NJ Candidate Drops Out Of Race Over Yelling Slurs With His Pants Down

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A New Jersey borough council candidate dropped out of the race on Wednesday after reports surfaced that he mooned patrons at a local diner while yelling racial slurs, according to NJ Advance Media.

Republicans on Wednesday circulated reports on two incidents in which Democrat Joe Sorrentino yelled inappropriate comments at Sherbans Diner.

Sorrentino apologized on Wednesday in a statement announcing that he would no longer be running for a seat on the South Plainfield Borough Council.

“I regret what happened, and I have worked every single day to prove that I am not the man that the report says,” he said.

According to police reports, in 2007 Sorrentino was one of multiple men shouting outside of the diner. When police arrived, he allegedly had his pants down and was yelling “nigger” through the diner window. Sorrentino was then arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

Then in 2008, Sorrentino and a friend were eating in a diner. Sorrentino called two other diners “dikes,” made “vulgar comments” and threatened to strike the women. Sorrentino told police that an argument started after the two men used “dike” to refer to another woman and that they were not originally yelling it at the diner patrons.

Sorrentino is a special education teacher and member of the South Plainfield Board of Education, according to NJ Advance Media.

In his Wednesday statement, Sorrentino said that he has changed since those incidents.

“From working with special needs children every single day as a teacher, to giving my nights and weekends to the kids of South Plainfield as a coach and school board member, my singular pursuit has been to be a better person than what this report alleges,” he said, according to My Central Jersey.

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