Body cam footage captured the moment officers approached a New Jersey mayor accused of driving drunk on St. Patrick’s Day with her young son in the car.
Relief was expressed by police when they approached 45-year-old Lumberton Mayor Gina LaPlaca (D) in her driveway that neither she, her two-year-old son, nor anyone in her path had been physically injured. The fortunate outcome accompanied reports of her erratic driving that led to her arrest in her own driveway with a blood alcohol level said to have been high enough to warrant a trip to the hospital.
“Uh, that’s not good,” LaPlaca said as she approached her passenger side mirror after one officer asked her what happened while the other had alerted her to reports of her dangerous journey picking up her son from daycare, including allegedly running a red light on March 17.
“No, I’m good,” came her initial response to questions as to whether or not she had had anything to drink as she stumbled closing her car door. That quickly changed to the admission, “Yeah. Yeah,” before a field sobriety test showed her struggling to walk a straight line and stand on one foot prior to her telling officers that she had been drinking vodka.
FULL BODY-CAM FOOTAGE: NJ Democrat Mayor accused of DUI with her toddler in the car
Gina LaPlaca, 45, Mayor of Lumberton, was charged with DUI and now faces calls for her resignation from Lumberton residents
Police confronted LaPlaca after a bystander reported her driving… pic.twitter.com/CL4053oqQM
— Unlimited L’s (@unlimited_ls) March 28, 2025
“I’m sorry,” the mayor added before she was placed in handcuffs, an expression she repeated in tears as she was led to the backseat of the Lumberton Township Police patrol vehicle while her child was left in the care of a neighbor.
In the meantime, a search of the vehicle by officers recovered a water bottle that contained alcohol as well as a small bottle of liquor, NBC Philadelphia reported. While police documents indicated a witness had shared video of LaPlaca’s driving, including nearly striking a utility pole, officers told her about her dangerously high alcohol content.
During a Lumberton Township Committee meeting the week of LaPlaca’s arrest, locals called for her resignation, including business owner Amy Callahan, who said, “There is a huge black eye and black cloud over our town right now.”
“I do believe that we need to move forward as a community and for us to truly turn the page,” added Callahan. “I believe that cannot occur with her on our council.”
The Monday evening arrest was not the first encounter with the law for LaPlaca, as, in October 2023, the then-deputy mayor was arrested and charged with assaulting her husband, political activist Jason Carty, just prior to that year’s election. The New Jersey Globe had also reported that LaPlaca had been intoxicated when she and Carty, then her boyfriend, had a 2017 incident report filed regarding a verbal argument.
Carty was listed as a member of the Rancocas Valley Regional High School Board as of Jan. 7, 2025.
As for LaPlaca, her court appearance was slated for April 15.
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Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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