A grand jury has indicted Lumberton Mayor Gina LaPlaca on charges of child endangerment and child abuse after her drunk driving arrest last March.
LaPlaca had her young child in the car when she was involved in a hit-and-run on St. Patrick’s Day in nearby Mount Laurel, and after Lumberton police arrested her, her blood alcohol content was nearly four times the legal limit, according to police records. Her 2019 Blue BMW was damaged, and open bottles of alcohol were found in her car.
If convicted, LaPlaca could face prison, hefty fines, forfeiture of her public office, and loss of custody of her child.
The child endangerment charge by the grand jury is a second-degree offense and carries a prison sentence of five to ten years, a $150,000 fine, and comes with a presumption of incarceration. The indictment accuses LaPlaca of causing harm, “thereby making him/her an abused or neglected child” as the legal caregiver.
The indictment also alleges that LaPlaca “did abuse, be cruel to, or neglect the…child to physical or moral risk without proper and sufficient protection.” That charge, a fourth-degree crime, carries a possible eighteen-month prison sentence.
An arraignment is scheduled for December 8 before Superior Court Judge Craig Ambrose.
She filed an application for Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI) on November 14, six days before the indictment was returned. That matter remains pending, as do the charges in municipal court for DUI, reckless driving, and driving with an expired license.
After her arrest, LaPlaca went to an inpatient alcohol rehabilitation facility, and despite calls for her resignation, resumed her local mayoral responsibilities. Gov. Phil Murphy had called for her resignation so she could focus on her recovery.
Dubbed the “Queen of Toxicity,” LaPlaca has a history of legal issues, including charges of assault. She resigned her job as the Neptune Township administrator a few weeks before her arrest after local officials reportedly said they would fire her if she didn’t leave voluntarily.
In 2023, while serving as deputy mayor, LaPlaca was arrested for assaulting her husband, Jason Carty, a controversial political activist. Carty was also arrested. He later accepted responsibility, and the charges against LaPlaca were dropped.
An incident report filed in 2017 revealed a verbal argument after “LaPlaca arrived home intoxicated,” police records show. Carty, then her boyfriend, left the house they shared with his young son voluntarily.
Carty told the New Jersey Globe in 2023 that he was “the bad guy in that incident.”
A Democratic operative, Carty is currently under suspension from the Mount Holly Fire Department after allegations of sexual harassment against a female co-worker became known. Carty had also reported a previous domestic violence incident involving LaPlaca, but he also disputes that. Last year, LaPlaca was escorted out of a Mount Holly Fire Commission meeting after an outburst.
A former Assembly staffer and lobbyist, LaPlaca was the Democratic nominee for State Assembly in the 8th district in 2019.
LaPlaca declined to comment on details of her criminal case, but said she was still in outpatient therapy for her alcoholism and has voluntarily installed an interlock device in her car.
“I’m working hard on my recovery, and my attorney is working hard on my case,” LaPlaca said.
This story was updated at 1:02 PM with comment from LaPlaca.
