Salem County Sheriff Race Update: “Bob Gant Once Agreed He Will Not Seek Re-Employment With The County Of Salem At Any Time In The Future”

Bob Gant

On October 11, when I first wrote about the Salem County Sheriff election, I thought it would be my only post about that race.

I only wrote about it because at The Bob & Steve Show we focus on South Jersey politics and at that point I had yet to write anything about Salem County. I thought writing that a guy running for office and using personal days to campaign would get little attention. That was the week we learned George Norcross was wiretapped, the week we asked if Vincent Squire was breaking the law again and the week we learned about sexual misconduct within Governor Phil Murphy’s administration.

With all that going on, you can imagine why I was shocked my seemingly innocuous first piece on the Salem County Sheriff race caught fire.

Not only did the piece get a lot of attention, Gant supporters took to social media to attack Bob and I. Bob being Bob, and me being the kind of guy I am, we were not going to let anyone bully us. Bob egged me on – he does that well – and I started digging around. It’s amazing how being good at opposition research translates to blogging.

A bunch of digging led us to a second blog post that included an interview with Bunyan Mills, a one-time inmate at Salem County Jail who told his story of being assaulted by Gant while in the jail. Again, we were attacked on social media by Gant’s supporters. Even Gant got into the act. Many of those social media comments have since been deleted.

The one constant in all of this is that Bob and I have repeatedly replied to those comments with invitations for Gant to call in to our radio show, he has not. The call-in number is still 856-696-0092.

So, because Gant’s supporters have attempted to “bully” us, called us liars and went so far as to claim Gant was never disciplined or fired by the County I am writing this third piece on the Salem County Sheriff race and providing the paperwork to go along with Docket No. A-4025-91 T2.

Here are the facts: Gant and Salem County settle the case by Stipulation of Settlement (party's sign on September 4, 1992; Appellate Division Clerk files it on November 24, 1992), resulting in (i) dismissal of the appeal, (ii) Gant's severance is termed a resignation in good standing, (iii) Gant can't seek re-employment with the County; (iv) County agrees to tell anyone that asks only dates of employment, rate of pay and fact the Appellant resigned.

Obviously somewhere along the line someone screwed up and rehired Gant. The above document is clear “Appellant Robert Gant agrees that he will not seek re-employment with the County of Salem at any time in the future; provided, however, that the County of Salem, in its sole discretion, may waive this restriction.”

Some on social media have been saying Gant must be good because the sheriff promoted him. True, Gant has made it to the rank of lieutenant, he can thank Civil Service rules for that. I’m oversimplifying but the rules are basically, take the test, pass the test and when it’s your turn you get the promotion.

This document opens Gant up to another important question voters should be asking. How could a guy who once agreed to never seek re-employment with the County of Salem, and obviously didn’t hold to that agreement, be trusted to keep his word as a political candidate?

PRESS RELEASE: Far Left Has Ceased Any Civility And Has Energized The “Trump Train”

Blogging from a hospital bed has turned out to be a little more difficult than I thought. As I was looking for something to start easing back into it, a Grossman campaign press release landed in the old inbox. Seth Grossman is telling is there are no moderates left in politics. Following is his campaign’s press release on the topic from earlier today:

Far Left Has Ceased Any Civility And Has Energized The “Trump Train”

Grossman: There Are No Moderate Democrats in Washington Today

Somers Point, NJ, October 22, 2018 – Civility and dialogue have reached new lows in Washington today thanks to the Democrat Party professing unrestrained hatred of President Trump and undertaking an obstinate and aggressive campaign to obstruct his progress in any way possible.

“The era when you found moderates on both sides of Congress who could actually work together for common goals, such as when Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich finessed a balanced budget for Democrat President Bill Clinton’s Administration, is gone.  It’s virtually impossible in today’s political climate of the Democrat’s blind rage against the President,” said Seth Grossman, Republican candidate for New Jersey’s 2nd District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

“You have candidates and members of Congress claiming to be moderates, including my Democrat opponent Jeff Van Drew, but it’s clearly not true.  Even if they initially have the best intentions, there is no way that Van Drew or anyone else could stand up to the unrelenting pressures and demands from Congresswoman Pelosi, Senator Schumer and the rest of the far-left ideologues that have taken over the Democrat Party.”

Voters preparing for next month’s midterm elections need look no farther than the Democrats organizing unruly paid demonstrators to disrupt the recent Senate hearings confirming U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as evidence of the deliberate discord, and statements by leading Democrat officials including Pelosi, Schumer, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Senator Cory Booker and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraging hostility against Republicans.

“With the election around the corner, the Democrats are now trying to hide and keep quiet, but it’s too late.  They already have said that they plan to impeach the President and Justice Kavanaugh, and will repeal the President’s tax cuts.  They want open borders to allow unrestricted immigration, and will reinstate a lot of Obama’s business-killing regulations.  The American citizen does not want to go backwards,” Grossman said.

