“Have You Ever Met Sal?”

The New Jersey Supreme Court has reprimanded a conditionally admitted attorney and extended the period of conditional admission.

From the Disciplinary Review Board letter decision

On May 9, 2023, just before midnight, a Clark Police Department police officer observed respondent asleep in his vehicle, with the car engine running, at a complete stop in a merging lane. According to the police report, respondent’s speech was slurred and he appeared confused. After he stumbled out of the car, officers detected the odor of alcohol on his breath. Respondent admitted to the officers that he had consumed alcoholic beverages prior to operating his vehicle. Given these observations, and respondent’s poor performance on standardized sobriety tests, the police officers arrested him for suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

Although respondent initially cooperated with the police, he became combative after transport to the police station. He refused to sign forms indicating that he was advised of his constitutional rights and which personal belonging were inventoried. He also refused to provide breath samples for the Alcotest instrument because officers could not tell him “when the machine was last calibrated.” Moreover, referring to the mayor of Clark, respondent asked the officers, “Do you know who Sal Bonaccorso is? . . . Have you ever met Sal? . . . [and] How many times have you met him?” Respondent even demanded that the officers call the mayor to pick him up.

Respondent informed the officers he was “being held against his constitutional rights,” and demanded to be released. When the officers explained to him that he would have to remain at headquarters for at least twelve hours if no one came to retrieve him, he became “irate” and demanded to speak with a judge. Once he was placed in a holding cell, after using his cellular telephone despite the officer’s directive that he not do so, he began banging, kicking, and running into the door. He also yelled profanities and threatened to take legal action against the police department.

Sanction

In mitigation, respondent admitted his wrongdoing and accepted responsibility for his actions. Moreover, he promptly reported his misconduct, and he entered into this disciplinary stipulation. Additionally, he expressed sincere remorse and emphasized his commitment to reforming his conduct and remaining an upstanding member of the New Jersey bar.

In aggravation, respondent’s conduct toward the police officers following his arrest reflected a lack of the personal and professional characteristics demanded of an attorney. He failed to cooperate, became irate, made threats of legal action, and shouted at the officers.

Moreover, respondent repeatedly asked the police officers if they knew the town’s mayor, even demanding that they call him, thereby implying his ability to influence the outcome of the arrest by virtue of his relationship with the mayor.

Thus

On balance, the Board determined that a reprimand is the appropriate quantum of discipline to protect the public and preserve confidence in the bar. The Board further recommended that, as a condition, respondent’s conditional admission should be extended for an additional two years before he can petition for the termination of those conditions.

Knowing Sal the Mayor has a  reduced cachet, according to the New Jersey Attorney General

Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) announced that Salvatore Bonaccorso, the longtime mayor of Clark Township, pleaded guilty today in connection with his use of Clark employees for his private business, a landscaping and underground oil storage tank removal company. As part of his agreement with OPIA to plead guilty, Bonaccorso, at the time of his guilty plea, entered a consent order immediately forfeiting his office as mayor of Clark and agreeing to be permanently barred from holding any future public office or employment.

Bonaccorso, 64, of Clark, New Jersey, who has been the township’s mayor since 2001, pleaded guilty to a two-count accusation charging him with conspiring to commit official misconduct (3rd degree) and forgery (3rd degree). The second count stems from his submission of false and fraudulent permit applications to municipalities, which enabled his landscaping company to improperly and unlawfully obtain permits to remove hundreds of underground tanks.

Bonaccorso entered the plea during a hearing on January 10, 2025, before New Jersey Superior Court Judge Lisa Miralles Walsh, presiding in Union County.

“Today’s guilty plea secured by OPIA ends a long and sad betrayal of the community by someone who had been in a position of power and trust for a long time,” said Attorney General Platkin. “Anyone who betrays the public’s trust by placing their own interests ahead of their duty as a public servant to New Jersey residents will be held accountable. Let me be clear: I will never stop rooting out corruption in New Jersey, no matter how powerful the offenders may be.”

“Bonaccorso used taxpayer-funded workers for personal gain. He abused his power over municipal personnel, finances, and operations, and he submitted false documents to keep the scheme going,” said Drew Skinner, Executive Director of OPIA. “My office will investigate and prosecute anyone who illegally abuses the public’s trust.”

The mayor and his company, Bonaccorso & Son LLC, also agreed to be ineligible from bidding for any public contracts, entering into any public contracts, or conducting any business with the State or its political subdivisions for five years. Furthermore, they are barred for three years from conducting, or contracting to conduct, any storage tank removals for any private commercial or residential property owners.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, the State will recommend that the court sentence the defendant to three years of probation and impose a fine of $15,000, the maximum allowable fine for conviction of a third-degree crime.

OPIA charged Bonaccorso by complaint on November 20, 2023 after an investigation by the Corruption Bureau found that, while acting in his official capacity as the mayor, Bonaccorso operated his oil tank-removal business out of his township office utilizing municipal resources. He stored and maintained the records for the business at the mayor’s office, using township equipment including computers and fax machines, and directing or using township employees to perform duties while those employees were working for and being paid by the township, solely for the purpose of running his business.

During the course of the investigation, OPIA also discovered that the defendant and his landscaping and underground storage tank company, Bonaccorso & Son, fraudulently used an engineer’s name, license number, as well as, in many cases, forging the engineer’s signature on permit applications submitted to municipalities for tank removals — knowing the engineer was neither supervising nor in any way involved in those projects, and without any legally required tank inspections actually taking place at the job sites. Neither Bonaccorso nor his company have the necessary underground-storage-tank-removal license required to do such work.

A review of permit applications submitted by Bonaccorso and his company revealed that Bonaccorso misrepresented to municipalities that the engineer was the on-site supervisor of the removal work, as required by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) regulations, for all of the tank removals done by Bonaccorso & Son.

New Jersey law prohibits any individual from doing work on unregulated heating-oil tank systems unless the individual is certified or working under the immediate, on-site supervision of a person who is certified. NJDEP rules state that whether a tank is removed or abandoned-in-place, the job must be conducted by a contractor certified for underground storage tank closure, who is working for a closure-certified firm.

The investigation revealed Bonaccorso arranged to have the engineer obtain a storage-tank license and insurance, and Bonaccorso directly paid to maintain both. The value of the removal jobs associated with the fraudulent permits submitted by Bonaccorso between 2017 and 2023 amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The plea was handled by OPIA Corruption Bureau Co-Director Jeffrey J. Manis and Corruption Bureau Deputy Chief Frank L. Valdinoto, under the supervision of OPIA Executive Director Skinner. Attorney General Platkin also thanked the New Jersey Department of the Treasury, Division of Taxation, Office of Criminal Investigation, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for their assistance and valuable contributions to the investigation.

And from NJ.com

Bonaccorso has faced a torrent of criticism since 2022 when NJ Advance Media revealed the township had paid a $400,000 hush-money settlement to a whistleblower who secretly recorded Bonaccorso, police Chief Pedro Matos and internal affairs Sgt. Joseph Teston crudely denigrating Black people. Bonaccorso also called female police officers “f—— disasters.”

As to the criminal case

Bonaccorso, 64, had criticized the criminal case, dismissing the allegations as “garbage” and “another weaponization against a MAGA Republican.” Despite the uncertainty, he sought reelection and won 59% of the vote.

(Mike Frisch)