A federal civil rights suit takes aim at allegedly spotty attendance on the job by New Jersey state Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, during his 15-year run as municipal prosecutor in Linden.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed by Roseland, New Jersey, attorney Beth Baldinger on Feb. 18 in U.S. district court in Newark, Scutari, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, knowingly perpetuated violations of litigants’ due process rights with his frequent absences from court, when he relinquished the duties of prosecutor to the judge,