NMC seeks TRO and permanent injunction vs. Zajradhara

Persona non grata Zaji Zajradhara, known for filing numerous suits against various local businesses on the grounds of discrimination, has met his match with the Northern Marianas College who has recently filed a complaint and motion for temporary restraining order alleging Zajradhara harassed Small Business Development Center employees for years.

Last April 1, NMC, through attorney Mark Scoggins, filed for a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction against Zajradhara for harassing SBDC employees since 2022.

Specifically, NMC wants the court to prohibit Zajradhara from communicating with the SBDC or its employees by any method and for any reason, and from coming within 500 yards of the SBDC or any of its events.

In addition, NMC is suing Zajradhara in Superior Court for undetermined damages to be proven at trial.

The reason NMC has taken legal action against Zajradhara, the lawsuit said, is because SBDC and its employees have suffered emotional injury due to his conduct, damage to their reputations, and have been forced to spend an inordinate amount of time and energy dealing with his abusive and harassing conduct.

According to the lawsuit, Scoggins explains that Zajradhara, for years, has tried to extract funds from entities by accusing them of discrimination.

“Zajradhara is an individual who, over the last 10 or 12 years, has tried to make a living by falsely accusing entities of discrimination or retaliation, and then extracting settlements. Zajradhara’s fraudulent practices have become so prolific and pernicious that in 2019 the CNMI House of Representatives passed a House Resolution (H.R. 21-5) declaring Mr. Zajradhara ‘persona non grata’ due to his ‘ill-intended schemes in extracting funds from various businesses,” Scoggins said.

Then, in 2022, he targeted SBDC, an entity under NMC.

The lawsuit argues that Zajradhara claimed to be the owner of one or more small businesses and began demanding that the SBDC provide services to him.

“This included demands for services that the SBDC does not provide to anyone, or otherwise were demands for non-specific services that the employees of the SBDC had difficulty understanding,” Scoggins said.

However, when the SBDC tried to inform Zajradhara that they could not provide the services he was demanding, he allegedly became abusive with the employees, sometimes yelling and behaving in a threatening manner, falsely accusing them of discrimination and illegal activity.

“By the end of 2022 and into the beginning of 2023, Zajradhara’s constant harassment of the SBDC had begun taking an emotional toll on [SBDC] employees, and was also taking an inordinate amount of their time. In addition to the pattern of harassment against the SBDC, its employees are aware that Mr. Zajradhara has made threats of actual violence to entities such as the Department of Labor and the Cannabis Commission. This causes the SBDC to have some concern for their own safety,” Scoggins said.

Then, on Jan. 31, 2023, the SBDC sponsored an event held at Crown Plaza Resort for federal contracting training. Scoggins states that Zajradhara’s harassment of the SBDC intensified in the weeks leading up to this event.

Scoggins noted that On Jan. 30, he sent a letter to Zajradhara demanding that he cease and desist from his harassment of the SBDC.

Scoggins said he even informed Zajradhara that he was not welcome to attend the federal contracting training and was told if he appeared, the SBDC would seek to have him arrested for trespassing. However, Zajradhara appeared anyway.

“SBDC employees denied him access to the room in which the event was held and asked him to leave. When Mr. Zajradhara refused to leave, the SBDC employees called the Department of Public Safety and asked that he be removed for trespassing and stalking. The DPS officer declined to remove Mr. Zajradhara from the hotel premises because the SBDC, and not the hotel itself, was asking him to be removed. Mr. Zajradhara’s actions were disruptive of the federal contracting event and were also physically and emotionally taxing for the SBDC’s staff and other organizers,” Scoggins said.

Scoggins added that Zajradhara attempted to show up at other SBDC events that same year but was rejected.

“Mr. Zajradhara then made numerous abusive phone calls to the SBDC. Mr. Zajradhara’s pattern of abuse and harassment against the SBDC has continued. Very recently, Mr. Zajradhara yelled at SBDC staff on the phone so loudly that his voice could be heard from across the room,” he said.