LaPlaca, Carty charged with petition fraud

Lumberton Township Committeewoman Gina LaPlaca and her husband, Democratic operative Jason Carty, have been criminally charged after prosecutors alleged that fraudulent signatures were submitted on the nominating petition for LaPlaca’s unsuccessful re-election campaign.

An investigation by the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office found that multiple people whose names and purported signatures appeared on LaPlaca’s petition said they had neither signed it nor authorized anyone to sign on their behalf.

Without the allegedly fraudulent signatures, LaPlaca would not have had enough valid signatures to qualify for the June Democratic primary ballot, prosecutors said.

LaPlaca, 47, signed an affidavit accompanying the petition swearing that she had “personally circulated the petition” and that it had been signed by each voter in their own handwriting.

But investigators determined that Carty, 49, had also collected signatures for his wife’s petition.

LaPlaca was charged by summons with fourth-degree making a false statement under oath, third-degree knowingly filing a false petition, two counts of third-degree tampering with public records or information, and fourth-degree falsifying or tampering with records.

Carty was charged with third-degree knowingly filing a false petition, two counts of third-degree tampering with public records or information, and fourth-degree falsifying or tampering with records.

The charges represent another round of legal trouble for LaPlaca and Carty, whose turbulent year has played out publicly during LaPlaca’s unsuccessful bid for another term on the Lumberton Township Committee.

LaPlaca pleaded guilty earlier this year to child endangerment stemming from a 2025 drunk-driving incident in which her young son was in the car.  She subsequently lost the June 2 Democratic primary for re-election to the township committee.

Carty, a member of the Rancocas Valley Regional High School Board of Education and longtime Democratic operative, was separately charged in May with strangulation and harassment following a domestic incident involving LaPlaca. LaPlaca later recanted her allegation that Carty had attempted to strangle her.

The petition involved in the new criminal case had been submitted to the Lumberton municipal clerk as part of LaPlaca’s effort to qualify for the Democratic primary ballot.

The Prosecutor’s Office alleges that some of the signatures that allowed her to meet the minimum petition requirement were fraudulent.

LaPlaca and Carty are scheduled to make their first appearances in Superior Court in Mount Holly on September 21, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.