Yoffee. Mr. Calore has also held a fundraiser at A Better Place Bar and Grill — a bar and grill accused by Woodbury residents (and former employees) of hosting gatherings of White Supremacists — and he just finished a primary where he called his opponent a RINO for also not being sufficiently loyal to President Trump. Can you explain how the endorsement of MAGA republicans like Brandon Calore meets Mr. Freiband's calls here to, "It is clear, they had no interest in finding common ground or working to make our community whole. They had no interest in bringing people together; no interest in exploring solutions; and no interest in face to face civil conversation."
It sure sounds like he’s talking about the people you’re cross-endorsing.
I find this last point interesting given that, just this year, Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered by a far-right MAGA extremist, and there was an assassination attempt on the life of the governor of Pennsylvania by another MAGA extremist. Both Hortman and Mr. Shapiro are Democrats.
This isn't a "both sides" thing. Just ask the Anti-Defamation League.
Now, if we’re being charitable, perhaps Mr. Freiband saw AIPAC Ryan make a similar call for civility in his weekly newsletter.
Whether or not Rep. Pat Ryan has an opinion about the Trump Department of Justice removing a study from its website that stated, among other findings: “Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives,” is anyone’s guess. The congressman’s statement on the Kirk murder just trails off after that picture.
Like a lot of things with Rep. Pat Ryan, everything seems fine until you start looking at his voting record (yes on the GENIUS Act, no support for a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United) or his financials (AIPAC and Peter Thiel’s Palantir are top donors). So, no surprise here that his email newsletter mentioning Kirk just trailed off. There’s also no mention of the school shooting at Evergreen High School. There’s no mention of the war crime Trump just committed by lighting up a boat filled with what he called, with no evidence, terrorists, and there’s zero mention of ICE.
But this story isn’t about Congressman Pat Ryan. This is a story about James Freiband. So before we close, I want to make two points to you.
-Murder is wrong. I can’t believe I have to say that out loud, but even if someone is a creep, you don’t shoot them. All this sort of violence does, in addition to being morally, ethically, and legally wrong, is give power to your authoritarian enemies.
Don’t take my word for it. Look at the rhetoric coming from Hitler-lite:
If you don’t like what’s happening in America right now, then on Oct. 18, you get out into the street and you peacefully protest. Here’s where to go to learn more about the next No Kings event.
You keep protesting and organizing to build that muscle and prepare for a general strike.
Because at this point? I’m convinced there’s no other way out of the authoritarian regime’s grip without literally, and peacefully, shutting down this country.
-I’m not really sure who the audience is for Freiband’s crybaby newsletter. If you’ve attended a single meeting since January 2024 or watched one online, you’ll see firsthand evidence of this man being rude, dismissive, and spreading disinformation at every conceivable opportunity. Don’t believe me? I’ll see you at the September 25th meeting at 7:30pm.
Even his email itself is gaslighting, claiming it was an out-of-context “gotcha moment.” No, dude, you literally said the mayor is going to annex something (implied to be ACE Farm, one would imagine) to Kiryas Joel.
If you made it this far, I gotta ask:
Do you really need me to fact-check this newsletter? OK. Let me just do one. You know, in the event you think I’m getting lazy. It’s a minor point, but it’s a nice summation of all these reasons, and more, that James Freiband is a pox on the House of Woodbury. And like a bad sexually transmitted disease, we can’t seem to shake him. (Seriously, for much of the 21st century, James Freiband has been a candidate for local political office. If he loses, as long as he’s breathing, you’ll see him again. And even when he’s not breathing—because, to be frank, I’m convinced the man’s brain stopped functioning a long time ago and his wife is using some dark magic to reanimate his corpse—you’ll see this man again. The why is simple: Because he’ll do what the wealthy and the well-connected want. Just like Brandon Calore. Just like Matthew Fabbro. Just like David Yaffee. Just like Kathryn Luciani. Just like Kelly Rinaldi—Hey Kelly, do you want to be the one to talk about MAGA Tom, or should I do it?—Just like James G. Skoufis. Just like Tony Cardone. Just like Dorey Houle. Just like Steve Thau. Just like David Hoovler. Just like Steve Neuhaus.
Useful idiots, all.
But I couldn’t let this one thing go. You see, the town of Woodbury raised your taxes nearly 12%.
This happened because the supervisor gave herself the biggest raise in the history of Woodbury town supervisors.
This happened because the Town Board absolutely refused to negotiate in good faith concerning the town and village intermunicipal agreement.
This happened because Brandon Calore can’t do math. (And now he wants to be your mayor.)
So, the village of Woodbury has been at or around, for the most part, the 2% tax cap. Which we should note is not a hard-and-fast rule but a “suggestion.” The town has not.
Yet … Here is James Freiband talking about tax increases, while simultaneously pushing the candidates who … Yes. Raised your taxes.
It’s all just disingenuous nonsense. All of it. This man is an empty suit, one occasionally stuffed to take on the appearance of a human using bullshit. If you want unity in Woodbury and in America, you identify the politicians who cause the divisions and you drive them out of power.
Because it’s almost always the ones with the big financial backers behind them, including James Freiband. Because the truth is that most Americans are unified. We want change. The oligarchs behind this Second Gilded Age don’t.
So they try to divide us using all the tactics I just explained James Freiband utilizes.
The Oligarchs are the ones looking to buy and sell what’s left of this planet before we’re left choking to death on toxic fumes and rising tides.
But of course, good old Jim Freiband won’t be around to see that, now will he?