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Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam appears in North Wildwood Municipal Court in casino fight case

Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam and City Councilman Jeffree Fauntleroy are facing assault and harassment charges in Municipal Court stemming from a fight outside the Haven Nightclub at the Golden Nugget.

Atlantic City Mayor, Frank Gilliam walks to court  to face charges on assault from a fight outside the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City.
Atlantic City Mayor, Frank Gilliam walks to court to face charges on assault from a fight outside the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City.Read moreJOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer

NORTH WILDWOOD — Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam drove his own car, a white Honda sedan, and parked across from Municipal Court on a quiet street of a beach town in winter, 37 miles south of his city.

Gilliam sat alone for nearly two hours Tuesday in the second row of a courtroom awaiting his hearing on charges stemming from a fight outside the Golden Nugget casino, as North Wildwood Municipal Court Judge Louis Belasco adjudicated cases involving traffic violations, a domestic dispute, open alcohol in a car, and noise.

Atlantic City Councilman Jeffree Fauntleroy II, also charged in connection with the fight, sat in the back row. The two did not speak to one another, and neither spoke to reporters gathered to wait out the hearing. The case had been moved to North Wildwood, in Cape May County, to avoid any conflict of interest.

But nothing of note transpired in Tuesday’s pretrial status hearing, despite the presence of the three employees of the Haven Nightclub who filed citizen’s complaints charging the two elected officials with assault and harassment.

The prosecutor said he would finish turning over photographs as part of discovery, and the judge said he would seek to schedule another hearing, possibly for a trial, by the end of February.

Gilliam and Fauntleroy had previously entered not-guilty pleas to the disorderly persons offenses. The Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office declined to pursue indictable criminal charges against the officials.

Attorney Jim Leonard, representing Fauntleroy, said, “We’ll have more to talk about next time.”

Vincent Campo, representing Gilliam, made no comment as he left the courtroom.

Gilliam is also under investigation by federal authorities, who executed an early morning raid on his Atlantic City home last Dec. 3, and seized computers and other records.

According to the citizen’s complaints, obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News through an Open Public Records request, Gilliam is accused by Gregory Aulicino, an employee of Haven, of attempting to punch him. “Aulicino stated that Gilliam swung a punch but missed but kept trying to attack him,” the complaint states.

A second complaint, by Joseph Camerota, also says Gilliam swung and missed, and chased him around a car.

The third complaint, by Julie Rodriguez, accuses Gilliam of harassment, and says he yelled and made threats to her.

Rodriguez filed a similar complaint against Fauntleroy. Aulicino’s complaint against Fauntleroy says Fauntleroy punched him several times and threw him to the ground. The incident was captured on security video, released by the state Attorney General’s Office.

Gilliam was headed later Tuesday afternoon to a town hall in Atlantic City organized by the state, which is in the third year of a five-year takeover of the city’s operations.