NEPTUNE, N.J. -- A lawyer hired to prepare and prosecute charges against four township sewerage authority commissioners will be replaced because he represents clients in the adult entertainment industry. Eric Bernstein, a labor lawyer with a practice in Warren Township, was hired by the Township Committee on March 22. He was to have been paid a maximum of $15,000 for his work on the case, which involves claims that the commissioners violated policy by hiring the husband of a township committeewoman as the authority's executive director.

Township officials said Monday that they made the change after learning about Bernstein's clients and that he serves as co-moderator of an Internet site that offers guidance to operators of pornographic Web sites. They hope to hire a new attorney at their April 12 meeting.

"We didn't feel that the porn business that he's associated with has anything to do with what we were hiring him for, but by the same token, we felt it would be cleaner and better if we hired an attorney that didn't have that kind of background," Mayor Tom Catley told the Asbury Park Press. "We want this to stay focused on the main point. We don't want to get off on other tangents."