Sergio Bichao

@sbichao

SOUTH PLAINFIELD – A school board member seeking a seat on the Borough Council in the November election was arrested several years ago after using racist and homophobic slurs outside a diner.

Joseph Sorrentino, 29, who is on the Democratic ticket challenging the incumbent mayor and council candidates, was forced to address his police record and drop out of the race Wednesday after borough Republicans released the 2007 and 2008 police reports to the media.

"Seven years ago, as a young man, I made a stupid mistake, but I learned from it," Sorrentino said in a prepared statement. "I regret what happened, and I have worked every single day to prove that I am not the man that the report says."

"For that reason I am today withdrawing as a candidate for borough council."

In a news release accompanying the police reports, the South Plainfield Republican Organization said the conduct raises "questions about his fitness for public office."

In September 2007 Sorrentino was arrested for disorderly conduct after dropping his pants and mooning a woman and her daughter as they left the Sherban's Diner on Front Street after 1 a.m. The woman said Sorrentino called her a "slut."

When police arrived, they said they saw Sorrentino on the diner's steps with his pants pulled down yelling a racial slur against black people into the diner through a window.

Police said Sorrentino appeared intoxicated and apologized for his actions.

Less than a year later at the same diner, police were called by two women who said Sorrentino and his brother called them "dikes," a derogatory term for lesbians, and threatened to hit one of them.

The June 2008 police report says Sorrentino tried to explain that the woman had heard he and his brother refer to another woman by that slur.

Republican campaign spokesman Bob Jones said the police reports were uncovered recently with an Open Public Records Act request.

"The facts speak for themselves and people can make their own judgment," Jones said Wednesday.

South Plainfield is a borough of 23,300 people and one of the few municipalities in Middlesex County where Republicans from time to time manage to wrest control from Democrats. Campaigns here also tend to be bitter.

Earlier this month the borough Republican chairwoman revealed that Sorrentino had sought the Republicans' endorsement for a council run last year. Last month, Councilman Rob Bengivenga slammed Democrats for accepting a $1,000 donation in 2006 from the owner of a former go-go bar in town.

Democrats have hurled their own accusations and criticisms. In July, Sorrentino alleged that the borough Department of Public Works removed a tree from the property of a former Republican official as a political favor, which officials denied, according to The Alternative Press.

On Wednesday, Sorrentino said he has changed since the incidents in 2007 and 2008.

"From working with special needs children every single day as a teacher, to giving my nights and weekends to the kids of South Plainfield as a coach and school board member, my singular pursuit has been to be a better person than what this report alleges."

His running mates, mayoral candidate Chrissy Buteas and council candidate Joe Lambert released a joint statement saying "this in no way reflects on the Joe Sorrentino we know today as a dedicated teacher and coach, and positive influence on the lives of everyone around him.

"What's most disappointing is that the Republicans will stoop so low as to seek to personally destroy him for something that happened years ago and for which he has not only apologized with his words, but also his actions… Our community deserves much better than this type of politics."

Republican Mayor Matt Anesh is seeking re-election with Councilmen Alex Barletta and Derryck White.

Staff Writer Sergio Bichao: 908-243-6615; sbichao@mycentraljersey.com