Man who sent racial slurs to Black council member gets six months in prison

1 year ago 16

A New Jersey man received a six-month prison sentence for sending racist slurs to an Old Bridge Township councilwoman.

According to NJ.com, prosecutors said Friday that Adam Valvo, 54, will serve time in the Middlesex County Jail and will then be on probation for two years.

Valvo sent a racially offensive email to Edina Brown, a Black councilwoman, on March 7, 2021. He was arrested 20 days later on two counts of bias intimidation and one act of harassment.

Gurbir Grewal, the state’s attorney general at the time, denounced the Valvo email after charges were filed.

“We have zero tolerance for acts of bias and hate in the Garden State,” Grewal said in 2021, NJ Advance Media reported. “Hate has no home in New Jersey.”

On March 24, Valvo received his sentence after entering a guilty plea to bias intimidation.

While Brown told NJ Advance Media in 2021 that she was unsure who sent the email, a copy revealed it was sent to her government email address from someone named John Smith.

The email used the N-word frequently, was filled with profanity and included other racial remarks about Black people and residents of Newark, Trenton and Paterson, all New Jersey hubs. The sender claimed he had no idea how Brown won in a “Republican township” and vowed to do “everything in my power to get your (two expletives) out of here.”

Brown — who didn’t run for reelection in 2021 — said she shared the email with Mayor Owen Henry and police in Old Bridge. An investigation led to Valvo, according to published reports.

A 2021 U.S. Census estimate indicates that 67,000 people live in the township, with 7 percent being Black. White people make up roughly 67 percent of the population, while Hispanics and Asians account for about 15 percent each.

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