FREEHOLD - A Middletown man, at the center of one of the state’s first "red flag law" cases to restrict him from having guns, once threatened to shoot security guards at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, a surprise witness testified at a contentious hearing Tuesday.

Alfred Conti, the 57-year-old man whom authorities want to keep from getting his firearms returned to him, denied ever making such a threat and claimed the medical center is hiding a surveillance video that would prove security guards beat him up in an elevator during his stay there in July 2017.

The matter was last in court before Superior Court Judge Paul X. Escandon on Feb. 13, when attorneys at that time believed they had called their final witnesses in the ongoing hearing to determine if Conti can get back the revolver, rifle and three pistols that police took from his home in September during an ongoing dispute he was having with his surgeon and his surgeon’s attorney.

The hearing is one of the first in New Jersey since it passed its red flag law in September. The law allows authorities to strip firearms from people considered dangerous. Conti's attorney says his client is not a threat to anyone.

When the hearing resumed Tuesday, Sean Brennan, assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, said medical center personnel came forward to the prosecutor’s office after reading a newspaper account about the last court session, saying they had information to rebut Conti’s claims at the hearing that he had never threatened anyone at the hospital.

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Reopening the testimony portion of the hearing, Brennan on Tuesday called Lawrence Tyler, security manager for the medical center, to the witness stand to authenticate reports by two African American security guards who reported that Conti, on July 8, 2017, hurled racial slurs at one of them and also talked about shooting them.

Brennan read from the report of Darius Alexander, one of the guards, who reported that after Conti became “verbally abusive’’ toward him and used a racial slur, he then requested “me to come to his home so he may shoot me, telling me I’m lucky he didn’t have his gun on him because he would shoot me right there and then.’’

The second security guard, Gary Baker, reported essentially the same thing about the racial slur, saying that Conti “stated he would shoot me and Alexander if he had his gun," Brennan said.

Tyler acknowledged that Brennan had accurately read the reports.

But, cross-examined by Conti’s attorney, Jason Seidman, Tyler testified that nobody called the police when Conti said those things because “we didn’t believe that the threat could be carried out."

As Tyler was finishing his testimony, Seidman reported to the judge that Conti was having a “medical issue," shaking and breathing heavily. The judge ordered the courtroom cleared while sheriff’s officers tended to Conti.

About 15 minutes later, Conti walked out of the courtroom into the hallway and said, “I have anxiety when somebody’s sitting there telling lies."

The hearing resumed shortly afterward, with Conti taking the stand to rebut what Tyler had said.

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Seidman noted the incident at the medical center occurred several hours after Conti had undergone surgery.

Conti testified he was heavily drugged, but he denied every making such threats.

Seidman asked him if he remembered hurling a racial slur at a security guard.

“That is the most stupidest (sic) thing I’ve heard in my entire life," Conti said.

Asked about threatening to shoot the security guards, Conti said, “No, I didn’t say that at all." He said he has never threatened to shoot anyone.

Conti went on to claim security guards beat him up in an elevator and that the medical center is trying to hide a video of the attack.

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Tyler, however, had testified there are no video cameras in the area of the medical center where Conti claimed he was beat up.

“They’re trying to hide this video, and it’s really a sham," Conti said on the witness stand. “They’re using the racial card because they beat me up and don’t want to provide the video."

Seidman and Brennan summed up their cases after Conti concluded his testimony.

Conti’s weapons were confiscated last year when it appeared his dispute with Dr. Matthew Kaufman of the Plastic Surgery Center in Shrewsbury and Kaufman’s attorney, James Maggs, was escalating.

Conti said he was dissatisfied with surgery that Kaufman performed on his neck in July 2017 and wrote negative online reviews about the surgeon which he later took down. Kaufman, who has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on the physician review website healthgrades.com, stopped seeing Conti as a patient and is suing him on a claim of defamation.

Maggs previously testified at Conti’s red flag hearing that he became worried after seeing posts on Conti’s Facebook page that made reference to guns. Maggs said he then called the police, who went to Conti’s house and confiscated his guns. That was after Maggs said he received two profanity-laced phone calls from Conti in which Conti told him he knew where both Maggs and Kaufman lived and threatened to bring the police and media with him to force Kaufman to see him. Maggs recorded one of the telephone calls, which was played previously in court.

The phone call was “unpolished, it was rude, it was crass, but there’s no threats there," Seidman said in his summation Tuesday.

“He was being sued and he was the little guy who’s on a disability pension, being sued by a millionaire doctor because he voiced his grievances to the world about substandard quality medical care he received," Seidman said of Conti.

Seidman said the only things Conti ever threatened was to bring the police and media to the doctor’s office.

“He’s a loudmouth, but being a loudmouth isn’t illegal," Seidman said.

Brennan said Kaufman and Maggs had legitimate concerns about Conti and brought them to the police.

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Brennan argued that Conti was calculating, knowing not to make threats that would get him locked up, “so he stays just outside that."

Conti told Maggs, “I know where you live," and mentioned the attorney’s family members by name, and then added, “I have the upper hand now," Brennan said.

“You mean to threaten them," Brennan said to Conti.

Brennan said the red flag law allows police to intervene before a matter worsens.

"It provides protection to prevent something from happening," based on a subject’s pattern of behavior, Brennan said.

“He can’t contain himself here in this court," Brennan said of Conti. “Mr. Conti should not have access to firearms."

Escandon said he plans to decide later this month if Conti can get his guns back.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues, unsolved mysteries and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com; 732-643-4202.