Following the surfacing of a tape in which he uses racist language, embattled Bergen Sheriff Mike Saudino – after initially digging in – will resign.

They won’t be at work on Monday.

His entire administrative staff will also resign.

He at first didn’t see it as inevitable, Bergen sources told InsiderNJ.

The sheriff didn’t want to go like this, under this kind of pressure and duress. When Matt Katz’s WNYC story came to his attention yesterday he resisted the front end effort to get him to step down so as to avoid maximum humiliation.

He didn’t step down.

He’d ride it out.

He’d dig in.

But then the calls mounted.

First, Governor Phil Murphy, then many others.

The Bergen Record editorial hit him hard.

Charlie Stile beat him up.

This morning, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka let Saudino have it in his well-received Democratic State Committee conference speech.

The sheriff retreated to his inner sanctum of fellow law enforcement officers.

A reporter who went to talk to him met a staffer who blandly told him he was out of the office.

“Doing sheriff’s stuff,” was the only explanation.

Saudino was never an institutionalized Democrat, having changed parties in 2016 to run for reelection countywide. There was no deep reservoir of companionship amid the political ranks of his own adopted home. Republicans saw him as a turncoat.

When a black pastor who had originally intended to stand with him on the strength of his minority hiring record at the department called him after hearing the tape to retract his devotion, the sheriff took the blow.

His deputies stuck with him.

But that began to look like a smaller and smaller group.

“He’s on an island,” a source told InsiderNJ last night.

UPDATE: The Bergen Record has more here.

The Record reported the following an hour after InsiderNJ broke this story:

“Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino and four undersheriffs resigned effective immediately.

“Here is the statement from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office:

“The Bergen County Sheriff’s Office announces that effective this date and at this time Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino has submitted his resignation as the Sheriff of Bergen County.

“Additionally, Executive Undersheriff George Buono, Undersheriff Robert Colaneri, Undersheriff Brian Smith and Undersheriff Joseph Hornyak have also submitted their resignations effective immediately.

“Pending the appointment of an interim sheriff by Governor Phil 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.”

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