The husband of New Jersey Mayor Gina LaPlaca, who was charged with driving drunk while her toddler in the car last month, said the public should go easy on her because she is not the “mayor of some big city.”
“It’s not like she’s the mayor of some big city. Lumberton has only 13,000 people,” LaPlaca’s husband Jason Carty told The Philadelphia Inquirer Friday.
“All I want is for my wife to get better and for everyone to leave her alone.”
The 45-year-old Democrat was allegedly captured on video by another driver swerving all over the road and nearly crashing into a utility pole after she picked up her 2-year-old son from daycare on St. Patrick’s Day.
Police arrived at LaPlaca’s house and found her toddler strapped in a car seat in the rear passenger seat.
The officers then make her perform field sobriety tests, where she can be seen stumbling again when asked to stand on one leg.
While investigating her car, officers allegedly found a water bottle filled with alcohol and a small liquor bottle.
LaPlaca was then arrested and charged with driving under the influence, reckless driving, and endangering the welfare of a child. She was released with a summons to appear in court on April 28.
Carty, a former fire chief for Westhampton, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that his wife is “in an inpatient facility and on a path to recovery.”
Last week, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy urged LaPlaca to “put her public duties aside.”
However, LaPlaca, who was elected mayor of Lumberton in 2022 by a five-person committee and won reelection in 2023 and 2024, confirmed in an email late last month that she would not resign from her mayoral position.
“I will not be resigning my position. Our community needs to be more kind and understanding about people trying to better themselves. As we all know, there is a huge black eye and black cloud over our town right now,” the email obtained by Fox 29 read.
Outraged residents of Lumberton Township packed a committee board meeting following her arrest and email saying she would not resign to rally against the 45-year-old Democrat mayor.
LaPlaca’s fellow committee member, Terrance Benson, sided with the residents and called for her resignation.
“My personal opinion is for the mayor to step down and to heal herself,” Benson said.
Her arrest came just a week after she resigned as business administrator in Neptune Township, according to the Asbury Park Press.
LaPlaca’s resignation came after a video posted online showed her being escorted out of the Mount Holly Fire Commissioners meeting by police on March 5.
In the 14-second video, LaPlaca was heard calling another woman a “skank bi–h” while police removed her from the room.
“You have no idea what I’ve been through, you f–king skank bi–h,” she’s heard yelling.
The heated exchange was ignited when the public criticized her husband’s appointment as captain of the Ewing Township Fire Department in Mercer County, the Asbury Park Press reported.
Carty released a statement after the video was posted that he “personally asked Gina to leave the meeting due to the harassment she was being subjected to by the unruly crowd.”
“Of course only a short clip was posted that shows her clapping back at them but the truth is she was harassed for over an hour. A few individuals made disgusting and misogynistic remarks to her and they should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.
LaPlaca had been the business administrator in Neptune Township since January 2022.
