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Thoughts & Views
Rose: Call me shocked over Sweeney’s stunning loss
EDITORIAL Belleville School Board Trustee Erika Jacho must resign forthwith
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Wednesday, November 10, 2021
he audio and video don’t lie. Erika Jacho, the Belleville School Board trustee, who was charged with drunken driving last year, was found guilty by a judge in Verona. And what we learned from her four-hour trial is that she used deception, threats, arrogance and outright lies to try to get herself out of the charges on the day of the arrest and in the trial. She lied on the stand — blatantly. Based on that alone, she must resign her position immediately. But first, here are some of the indisputable, most outrageous facts, we learned at trial: n On the night she was arrested, Jacho pretended not to understand English at several points, including when she was being tested for her sobriety. She is fluent in English. n On the night she was arrested, Jacho acted in a most shameful manner, in a way that would not be tolerated of the students in the Belleville school district. Drunk or otherwise, her petty, obnoxious words spoken to police officers and her behavior and words on the stand — in English, mind you — would not be tolerated by many officers (or judges) and as such, the cops who were the unfortunate ones to have to arrest her should be commended for demonstrating such remarkable restraint. n The night she was arrested, she dropped the name “Vinny. Call Vinny,” she said. It doesn’t take much to know who she referred to, but since “Vinny” has no connection to this case whatsoever, there’s no point in dragging his surname into this any further. n Lastly, her perjury on the stand was sickening. Jacho clearly doesn’t know her community well, either, if she believes this newspaper is from another county, because we’ve been covering Belleville longer than she’s been on this planet. Her lies about how we covered her arrest should have been known in that courtroom, but they weren’t. She couldn’t have been further from the truth in how she said it happened. And for her to suggest this newspaper and the off-duty Kearny police officer who was there that night were in cahoots with each other is about the most ridiculous thing we’ve ever heard from a local so-called “leader.” We know this Kearny police officer and he is a textbook example of integrity. These are just some of the things the judge heard at trial and that led him to convict Jacho. Somehow, however, despite all the attempts she made to avoid arrest, Jacho wasn’t charged with resisting — and she should have been. That’s a story for another day. Meanwhile, in trial, for whatever the unfathomable reason, Jacho, a school board trustee, was able to use a public defender. And so, on top of her conviction, we now know someone who oversees a multi-million dollar budget and who is a teacher was granted a public defender? What the? None of this bodes well. At all. And as such, Jacho must resign her position today. That she hasn’t yet and that her colleagues haven’t demanded she do so is mind-boggling. And speaking of her colleagues on the board — they must all take a stance immediately and insist Jacho resign. If they choose to do otherwise, they will be just as complicit in this hideous travesty as she is.
To the Editor: More shocking to me than the slim margin of votes the incumbent Gov. Philip D. Murphy defeated Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli for governor was the defeat of state Senate President Steve Sweeney. As a conservative Republican living in the bluest of blue states, I thought Sen. Sweeney was our only hope to stop the political madness in New Jersey, and I was resigned to vote for him were he able to wrest the nomination away from Gov. Murphy. Sweeney proved he could
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Letter to the Editor work with Republicans, and, in particular, with Gov. Christopher Christie in their attempts to reign in the public service unions, and on other tax issues. This led the unions to spend $4.5 million in a failed attempt to defeat him in 2017. In Murphy’s first two years in office, Sweeney challenged him on his many missteps; however, for the past two years he did a complete about face. For Sweeney to be beaten
by Edward Durr, who had no political experience, name recognition, money, and an almost non-existent campaign staff boggles the mind. Granted I don’t speak often to those who live in the more affluent towns in Bergen County, but those in this area are fed up, and see their standard of living being destroyed by elected Democrats at every level of government. Hence, the defeat of the second most powerful Democrat in the state of New Jersey. Armand Rose North Arlington
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