By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
A Middletown Township Committee candidate in this year’s election will resign after being charged with possession of crack cocaine in a Holmdel motel last weekend, the town’s Democrat committee chairman said.
A replacement on the Democrat ticket to take Alex DeSevo‘s slot could be named as soon as Monday night, Joe Caliendo told redbankgreen.
DeSevo, 43, was charged with possession of crack and drug paraphernalia on June 18 after he rented two rooms at the Holmdel Motor Inn and was accused of chasing one of two women with him at the motel, according to the Asbury Park Press.
“Alex is going to resign,” Caliendo said. “Actually, he was going to resign before this took place. I don’t know what his problems were.”
The Press reported that DeSevo was accused by an “irate” 24-year-old Middletown woman who claimed he chased her from the Holmdel motel. He was found by police in a room with a 21-year-old Keansburg woman.
Sergeant Eric Hoffman, of Holmdel police, said he did not know what DeSevo was doing with the two women or what his relationship to them was.
The arrest effectively dismantled any chance of DeSevo moving forward in township politics, Caliendo said.
DeSevo, who is a criminal defense attorney, also ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic slot in 2003. He returned to politics earlier this year alongside candidate Jim Grenafege in hopes of elbowing onto the Republican-controlled committee.
“This is really not a political thing, this is his life,” Caliendo said. “There’s a lot of people that are very upset because he’s a hard worker, a good kid and he made a mistake.”
Caliendo said the Democrat committee will meet tonight to possibly name a replacement for DeSevo.
