Four years after being secretly recorded using racial slurs, The mayor of Clark is being hit with criminal charges by the state attorney general.

It's the culmination of a complex state investigation that also looked into the town's top police brass who were included in that recording.

But the charges filed this week aren't directly linked to the racist exchanges.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports.

The investigation uncovered separate corruption and official misconduct while confirming what many Black residents say has been known for years.

Clark is understood as a sundown town clerk, was bad for Black people when the sun was up.

Reverend Charles Boyer grew up nearby.

He's not surprised by the attorney general's exhaustive investigation of Clark Police, which not only confirmed its mayor, police chief and internal affairs sergeant made racist comments in secretly taped recordings.

The report also revealed officials within the township and Clark Police Department expressed views that suggested they encouraged bias based policing.

And as a percentage of the population, Black individuals were arrested at a far greater percentage than their population.

You didn't want to be in Clark, period, and even more so in the daylight because people could see who was driving, Boyer recalls.

Clark Police often stopped him.

The report found that 44% of people arrested in Clark were Black, even though the township's 93% white.

But Attorney General Matt Platkin filed no criminal charges, citing incomplete data.

The ability to draw the kind of definitive conclusions necessary to support criminal charges was rendered impossible by deficiencies in available data.

Clark and referred the case to Jersey's Division of Civil Rights and recommended Clark officials fire their police chief and sergeant.

But the decision to terminate is up to Clark's mayor and a Republican Township Council that's supported him for decades.

I cannot actually impose discipline.

All I can do is recommend it.

And then that means that we have a system that never hold people accountable for racism unless they are lynching someone from a tree.

Boyer and Platkin want the law reformed.

Meanwhile, the chief and IA sergeant remain on paid administrative leave.

NJ Advance Media broke the story, but says the AG's report took years to complete.

It's certainly later than a lot of people hoped and I don't think has the definitive conclusion instead that people are holding out for.

But this certainly brings into the open a lot of the ugly stuff that was going on behind closed doors.

So it vindicated me a little bit.

And I'm obvious I just want to move on.

I'm glad justice was served and is being served.

Antonio Manata's, the whistleblower, the former Clark Police lieutenant who secretly taped his boss's comments, the department literally locked him out, but kept him on the payroll and compensated him $275,000, the AG's report says.

I went through hell for the past three years and I was forced out of town.

I do believe it vindicates my client because it shows he wasn't making this up.

The crimes going on in Clark on a daily basis, combined with the racism going on on a daily basis, is shocking.

Manata also blew the whistle on Mayor Sal Bonaccorso, allegedly using township staff to work for his business and fraudulently using an engineers credentials to illegally remove underground oil tanks.

But of course, those now facing criminal charges.

His attorney says his client denies each and every allegation contained in the criminal complaint and claims the AG's report besmirch his Mayor Bonaccorso, the town and the police force.

The mayor, however, did apologize last year for his comments.

It was wrong.

I'm embarrassed and ashamed to have spoken that way about a race of people.

The AG was careful to exclude Clark's rank and file cops from criticism.

The Union County Prosecutor's office has run the department since Manata's red flag in 2020, but the report sparked a firestorm of debate here, where some support the mayor for keeping taxes and crime down.

But others want the top cops on paid leave fired.

That's not a punishment.

Being on paid leave is not a punishment.

Leticia Sampson lives in Clark and owns a business here.

She welcomed the report.

At least there is an effort that's being made towards healing the relationship between the police department and the community members.

She's hoping for continued reforms.

I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ.

Spotlight News.