The town's chief of police - who also testified at Donio's simple-assault trial - has himself been charged with simple assault after a shouting and finger-pointing tussle with Donio's brother Jim, the night of the conviction.
Meanwhile, the arts center has found a new home on Bellevue Avenue - funded in part by the Hammonton News, the rival weekly to Donio's Hammonton Gazette.
It's a newspaper war. It's a thug-fest. It's a byzantine world of small-town politics. It's an epic clash of old Hammonton and new. It's a battle for control of the town's future. It's . . .
"At this time, I'm going to decline comment," Gabe Donio, publisher of the tabloid-sized Hammonton Gazette, says in a brief phone conversation.
Hey, wait a second, Gabe, isn't this the kind of answer that prompted you to, according to the trial judge, "put pressure on" the neck of 77-year-old Anthony Mortelliti, leader of the seniors?
"At this time, I'm going to decline comment," he repeats.
OK. Fair enough. Let's go to the newspapers.
In the 144-year-old News (50 cents, circulation 4,000, owned by corporate journalism giant Gannett Co.) last week, the top story was, naturally, the new arts center and the paper's $5,000 helping hand.
In the seven-year-old Gazette (35 cents, circulation a closely guarded secret, founded by Donio) last week, the front page featured seven stories, including, naturally, an item on Donio's appeal and a judge's stay of his one-year probationary sentence.
At trial, Donio gave this explanation of his actions against Mortelliti, according to newspaper reports: "Part of my job as an investigative reporter is to be aggressive, especially when it comes to people trying to obscure the truth."
(Memo to Donio: Usually it's the reporters who tend to be throttled by their sources, not the other way around.)
