CLARK — A former member of the Clark Police Department has moved to file an amended complaint against the township, its legal representatives and several past and present ranking members of the local police force in an attempt to recoup certain benefits and job-related perks that he says are being deliberately withheld in an act of retaliation. The township’s attorney, meanwhile, has filed a motion to dismiss the original complaint for “failure to state a claim.” Both actions are scheduled to be heard by a judge on Friday, March 1.

Antonio Manata, a former police lieutenant who made national headlines after a series of racially-charged recordings that he made of Mayor Sal Bonaccorso, Police Chief Pedro Matos and other township representatives was released to the media in 2022, initially filed suit in state Superior Court last year. In his initial complaint, filed by attorney Anthony P. Kearns III in June of 2023, Mr. Manata alleged that the township had violated the terms of an earlier settlement agreement by intentionally barring him from retirement through a series of legal roadblocks designed to prevent him from receiving his pension payments. Mr. Manata went on to claim that the township also has unjustly denied him a firearms permit of the type granted to retired law enforcement officers and has refused to release his employment records in an act of retaliation that, allegedly, cost him work as a longshoreman.

As the suit was making its way through the court system, however, the state’s Office of theAttorney General (AG) released the results of a three-year investigation into allegations of misconduct within the township. Many of the same individuals who were identified in the recordings and in earlier court documents — including the mayor, the police chief, former Township Attorney Joseph Triarsi, Sergeant Joseph Teston and Captain Vincent Concina — were referenced in the AG’s public report.

Formal charges of fraud, official misconduct and forgery were levied against Mayor Bonaccorso (who, according to a complaint filed by the AG’s office, used township resources to bolster his landscaping and underground- storage-tank-removal company while simultaneously forging certain state-mandated documents related to the business) on the same date that the long-awaited investigative report was released to the public.

In December of last year, shortly after the AG’s report was released, Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced that the state’s Division on Civil Rights would open a formal investigation to see if Clark’s municipal officials had in any way violated New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination by failing to report known acts of misconduct.

Now, Mr. Manata, who also has filed suit against the Union County Prosecutor’s Office and the AG’s office, has submitted an amended complaint to the state that further details alleged privacy violations and concerns that the nature of Mr. Bonaccorso’s private legal challenges could “seriously adversely affect” his credibility as a witness for the township.

Court proceedings for Mr. Bonaccorso are expected to begin in earnest next month before a grand jury. Township officials have publicly stated that the community will not be footing the longtime mayor’s personal legal bills.

Disciplinary proceedings, meanwhile, are scheduled to be held in regards to the three other police officers — Sgt. Teston, Captain Concina and Chief Matos — in accordance with the AG’s recommendations.

In December, the township council agreed to award a structured contract valued at $1,500 per day to Kronick Resolutions, a third-party mitigation firm, to oversee the township’s interests in regards to the hearings.

In response to a request for comment from the township regarding the hearings and the pending civil-rights probe, TownshipAdministrator James Ulrich said only, “the requested information is regarding personnel matters and we cannot discuss individual personnel issues publicly.”