Cumberland County freeholder calls for colleague’s resignation after nude photos hit the web

Update: The News of Cumberland County reports Magazzu has resigned. The paper published the resignation letter online, in which the now-former freeholder writes of the woman to whom he sent photos of himself:

“I did not know that she was working with an avowed political enemy to distribute these pictures. I have retained counsel to determine what laws may have been broken by the unauthorized distribution of those pictures. No government services or equipment were used by me when taking the pictures or transmitting them to the woman in question.”

Original report: Cumberland County, N.J.,  Freeholder Director William Whelan is asking for the resignation of his colleague, Freeholder Louis N. Magazzu, after nude photos of Magazzu popped up on the web.

The story goes back a month, to when Millville resident Carl B. Johnson posted photos of a nude Magazzu to a watchdog website Johnson runs. Magazzu acknowledged taking the photos with a cell phone and forwarding them to a woman he’s been flirting with. Now he is calling for the photos to be removed from the website while Whelan wants him to resign.

The Vineland Daily Journal has the full, complicated story, which it’s been watching unfold since Johnson first approached the paper with the photos last month.

Magazzu recently stepped down as the chairman of the county’s Democratic Party, and is going through a divorce.