Sheriff recorded making racial remarks resigns

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey sheriff has resigned after being heard in a recording making disparaging comments about blacks and alleging the state’s first Sikh attorney general got his job only because of “the turban.”

A spokesman for Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino announced the resignation Friday along with the resignations of four undersheriffs.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and others had called for Saudino to step down Thursday when the recording was published by WNYC.

On Friday, activists said they would hold a rally and march at the county courthouse and jail to demand that Saudino step down.

The comments were recorded in January after Murphy’s inauguration.

Saudino apologized for the comments Thursday evening but at the time didn’t say he would resign.