Democrat Cuerton Wins Bergen County Sheriff's Race

Democrat Anthony Cureton defeated Republican John "Jack" DeLorenzo and three others in the Bergen County Sheriff's election Tuesday night.

With more than 98 percent of precincts reporting, Cureton received 151,565 votes to DeLorenzo's 105,781, numbers provided by the county clerk's office showed.

The race for Bergen County sheriff should not have even happened this year, but it came to the forefront of this local election season after Michael Saudino resigned and five candidates filed to fill his position.

Cuerton and DeLorenzo held the two main party lines in the race. Independents James Ahearn, Rob Tormo, and Robert Kugler are the other three candidates.

The race itself was marred with controversy after Kugler filed a lawsuit against the Bergen County Clerk's Office in late October claiming that the election is illegal and tainted by bias, NorthJersey.com reported.

Cuerton is a former detective sergeant with the Englewood Police Department and president of the Bergen County NAACP.

Kugler is chief of the Saddle Brook Police Department.

The race was a bit rushed because Saudino was in the middle of a three-year term before he resigned Sept. 21 after a tape of him allegedly making racist and homophobic remarks to fellow officers was recorded and released to the press. (See related: Bergen Sheriff Quits After He's Caught Making Racist Remarks)

In the secret conversation, which was recorded Jan. 16 after Governor Phil Murphy was inaugurated, Saudino allegedly can be heard telling colleagues what he thought Murphy's speech was about: "...let the blacks come in, do what the f--- they want, smoke their marijuana, do this do that," according to WNYC, who first published the recording.

Saudino allegedly complained on the recording that Gurbir Grewal was appointed Attorney General only on the basis of his "turban." Grewal is the nation's first Sikh attorney general.

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Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com

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