The failure to investigate Clark officials with vigor only adds to the scandal
Taxpayers in Clark have been billed about $1.5 million so far to meet the terms of a secret legal settlement that covered up flagrant racism on the part of the mayor and senior police officers, along with the clean-up costs.
Bad as that is, the loss of money is not the worst of it. In effect, three police officers are being rewarded for their racism and misconduct by drawing down full salaries during suspensions that have lasted nearly two years, so far. The meter is still running.
The mayor, Sal Bonaccorso, got his reward, too. His behavior was hidden from voters, who re-elected him without knowing about it, 10 months after he signed this legal settlement that hushed it up.
The settlement was supposed to forever bury a set of recordings made by a whistleblower in which the mayor repeatedly made racist comments, including use of the N-word. When confronted about it by reporters for The Star-Ledger and nj.com who obtained the recordings, the mayor flat-out lied, denying any knowledge of the settlement despite putting his own signature to it, and even suggesting that the question itself was improper.
“I find it offensive,” he said. “I do.”
The people of Clark now face quite a task if they want to clean this up. All seven members of the council approved this secret settlement in February of 2020. And the shameless mayor is refusing to step down, minimizing his offense by saying insurance will cover most of the cost. As if that’s the point.
This is breathtaking stuff. But it doesn’t end with the misbehavior in Clark, a Union County town with a troubling history of racism, whose population is less than 2 percent Black.
Because this long cover-up would not be possible without the complicity of the state Attorney General’s Office and Union County prosecutors. They learned about the misconduct in July of 2020, when they promised to investigate and make their findings public. It’s inconceivable that a good-faith investigation would take this long. This is not the crime of the century. It’s not a complex international conspiracy. And they had the recordings from the start.
Attorney General Matt Platkin took office only a few months ago, so this it not on him. In fact, he announced last week that the AG’s Office of Public Integrity is taking over the investigation from county prosecutors, and expanding it beyond the police to include elected leaders, presumably the mayor the council members who approved this secret settlement. Some experts say the settlement may have been a criminal act if it can be shown that its purpose was to serve the interest of Clark’s ruling clique, rather than its citizens.
But Gov. Phil Murphy needs to offer a full explanation of why his administration has slow-walked this investigation. Former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal was in power when the investigation began, and for a full year afterward. He was replaced by Acting Attorney General Andrew Bruck, who presided for nine months afterward, as the investigation went nowhere.
In Union County, the prosecutor’s office began the investigation under Lyndsay Ruotolo, now the director of the state Division of Criminal Justice under Platkin, who presided over the county prosecutor’s office for a year before moving to Trenton. She was replaced by William Daniel in July 2021, and still, the investigation dragged on — or sat dormant — with the public kept in the dark. Both county prosecutors report to the Attorney General’s Office, so this failure likely has many fingerprints on it.
The offense here is not just against the people of Clark. We all have an interest in rooting out the flagrant racism that is displayed on the tape. And we all have a right to know why the county and state looked the other way.
So far, the signs are not encouraging. Platkin’s office is offering nothing but platitudes, and will not offer any explanation for this long delay. And while confidentiality around the details of the investigation are understandable, the refusal to discuss even the reasons for the delay seems overboard. Asked to cite the specific laws or regulations that impose such a tight seal on this discussion, Platkin’s office declined to do so.
This sorry episode offers a depressing glimpse of the racism that still lives in law enforcement and local politics in New Jersey. The failure to investigate with vigor and transparency adds to the offense. Only a full and open accounting of the grave mistakes made at all levels of government can provide some consolation.
