A whistleblower who documented racism at Clark’s town hall is suing the Union County township, charging officials have retaliated against him, disrupting his life and preventing him from securing new jobs.
Former Lt. Antonio Manata’s lawsuit represents the latest salvo between him and the township, which in 2020 agreed to pay him a settlement of more than $400,000 to conceal secret recordings he made of Mayor Sal Bonaccorso and police brass using racial slurs that included the n-word.
The suit, filed June 30 in state Superior Court, alleges the township has since put up roadblocks that cost Manata prospective work as a former law enforcement officer and violated his settlement agreement. It charges fraud and conspiracy and names Bonaccorso, several other township officials, municipal attorney Mark Dugan and other lawyers in his law firm.
“It’s ridiculous,” Bonaccorso said Tuesday in response to the suit. “But I haven’t seen it yet, so I don’t really want to comment.”
Dugan did not return a request for comment.
The suit comes as a long-stalled investigation by prosecutors into misconduct at Clark’s police department marks its three-year anniversary this month, at a cost to local taxpayers that has reached about $1.5 million and counting.
That’s because two of the police officials caught on Manata’s tapes using racial slurs — Chief Pedro Matos and internal affairs Sgt. Joseph Teston — have been on paid suspension since prosecutors launched their probe in July 2020, as has a...
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