Last night Delran held a work session meeting. At the meeting Republican council candidate Anthony Ogozalek mentioned that the Councilman “Gary Catrambone allegations came out” and asked council if they were going to investigate. To refresh your memory, rumors in Delran are that Catrambone forged Schwartz’s signature on a nominating petition.

The question can be heard at about the 1:26 mark in the following YouTube video.

Seeing that video made me go back to the roughly one hour of audio that was dumped in my lap. While I do find it somewhat fascinating that there are at least two (maybe more) current or former members of Delran’s governing body with digital recorders in their pockets, I believe the following audio clip could help with any investigation.

In the clip, former Councilman Mike Schwartz says, “Lona said something in 2016…he never told me he did it and I never pushed the issue,” after being asked, “When did you know that he did it for you?” I’m assuming “Lona” is former councilwoman Lona Pangia and “he” is Catrambone.

Also, heard on the clip is Schwartz saying, “It is what it is, if he did something wrong, he did something wrong.”

Where I come from, “It is what it is” usually means the “it” happened. They are the exact same words former Assemblyman Arthur Barclay used after his arrest for domestic violence became public.

Obviously, folks in Delran are paying attention because we’ve received several emails with a link to the following YouTube video. About half way through the video Mayor Ken Paris puts what one can assume are the possibly forged documents in front of Catrambone and asks a series of questions.

That video was posted in April of this year. That means folks in Delran have been talking about a possibly forged document for at least six months. One would think there would be some sort of investigation by now. Until an actual investigation is launched, I’ll keep trying to get to the bottom of this situation. I’m working on getting phone numbers for all the players and will try to get comment from all of them in the coming days.

Were nominating petitions in Delran forged? Many are wondering.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m a lucky guy or if people just like to give me other peoples dirt, like that time the Easter Bunny dropped off documents at my house.

Well, my lucky streak has continued because a source has provided me with documents and audio recordings that call into question whether or not a candidate’s signature was forged on a petition.

It appears the issue here is that former Delran Councilman Mike Schwartz was running for re-election in 2014. Unfortunately, at the time petitions were due to be placed on the primary election ballot Schwartz fell ill, ended up in the hospital and for a time slipped into a coma.

The rumors circulating in Delran are that Council President Gary Catrambone, who also happens to be Chairman of the Delran Democratic Party, went to the hospital to have Mike Schwartz sign petitions and was turned away by Schwartz’s family. The rumors in town are that Catrambone then forged Schwartz’s signature on the petition. Catrambone is also the Notary on the allegedly forged documents.

This is a developing story, so to be clear, I am not alleging anything, just laying out the information as I figure it out. Something that is clear is after listening to about an hour of audio is that folks are concerned a document may have been forged. In the following 2 minutes and 18 seconds of audio one guy can be heard telling the other that he was told that “Gary signed the paper” and that he was told not to follow it “because Mike could get in a lot of trouble.”

And in this clip of the audio files I have received a man can be heard saying someone else said, “I know what you did with Mike Schwartz’s petition.”

Additionally, as you will see below, there are signatures of Mike Schwarts on the 2010 and 2014 “Oath of Allegiance” and “Certificate of Acceptance.” I am not a handwriting expert, but the signatures do appear to be different Also, based on the documents I have received, in 2010 Schwartz signed the signature sheet as a voter and in 2014, the year of the alleged forgery, he did not sign the signature sheet. After I confirm there are no missing sheets I will redact addresses and provide the signature sheets with a follow-up blog post.