Just when you thought this story couldn't get any wilder, it absolutely did.
Former Lumberton Township Mayor Gina LaPlaca, a Democrat who already pleaded guilty to driving hammered with her small child buckled in the car, is now staring down a whole new pile of criminal charges. This time, it's about allegedly cooking up phony signatures on a nominating petition so she could worm her way onto a Democratic primary ballot. And her husband got dragged into the mess too, as reported.
The Burlington County Prosecutor's Office dropped the hammer on Tuesday. LaPlaca, 47, got hit with charges including making a false statement under oath, knowingly submitting a fraudulent petition, tampering with public records, and falsifying records. Her husband Jason Carty, 49, faces his own counts of filing a bogus petition, record tampering, and falsification.
Here's the juicy part. LaPlaca allegedly signed an affidavit swearing she personally circulated the petition and that every single signer put pen to paper themselves. Prosecutors say that was a flat out lie. Their investigation revealed that multiple people whose names appeared on the document told authorities they never signed it and never gave anyone permission to sign for them.
Without those questionable signatures? The petition wouldn't have had enough names to qualify. LaPlaca would have been locked out of the June 2026 primary for Township Committee entirely.
Spoiler alert. Voters weren't exactly rolling out the red carpet anyway. She finished third in a race for two seats, getting smoked by current Mayor Terrance Benson and his running mate Kendra Hatfield. So all that alleged scheming was basically for nothing.
Now let's rewind to the incident that first torched her reputation. Back in March 2025, prosecutors say LaPlaca picked up her kid from daycare while absolutely blitzed. Witness footage reportedly showed her car swerving across lanes and nearly plowing into a utility pole with the child inside. Her blood alcohol content clocked in at 0.30 percent. That's nearly four times the legal limit of 0.08 in New Jersey. She ended up pleading guilty and got sentenced to three years of supervision through a pretrial intervention program that includes mandatory Alcoholics Anonymous attendance.
LaPlaca served as mayor from 2021 through 2025 and still holds a committee seat that expires this December. The couple is scheduled to show up in court on September 21 in Mount Holly.
So to recap the timeline for anyone keeping score at home. First, she allegedly drove obliterated with a toddler in the backseat. Then she supposedly fabricated voter signatures to cling to political power. And THEN voters rejected her anyway.
Politics in small town New Jersey is apparently never boring. The criminal justice system will now sort out whether those petition signatures were legitimate or completely manufactured. Either way, this saga is far from over.
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