Salvatore Bonaccorso, the long-time problematic mayor of Clark, N.J., was exposed for trying to cover up the leak of his recorded racist remarks. However, upon the probe into his shenanigans, the New Jersey Attorney General found cause to bring criminal charges against him in an alleged landscaping scam.
Tsk tsk tsk, here we are again.
The Root previously reported that Bonaccorso issued a video apology after he was exposed for using a series of racial slurs in an audio recording. The remarks were made on the phone with Clark Police Department Chief Pedro Matos and Sgt. Joseph Teston of the internal affairs unit, according to Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin. The mayor was heard using an absurd amount of racial insults and slurs targeted at the Black women on the police force.
Read more from the AG’s report:
Among the remarks made by Bonaccorso are the following:
The Mayor using racial slurs – “Two things you can never count on . . . machines and n*****s . . .they always break down.”
The Mayor discussing lynchings as if it were a common practice – He is heard saying, “We [redaction] hang the spooks up there,” as he passed by ropes hanging in the town recreation center.
The Mayor openly discussing his refusal to hire female officers for the Clark Police Force, claiming “as far as female cops go, I hope there is never any but I can only take care while I’m here. They are all f***ing disasters that I’ve seen.”
NJ Advance Media first leaked the recordings last year. However, their investigation also exposed the mayor for paying $400,000 in hush money to settle a matter with Lt. Antonio Manata, the whistleblower who accused the town and police department of retaliation after flagging the recording.
Criminal Consequences
The state’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability didn’t hand down criminal charges to the parties involved but recommended the police chief and internal affairs sergeant be terminated. The two have been on paid suspension since the investigation.
Bonaccorso was charged, but not for his racist tirade. Authorities say he faces charges of official misconduct, records tampering, witness tampering, forgery and falsifying records in connection to the improper removal of underground storage tanks by his landscaping company.
The state considered charging him for the cover-up but could not prove he knew he was in violation of his duties. But hey, they got him on something.
“There is a social contract that imposes an expectation that officials in positions of governmental and law enforcement leadership will...treat all people with respect and dignity as equals,” Platkin said. “These are not naïve ideals or lofty ambitions, but rather the bare minimum expectations communities should have in their leaders. The leaders in the Clark Police Department, and the Township more generally, failed to keep up their end of that bargain.”