“Pretending to be moderate and avoiding taking defined campaign platform positions will not work.  The voter has woken up, especially the Trump voter who turned out in 2016 and will be turning out again in the midterms.  We have energized the “Trump Train” and its steaming full speed ahead to victory again November 6 to help the President continue to make progress and keep his promises to the nation.” The campaign’s “Trump Train” video says it all.  https://grossmanforcongress.com/fox-news-sean-hannity-new-jersey-matters/

The Grossman campaign is capitalizing upon the renewed voter enthusiasm reminding the residents of NJ’s 2nd District that Seth Grossman has long been a full supporter of President Trump and is one of only a handful of candidates nationwide who has made supporting the President the focal point of his campaign platform. 

Seth Grossman and Jeff Van Drew are facing off in New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District.  The seat, which has been represented by retiring U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo for 24 years, includes the counties of Cape May, Atlantic, Cumberland and Salem and parts of Camden, Gloucester, Burlington and Ocean counties.  Donald Trump won the district by five points in the 2016 election.

Salem County Sheriff’s Race Update; BUNYAN MILLS: “I Was Greeted With Gant’s Nightstick.”

Bob Gant

When I last wrote about the Salem County Sheriff race some supporters of Bob Gant were mad at me. I still don’t understand how people could be mad that I believe that a lieutenant in the Sheriff’s Department who wants to be sheriff might actually go to work. That anger led me to do some digging, even my co-host Bob drove an hour to run down a lead for me. Thanks Bob!

While digging, we found a Facebook post by a guy named Walter Hudson. Granted, the guy doesn’t appear to like cops very much, but Hudson’s post made me dig because “where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Hudson wrote in part:

“Over the years Gant have not been fair to black people. We know how abusive Gant was and still is to black inmates when the jail was in Salem City? We not going to act like Gant didn’t beat the hell out of Bunny Mills. In fact, he was fired, but hired back on the force.”

It got me thinking, who is Bunny Mills? It turns out his name is Bunyan Mills, he no longer lives in New Jersey, he works as a union electrician, coaches youth football and has a kid in college. Even better, I was able to track down a phone number for Mr. Mills and he answered on the third ring. I spent 29 minutes and 26 seconds on the phone with him last night.

Mills is a nice guy who acknowledges he did something wrong when he was very young, it had to do with drugs if you must know. Mills told me that mistake set him on the straight and narrow.

I asked Mills if the rumor that Gant assaulted him in the Salem County Jail was true, the answer was an immediate yes.

I explained to Mills that I understood this might be difficult to talk about and he didn’t have to if he didn’t want to and he quickly agreed to give me details.

Mills explained he was in the holding cell with “a lot of other guys” and there was an elderly man by the last name Parsons, now deceased. Apparently, Parsons was ill and Mills called for a Corrections Officer (CO). Mills said, “The CO brushed me off” and admits, “I had some choice words,” for the CO brushing him off.

Mills explained that as inmates were being transferred to cells or “the pods,” he was one of the last ones to get the paperwork done. He explained the process of how inmates turn around with their backs facing COs to be handcuffed.

Mills went on, “When they came out to get me I knew something wasn’t right because usually it’s one CO, two came to get me. I was escorted by two, one on the left, one on the right and when I entered the room I saw Gant and another CO had their shirts off and I was greeted with Gant’s nightstick and when I came to I was in solitary confinement.”

Gant, and his supporters have, publicly denied this happened. Fortunately, I have a lot of friends who are lawyers, call it an occupational hazard. What that means is I have access to, well friends with access to all kinds of legal records. And that means I can find the truth! Don’t believe me, I was once charged criminally for releasing expunged records that somehow ended up on my doorstep, fortunately I didn’t know the records were expunged and the case was dismissed. My point, the story was true and I told it.

So, if you still doubt Gant beat a handcuffed, defenseless man unconscious with a weapon I do know Salem County imposed major discipline and terminated Gant's employment. I know because he appealed to the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law (Docket No.: CSV5577-91) and lost. I know he lost because Gant appealed to the Appellate Division, N.J. Superior Court (Docket No.: A-4025-91 T2).

I’m assuming the County got tired of the constant appeals and obviously rehired Gant as a Sheriff's Officer and not a Corrections Officer. There must be a reason why Gant only does courthouse security, serves warrants, writs and court process. Is it possible they think he can’t be trusted around handcuffed, defenseless inmates?

I’m going to continue digging into candidate Gant for the memory of my stepfather who was a good, dedicated cop and for all the good cops still on the job because guys like Gant, who are willing to beat defenseless men unconscious, are the ones who create cop haters like Walter Hudson and make life difficult for every good cop out there.

And, as a special bonus to this post, Bunyan Mills has agreed to call in to The Bob & Steve Show at 8:10AM tomorrow and tell his story.