By: centraljersey.com
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP – A Bordentown Township couple has won a state Superior Court case granting them the right to get the police videotapes of the motor vehicle stop of township Deputy Mayor Anita DiMattia. In May She was charged and later pleaded guilty to drunken driving in Mansfield Township.
Stephen and Virginia Monson filed suit in December against Mansfield after being denied an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request for the videotapes on Nov. 27.
State Superior Court Judge Ronald Bookbinder ruled Tuesday that the tapes were public records and privacy was not involved, Mr. Monson said.
The tapes have been in the court’s possession after Mansfield was ordered to surrender them, he said.
The Monsons will receive the tapes as soon as the judge signs the order to release them, which could occur shortly or automatically after five days, if there are no objections, Mr. Monson said.
At the time of her arrest in May, police said Ms. DiMattia had a blood-alcohol level of 0.21 percent, nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08 and identified herself to police as the Bordentown Township deputy mayor three times.
After pleading guilty in November, she was given a two-year driver’s license suspension and a 30-day suspended jail sentence pending completion of community service. She was also fined $506 and had to complete a 48-hour Intoxicated Driver Resource Center program. This was her second drunken driven offense, the first having occurred in Lawrence Township in 2007.
In June Ms. DiMattia stepped down from her position as liaison to the township Police Department but has said she will not resign from her seat on the Township Committee.

