Bordentown Township clerk Colleen Eckert has been placed on paid administrative leave while the township investigates statements made by Eckert during the 2017 investigation into former police chief Frank Nucera, according to a statement by Mayor Stephen Benowitz.
Eckert said in an interview with FBI agents and assistant United States attorneys last March that she and Nucera often used the n-word to refer to a Black real estate developer. The slur, Eckert said, was used in a “joking way.”
Benowitz said in the statement that the first the township heard about the details of the FBI interviews, including Eckert’s comments, was Oct. 5. The statement also says Benowitz and township solicitor Eileen Fahey were first told of the investigation into Nucera’s behavior during a meeting Jan. 9, 2017 meeting.
In a Nov. 1, 2017 statement (and during a Nov. 2017 interview with the Current), Benowitz said the township only learned about the specifics of the charges against Nucera the day he was arrested.
