BUSTED: Former Democrat Mayor and Husband Hit With Charges

Gina LaPlaca, the former mayor of Lumberton Township, New Jersey, and a sitting member of its township committee, has spent the better part of two years generating one embarrassing headline after another. Her latest legal trouble may be the most damaging yet. LaPlaca and her husband, Jason Carty, have now been formally charged with using fraudulent signatures to secure her spot on the Democratic primary ballot, adding election fraud to a resume that already includes a drunk driving conviction involving her own toddler.

The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office announced the new charges on August 11, following an investigation into the nominating petition LaPlaca submitted for her bid to remain on the Lumberton Township Committee. LaPlaca, 47, was charged with making a false statement under oath, knowingly filing a false petition, tampering with public records, and falsifying or tampering with records. Her husband, 49 year old Jason Carty, a member of the Rancocas Valley Regional High School Board of Education and longtime Democratic operative, faces charges of knowingly filing a false petition, tampering with public records, and falsifying or tampering with records.

According to prosecutors, the investigation found that multiple individuals whose names and purported signatures appeared on LaPlaca’s petition told investigators they had never actually signed it, nor had they authorized anyone else to sign on their behalf. That is not a minor clerical error. It is the kind of allegation that strikes at the heart of the integrity of the electoral process, and prosecutors say it mattered a great deal in this particular case.

Without the disputed signatures, prosecutors say, LaPlaca would not have had enough valid names to qualify for a spot on the June 2026 Democratic primary ballot in the first place. In other words, the very ability of voters to consider her candidacy allegedly depended on signatures that were never legitimately obtained.

Carty is accused of physically submitting the petition to the Lumberton Township Municipal Clerk. LaPlaca herself is accused of signing a sworn affidavit attached to that petition, in which she personally attested under oath that she had circulated the petition herself and witnessed each signature being written by the signer in their own handwriting. If prosecutors are correct, that sworn statement was false, which explains why LaPlaca alone faces the additional charge of making a false statement under oath.

This is far from LaPlaca’s first brush with the law. In March of 2025, while she was still serving as Lumberton’s mayor, she was arrested after a witness captured video of her driving erratically, swerving between lanes and nearly striking a utility pole. Her two year old son was in the back seat at the time. When police arrived at her home, they administered field sobriety tests, during which she reportedly struggled to remain steady, and searched her vehicle, finding an open alcoholic beverage container inside.

Her blood alcohol concentration was measured at a staggering 0.30 percent, nearly four times New Jersey’s legal limit of 0.08 percent. She was originally charged with driving under the influence, reckless driving, and child endangerment. LaPlaca was released on a summons at the time and initially declined calls from the governor’s office to step aside from her public duties, insisting the community needed to show more kindness and understanding toward people trying to better themselves.

She eventually pleaded guilty earlier this year to fourth degree child abuse and driving under the influence stemming from that incident. A judge sentenced her to three years of supervision through New Jersey’s Pretrial Intervention program, a diversionary track typically reserved for first time offenders. The terms of her sentence require regular attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, compliance with requirements set by the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency, and installation of an ignition interlock device on her vehicle.

As if that were not enough drama for one small township, LaPlaca’s marriage has also generated headlines of its own. In late May of this year, just days before the fiercely contested Democratic primary in which she was seeking reelection, police responded to a disturbance at the couple’s home. Carty was subsequently charged with aggravated assault by strangulation, an indictable offense, along with harassment. According to reporting from the New Jersey Globe, LaPlaca had initially alleged her husband tried to strangle her during the incident.

She later reportedly wrote a letter to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office claiming that Carty had not actually assaulted her and requesting that the charges against him be dropped. That case has since been transferred to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, and its current status remains unclear.

Despite all of this turmoil unfolding in real time, LaPlaca pressed forward with her reelection bid. It did not go well. She ultimately finished third in a three way race for two available seats on the township committee, losing to incumbent Mayor Terrance Benson and his running mate Kendra Hatfield by a wide margin, nearly 800 votes.

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LaPlaca has picked up an unflattering nickname among local observers over the course of these controversies, with some referring to her as the Queen of Toxicity, a title that seems to fit given the sheer volume and severity of the scandals attached to her name over such a short period.

The election fraud charges are set to be formally addressed in Superior Court in Mount Holly, New Jersey, where both LaPlaca and Carty are scheduled to make their first court appearance on September 21. It remains to be seen whether either will face additional consequences beyond the criminal charges, including potential removal from her remaining committee seat, which is currently set to expire at the end of 2026 regardless of the outcome of this case.

This entire saga offers a case study in exactly the kind of local political dysfunction that conservatives have long warned about when one party effectively controls a municipality without meaningful competition or oversight. LaPlaca was first elected to the Lumberton Township Committee in 2020, won reelection in 2023, and was subsequently appointed mayor by a five person governing body rather than through a direct citywide vote, a structure common in many small New Jersey townships but one that limits direct accountability to voters.

Her career prior to Lumberton also included a stint as business administrator for Neptune Township in Ocean County, a position she resigned from in 2025 amid what was described at the time as a changing political environment, and an unsuccessful run for a seat in the New Jersey General Assembly representing the 8th District back in 2019.

Election integrity advocates say cases like this one underscore why signature verification requirements exist in the first place, and why they need to be taken seriously by candidates and officials alike. When a sitting committee member allegedly falsifies the very signatures required to appear on a ballot, and then swears under oath that those signatures were legitimate, it does not just harm her own credibility. It undermines public confidence in the basic mechanics of how candidates make it onto a ballot at all.

For a small township of roughly 13,000 residents about 20 miles east of Philadelphia, Lumberton has found itself at the center of an outsized political scandal. What began as a single drunk driving arrest involving a toddler in the backseat has snowballed into a case that now touches on domestic violence allegations, addiction, and now formal criminal charges of ballot fraud against a sitting local official and her husband.

New Jersey voters and taxpayers deserve better than officials who allegedly cut corners, falsify sworn statements, and endanger their own children, all while clinging to positions of public trust. The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office deserves credit for pursuing these charges seriously rather than looking the other way simply because LaPlaca had already lost her reelection bid. Accountability should not depend on whether a scandal-plagued politician wins or loses at the ballot box.