By Riley Yates | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Clark Mayor Sal Bonaccorso admitted Friday to criminal charges and agreed to forfeit his office under a plea bargain just days after he was sworn in for another term.
Bonaccorso pleaded guilty to using township resources to benefit his private landscaping business and to forging signatures on permit applications for work his company performed. He did so under an agreement calling for him to receive three years of probation when Superior Court Judge Lisa Miralles Walsh sentences him on Feb. 7 for conspiracy to commit official misconduct and forgery.
Bonaccorso, a Republican, has been the face of Clark for a quarter century, the longest-serving mayor in the GOP stronghold’s history. In November, he easily won a seventh term despite the public corruption charges and a racism scandal in which he was caught using the n-word and crassly disparaging women in law enforcement.
His guilty plea requires him to forfeit that office, a provision that took effect immediately. He is also barred from holding public office or employment in the future.
Bonaccorso entered his plea at the Union County Courthouse in Elizabeth. Immediately following the hearing, his defense attorney, Robert Stahl, released a statement saying Bonaccorso’s decision came after he recently learned he was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm that will require surgery.
“After a long and difficult period of reflection and discussion with his family and friends, Mayor Bonaccorso decided that the best course forward for his health, his family and the town he so dearly loves and has devoted more than two decades to, was to resolve this matter by way of a plea,” the statement said.
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