Hoboken 1st Ward Councilman Mike DeFusco’s sister is fundraising a reward for anyone that is able to provide information about a flyer that said “Don’t let TERRORISM take over our town!” above a picture of Councilman-at-Large Ravi Bhalla.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“We are raising money to help clear Michael’s name and bring the criminals responsible to justice,” Nicole DeFusco, Mike’s sister, wrote in a lengthy GoFundMe description.
“We are offering a reward for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons behind this attack on both Michael and Ravi’s good names. We all deserve to know the truth about to who was behind the fliers: our democracy depends on it.”
She has set a goal of $15,000 and has already raised $6,405 as of 11:00 a.m. this morning.
In the late evening hours of Friday, November 3rd, days before this past Tuesday’s long awaited mayoral contest in Hoboken, the “terrorism” flyer was distributed on car windshields, receiving heavy media coverage from across the world on Saturday.
All four major mayoral candidates, including DeFusco, denounced the flyer and said it was not reflective of Hoboken’s values. While the flyer said it was paid for by DeFusco, he adamantly denied that he had anything to do with the vile campaign literature.
Bhalla ended up besting DeFusco by 484 votes, 5,041 to 4,557, according to final tallies from the Hudson County Clerk’s Office.
As of this writing, none of the mayoral campaigns have taken responsibility for the flyer.
However, as Hudson County View first reported, the Hoboken Police Department has released a short video and photos of one of two men suspected of distributing the flyers.
The Hoboken Police Department has not provided any further updates on the case as of Saturday morning.