Pone: Party sticking with Yaede despite charge

HAMILTON >> The GOP is still down with Kelly Yaede.

Hamilton Township Republican Committee chairman Dennis Pone said the party continues to stand with the allegedly naughty-by-nature township mayor after she was charged with having a hand in the release of her political foe’s expunged criminal records.

Pone dismissed any chance the township GOP replaces Yaede as their candidate to square off against Jeff Martin in the general election.

“Kelly and Dan are charged with a disorderly [persons offense] punishable by a $200 fine. The equivalent of a traffic ticket!” Pone texted The Trentonian on Wednesday. “Big difference, if it is even true.”

Pone was responding to accusations of disparate treatment of Yaede’s legal troubles and former Mayor John Bencivengo, who was hit with, and later convicted of, serious federal charges in 2012.

Seven years later, Yaede finds herself charged with a disorderly persons offense for her role in disclosing GOP challenger David Henderson’s expunged criminal records.

The mayor’s campaign manager Dan Scharfernberger, who lists himself on LinkedIn as political director for Tom Kean for Congress, was also charged.

Prosecutors say Yaede and her campaign manager operated and controlled the Hamilton Spotlight blog that published the expunged records recounting Henderson’s arrest in 2001 on charges of sexual assault and contempt.

Henderson, who lost to Yaede in a bitter primary, provided proof to this newspaper that the charges were dropped and expunged from his record.

Residents resurrected Pone’s past calls while he was a councilman for the corrupted Johnny B to step down as mayor after he was indicted for accepting bribes.

Pone and Yaede, who was also a councilwoman at the time, had initially supported Bencivengo taking a leave of absence after the feds charged him with extortion.

After Johnny B was indicted, Pone and Yaede agreed he should resign.

“My hunch is he won’t step down,’ Pone said in June 2012, according to Trentonian archives. “But I just think when it gets to this point … especially the sneaky stuff … you sit down in meetings with prospective developers and redevelopers and cutting ribbons. … I feel like if I had a store, I’m not sure I would want him standing next to me with big scissors. It’s not good anymore for the town. I don’t think people will look at him the same way anymore, even if he is acquitted.”

Now that it’s Yaede who finds herself allegedly on the other side of the law, Pone doubled down his support for the embattled incumbent mayor.

“I’m not so sure both were/ are not political hit jobs,” Pone said of the cases against Johnny B and Yaede. “The time and normally low priority are suspect. I always thought John got ‘railroaded,’ but the indictment was for a serious crime that he ultimately went to jail for. So no, I am not asking for Kelly to step down.

“She is a terrific mayor and a great representative as a lifelong Hamiltonian to the residents and businesses and cares deeply about the future of Hamilton. Constitutionally, Kelly and Dan are on solid footing. I believe the majority of my committee shares my feelings. I have talked with several who do and will talk with more as time goes on.”