SOUTH PLAINFIELD — A borough council candidate is bowing out of his race after revelations that he allegedly shouted racist slurs while mooning patrons of a local diner.

Joe Sorrentino, in a statement released Wednesday by his Democratic ticket, said he made a "stupid mistake" seven years ago, but learned from it. Local Republicans released police reports Wednesday detailing two separate incidents at the Sherbans Diner.

"I regret what happened, and I have worked every single day to prove that I am not the man that the report says," Sorrentino said.

UPDATE:

Teacher's arrest for mooning diners 'extremely disturbing,' Rahway schools chief says

In 2007, police went to the Sherbans Diner to investigate a report that several men were acting disorderly -- one of the men had allegedly mooned a woman and her daughter, and used a sexist epithet to describe them. The officer arrived to find Sorrentino with his pants down, yelling the N-word through the diner window, according to the police report.

The police officer yelled at Sorrentino to stop, according to the police report. (The reports, which contain offensive language, can be found here.)

Sorrentino apologized to police repeatedly, the report said, but was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. He appeared intoxicated, police said. Sorrentino didn't respond to NJ Advance Media's requests for elaboration. According to the South Plainfield municipal court, the charge was reduced to improper behavior/disorderly conduct, and Sorrentino paid $533 for a fine and court costs. He was in his early 20s at the time.

But that wasn't the end of Sorrentino's troubles at the Sherbans Diner. Six years ago, in 2008, a different police officer went out again to the same eatery for a report of disorderly customers.

The officer found Sorrentino and his brother, Anthony, in a confrontation with two women. The women said the Sorrentinos were drunk and had called them an epithet for lesbians. The Sorrentinos also threatened to strike them, one of the women said.

According to the report, Joe and Anthony Sorrentino told police that they weren't using the epithet to refer to the two women in question. Instead, they allegedly told the officers, they were using it in reference to someone else. The two women misunderstood, and that's how the confrontation began, they said. Police didn't charge anyone in the incident.

Sorrentino is a member of the South Plainfield Board of Education and a special education teacher.

The election for borough council is Nov. 4. South Plainfield is a borough of about 24,000 in northern Middlesex County. Sorrentino was running on a Democratic ticket with mayoral candidate Chrissy Buteas and council candidate Joe Lambert.

They are challenging Republican Mayor Matt Anesh and incumbent council members Alex Barletta and Derryck White.

"It's just disturbing," Anesh said in an interview with NJ Advance Media on Wednesday, before Sorrentino dropped out. Anesh said that last year, Sorrentino actually screened for the Republican Party's endorsement. When they asked if he had anything controversial in his past that an opposition researcher might turn up, Sorrentino said no.

After the opposition researcher turned up the controversial information, a back-and-forth broke out between the two campaigns. Both campaigns say they're very disappointed with one another.

Buteas and Lambert, the remaining Democratic candidates, issued a joint statement saying: "What's most disappointing is that the Republicans will stoop so low as to seek to personally destroy (Sorrentino) for something that happened years ago and for which he has not only apologized for his words, but also his actions."

The local Republicans fired back. In an email, spokesman Bob Jones said: "We're disappointed that mayoral candidate Chrissy Buteas refuses to condemn the behavior that prompted her running mate to choose to resign. Instead of blaming Republicans, she should be addressing what happened."

Full statements:

Joseph Sorrentino:

Joint statement from Chrissy Buteas and Joe Lambert

South Plainfield GOP campaign spokesman Bob Jones:



Warning: These police reports contain offensive language.