Councilman Khemraj "Chico" Ramchal, whose March 2015 arrest on a drunken driving charge resulted in one grand jury inquiry and a second one slated to begin next week, pleaded guilty today to two charges related to his arrest.

Ramchal will avoid jail time but must forfeit his City Council seat as a condition of the deal he finalized this afternoon with county prosecutors. Ramchal, a Democrat, becomes the first Jersey City council member to step down mid-term since February 2011, when an ailing Willie Flood resigned.

A request for comment from Ramchal was not immediately returned. His attorney, John Bruno, said by phone that the councilman is "relieved" that the matter is nearly settled.

"He's been seeking help and therapy as a result of this awful experience," Bruno said. "He's so grateful that he's been treated fairly by the city as well as the prosecutor's office."

As part of his agreement with prosecutors, Ramchal pleaded guilty today to assault by auto, a fourth-degree offense, and theft by deception, a third-degree offense related to allegations that he had a no-show job with a county agency. He has agreed to plead guilty to a drunken driving charge at a July 15 sentencing hearing, where Assistant Prosecutor Karyn Darish plans to ask a judge to sentence Ramchal to probation.

Ramchal will be forbidden from holding any public or elective office in New Jersey.

A source close to the prosecutor's office said a grand jury was slated to convene next week and could have considered a misconduct in office charge. A conviction on that would have landed Ramchal behind bars for at least five years.

A Guyanese immigrant, Ramchal was first elected to represent Ward B on the council in 2013 after working as a council aide to David Donnelly, the prior Ward B councilman, and as an assistant to Freeholder Bill O'Dea, his mentor. Ramchal was a senior enforcement officer at the Hudson County Improvement Authority until last June, when the county agency fired him over the no-show job allegations.

Today's news is a blow for Mayor Steve Fulop, a Ramchal ally, who has cast himself as a political reformer. The mayor declined to distance himself from Ramchal even as the allegations against the councilman mounted. Last June, Fulop told The Jersey Journal he wanted to wait until "the facts are presented."

A request for comment from Fulop wasn't returned, but the mayor's chief of staff, Mark Albiez, called the saga "unfortunate on many fronts."

"Today, Chico took responsibility for his actions and in the coming weeks, the City Council will move forward to nominate a replacement for Ward B," Albiez said.

City Council President Rolando Lavarro did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Ramchal's legal troubles began in the early morning hours of March 14, 2015, when witnesses told police he ran a red light at Communipaw and West Side avenues, colliding with a taxi that then struck an SUV being driven by an off-duty New York City cop. Ramchal had just left a St. Patrick's Day party at the Casino in the Park banquet hall.

Police say Ramchal's blood-alcohol level was .15, almost twice the legal limit. A witness said the vehicle Ramchal was driving, which was registered to the Jersey City Incinerator Authority, had emergency lights activated as he drove through the intersection. At the time, Ramchal was an unpaid commissioner at the JCIA.

A passenger in the taxi went to the hospital after the crash, complaining of back pain. About a month later, on April 28, county prosecutors charged Ramchal with assault by auto.

Ramchal's troubles were aggravated when The Jersey Journal reported that GPS records from the JCIA vehicle Ramchal using showed the SUV driving around Jersey City or parked in front of Ramchal's house when timesheets he submitted to the HCIA showed he was supposed to be working. The HCIA fired Ramchal in June and county prosecutors in October charged him with theft as a result.

Ramchal's guilty plea caps a two-week period that found the 41-year-old councilman exhibiting unusual behavior. After leaving the April 27 council meeting early, he went on an extended vacation without initially telling his council colleagues where he was. In subsequent days, his social media accounts were deleted or disabled. After this reporter asked Ramchal about it on May 4, the councilman's Facebook page reappeared that night with a note saying, "Every once in awhile (sic) you just have to get away and surf the waves of life."

O'Dea said last week that Ramchal was "getting himself together so to speak." Ramchal told The Jersey Journal he was visiting his sister in Florida and wouldn't be back until May 23. He returned to Jersey City abruptly last night.

The council has 30 days to appoint a replacement. Voters in a November special election will choose the person to fill out the remainder of Ramchal's term, which expires either in June 2017 or in December 2017 if Fulop's push to move city elections to November is approved by voters this fall.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.