A New Jersey mayor is denying claims of racism after recordings that seem to show him and other town officials using racial epithets to describe Black people were made public by a local newspaper this week.

In the seven recordings, Mayor Sal Bonaccorso and Police Chief Pedro Matos apparently referred to Black people as N-words. Bonaccorso also called them “Spooks” and Sgt. Joseph Teston called a Black suspect an “animal” with a big “monkey head.”

Clark Township officials agreed to pay $400,000 to a police lieutenant who secretly recorded the conversations to keep them under wraps. Lt. Antonio Manata said he turned the recordings over to Clark, but they were made public by NJ Advance Media on March 30.

Teston and Matos did not respond to the allegations, but the mayor said he was “blindsided” and had no knowledge of the recordings. He suggested they may be altered.

“I have many, many Black friends in my life, many of them; and employees here and everything else,” Bonaccorso told reporters. “I mean, I’ve been here for 22 years, never had a problem, and all of a sudden this is coming up? I find it offensive. I do.”

Bonaccorso reportedly called the November 2019 meeting that initiated Manata’s settlement.

Manata started secretly recording the conversations that go far back as 2017 after being “outspoken” against his colleagues’ racist and sexist talks for several years.

Manata’s attorneys’ drafted a lawsuit against the city, but he placed it on hold when officials offered to...

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