BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
HACKENSACK—Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino relented Friday, resigning immediately following the release of a secret recording in which he was caught making racist comments about African-Americans and the state’s attorney general, a Sikh.
He apologized for being “insensitive” and said he wants to make amends, but had resisted demands from all sides that he step down.
On Friday afternoon his office said he had resigned. Additionally, Executive Undersheriff George Buono, Undersheriff Robert Colaneri, Undersheriff Brian Smith and Undersheriff Joseph Hornyak have also submitted their resignations effective immediately.
Gov. Phil Murphy, Bergen County Executive James Tedesco III, state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle called for Saudino’s job.
According to a report from WNYC, which said Wednesday it was provided with the recording taken evidently without Saudino’s knowledge, the sheriff is heard talking to “colleagues” in a county office on Jan. 16, the day Murphy, a Democrat who won in part on a pledge to legalize marijuana, was inaugurated.
“He talked about the whole thing, the marijuana, sanctuary state, better criminal justice reform. Christ almighty, in other words let the blacks come in, do whatever the f— they want, smoke their marijuana, do this do that, and don’t worry about it. You know, we’ll tie the hands of cops,” Saudino says in the recording, available at WNYC.
Moments later, WNYC said, Saudino says Murphy appointed Grewal because of “the turban.”
Murphy reacted sharply:
“Without question, the comments made on that recording are appalling, and anyone using racist, homophobic, and hateful language is unfit for public office,” he said in a statement.
“The recording also included an admission by Saudino that he broke a rule involving corrections officers, as well as an inquiry about whether Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, who is unmarried, is gay,” the station reported.
Republican lawmakers from the 39th and 40th districts—including Assemblymen Bob Auth, Christopher DePhillips, Kevin J. Rooney and Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi—said in a statement Friday that “Bigotry has no place in politics. And those who express those views should not hold public office.”
State Sen. Gerald Cardinale called the comments “disheartening,” saying, “You can dislike policies that you think are bad, but you can’t dislike entire communities.”
He added, “Going forward, I’m not sure how the public can trust that the actions of the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office or individual officers aren’t influenced by the views of their leader. Sheriff Saudino should consider if his continued presence is in the best interest of the law enforcement community or the people of Bergen County.”
Democrats from around the region called for Saudino to resign as well.
“The racist assertions against African-Americans and Attorney General Grewal, and the inflammatory remark against Lt. Gov. Oliver, are repugnant,” said state Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle. “It is these kinds of attitudes that make people distrust the justice system and how it treats certain segments of the population.”
Pending the appointment of an interim sheriff by Murphy, Sheriff’s Office Chief Kevin Pell will be the officer-in-charge of the sheriff’s department’s operations and Bergen County Sheriff’s Office Warden Steve Ahrendt will be the officer-in-charge of the Bergen County jail’s operations.
Saudino apologizes
Saudino, in a statement Thursday, offered “my sincere apology to the people of Bergen County for the insensitive recorded remarks that were made public today.”
“In an effort to repair the damage to the friendships that I have built with these communities, I have reached out directly to several respected leaders in the communities I have offended and I have personally offered my apologies and I have asked for their forgiveness and for their communities’ forgiveness,” he added.
He said, “These remarks are not representative of the person that I am and they are in no way consistent with the manner in which I have conducted my life personally and as a law enforcement professional with over 46 years of service to the residents of Bergen County.”
Saudino—elected to his third term and previously Emerson’s police chief—was first elected to the countywide office as a Republican sheriff in 2010 and reelected in 2013.
After a bruising political battle with former Republican County Executive Kathleen Donovan over the merger of the Bergen County Police Department into the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department—which Saudino backed—he broke with Republicans and became a Democrat, winning reelection again in 2016.
The sheriff leads the largest law enforcement agency in the state’s most populated county and is responsible for aiding municipal police departments, safeguarding the courthouse, patrolling county roads, and running the county jail.
Grewal has heard ‘indignities’
Grewal, elevated from Bergen County prosecutor—before that he served as the chief of the Economic Crimes Unit at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey—is the son of Indian immigrants. He is the first Sikh-American attorney general in United States history.
As county prosecutor, Grewal made combatting the heroin epidemic a primary initiative, and worked to fight the epidemic through criminal enforcement, treatment options for addicts, and education.
In July, after Grewal directed prosecutors statewide to temporarily suspend marijuana prosecutions pending a policy review, two radio hosts mocked him on air for wearing a turban. They were suspended, then they apologized.
Of that episode, Grewal tweeted, “This is not the first indignity I’ve faced and it probably won’t be the last. Sometimes I endure it alone. Yesterday, all of New Jersey heard it. It’s time to end small-minded intolerance.”
—With additional reporting by Tom Clancey