A police sergeant and former North Jersey mayor has been accused of sexually assaulting a juvenile, authorities announced Tuesday.
Andrew LaBruno, 44, was mayor of Dumont from 2020 to 2024 and is currently employed as a sergeant with the Jersey City Police Department. He was arrested and charged Monday with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and child endangerment, the Bergen County prosecutor’s office said.
LaBruno first contacted the victim over a social media app, according to investigators. He engaged the juvenile in conversation and made arrangements to meet at the victim’s home, then traveled to a residence in Englewood and sexually assaulted the victim while they were alone, authorities said.
The county prosecutor got the case on Monday from the Englewood Police Department, but no other details of the investigation were released. It’s unclear the age of the victim or when the alleged assault occurred.
LaBruno remained held Tuesday in Bergen County Jail ahead of a detention hearing. His top charge of first-degree aggravated sexual assault carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
The Jersey City Police Department, where LaBruno has worked in some capacity since 2005, told WNBC it was conducting its own internal affairs investigation into the incident.
LaBruno, a Democrat, first won election as mayor of Dumont in 2019, but he quietly dropped out late in the 2023 mayoral election cycle while running for reelection. His late departure partially enabled his Republican challenger, John Russell, to win the election.
At the time, LaBruno said he was leaving after “much deliberation with my family” and was simply shifting his priorities. In 2025, he ran for New Jersey’s 39th state legislative district but lost a narrow race to the Republican ticket.
Dumont, which lies just across the Hudson River from Yonkers, is considered one of New Jersey’s most competitive political areas.
