A South New Jersey mayor had to be dragged out of his own council meeting after he lunged at a heckler in the audience, all of it caught on video.
Pemberton Township Mayor Matthew Bianchini, a Republican running for re-election, sprang from the administration desk Wednesday night and went after Michael Sawka, a resident who has hammered him at meetings and online, according to the Pine Barrens Tribune, which filmed the melee.
As a retired township cop hauled him away, the furious mayor jabbed a finger at Sawka and bellowed, “I am getting you — I am f*cking getting you!”
The chaos broke out during a public hearing for Ken Gerber, a retired police chief whom Bianchini fired two weeks ago as the township’s community development director. Gerber was accusing the administration of wrongdoing, including allegedly splitting purchase orders to dodge a council spending limit.
As he testified, Bianchini traded glares and words with Sawka and another critic, Joe Anderson, who showed up in a red T-shirt plugging Councilman Dan Dewey’s write-in campaign for mayor.
The room boiled over when Sawka turned around and waved his hands toward a woman in the back. Some saw the gesture as hostile, while others viewed it as a signal for her to leave. When the mayor shouted at him, Sawka appeared to give him the finger, and Bianchini charged.
Gerber, the man Bianchini had just fired, was the first to grab him. Others pinned the mayor against a wall before Councilman Perry Doyle Jr., a retired township cop, put him in a hold and steered him into a side room.
“He just threatened me!” Sawka hollered, demanding the cops arrest the mayor for assault. Two officers, one with a K9, soon arrived.
When the meeting resumed, Council President Harry Harper told everyone involved to clear out. Sawka refused, insisting he’d stayed in his seat, and backed down only after Gerber’s lawyer pulled him aside.
Bianchini admitted the next day that he was in the wrong but said he won’t say he’s sorry. He accused Sawka of harassing his family for months and claimed his critic was muttering insults at his wife and daughter all night. Family members alleged Sawka called the daughter “white trash.”
“Were my actions wrong? Probably. Were they justified? Absolutely!” the mayor posted on Facebook.
He also blamed Dewey, calling him Sawka’s “puppet master.” Dewey called that untrue and insisted he had nothing to do with the mayor’s tirade.
Sawka, for his part, called the mayor “unhinged” and said he wished Bianchini had swung at him.
The mayor’s daughter, Brianna Eusebio, apologized for telling a resident to “shut up” during the fracas. She defended her dad, saying he thought someone was flipping her off.
Dewey has been feuding with Bianchini since being passed over for mayor earlier this year after the previous mayor resigned. Gerber, a close Dewey pal, says his firing was political payback. The administration says he mismanaged his office and engaged in “locker room talk.”
Dewey later apologized to residents for what he called a disgrace to the town.
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