Middletown Democratic Ticket Collapses After Controversial Video

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — A candidate running for a seat on the Middletown Township Committee is catching some heat after a video surfaced Friday of her saying "To me, a lot of police are criminals."

She's also lost her running mate over the video.

The candidate is Jeana Sager, a Middletown resident. Sager is running alongside Sean Byrnes for two open seats on the Middletown Township Committee. Byrnes and Sager are running as the Democratic ticket for the two seats; Republican incumbents Rick Hibell and Kevin Settembrino will try to keep their seats. The election is Nov. 5.

Byrnes, who is well known in the Middletown community, told Patch Friday that he just learned of Sager's comments today, and that he is no longer running with her.

"I learned of these statements today, and I absolutely disagree with her," Byrnes exclusively told Patch. "I have today suspended my campaign for Township Committee. If she does not withdraw from the campaign, then I will. I cannot run with someone who has such beliefs."

Byrnes could always run on his own, which he said "is possible."

"But I won't run with her," he said definitively.

Sager did not yet reply when Patch asked her for a comment, although she said she would get back to us.

She appears to make the comments outside a Middletown Twp. Committee meeting this past June, when she was speaking casually in front of a group of pro-marijuana activists.

In the video, Sager identifies herself and says she is running for Middletown Twp. Committee. She also tells the pot proponents she has to be careful what she says because Middletown is an "extremely, extremely red" area. She tells a reporter in the group that the entire conversation is off the record. They discuss marijuana and she says she supports needle exchanges; she also says she doesn't want to stigmatize drug users, or criminalize drug use.

At the end of the clip, an unidentified man said he doesn't like the opioid awareness speakers who are in public schools, calling some of them "criminals."

"What constitutes a criminal? To me, a lot of police are criminals," Sager replies. "So where do you go with that?"

She does not elaborate.

The conversation was not videotaped by the reporter. It was recorded by Edward “Lefty” Grimes, who bills himself as a pro-marijuana activist in New Jersey. Art Gallagher, a conservative Monmouth County blogger who writes More Monmouth Musings, said a reader tipped him off to the video when Grimes posted it on his Facebook page. However it has now been taken down from Grimes' page. Grimes did not answer Patch's questions about why he posted the video and then took it down. (Coincidentally, Patch actually interviewed Grimes last year at the opening of a medical marijuana store in Secaucus.)

Gallagher grabbed the video and put it on YouTube. Here is a shortened version of the conversation:

Again, Sager did not respond when asked by Patch multiple times if she could explain her statements.

Middletown is a fierce battleground between Republicans and Democrats, and Democrats have tried for years, unsuccessfully, to gain a foothold on the Middletown Township Committee. Byrnes has run several times now the Committee. He is known as a strong critic of development and overdevelopment in Middletown.

Here is the entire 15-minute conversation. The police comments come up at 4:30:

Past Patch reporting:

Sean Byrnes, Jeana Sager Running For Middletown Twp. Committee