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Zisa trial continues with opening arguments
opening statements in the trial of suspended Police Chief Charles "Ken" Zisa for official misconduct and insurance fraud depicted diametrically opposing views of his influence over the Police Department and the city.
Judge Joseph Conte, left, and Attorney Patricia Prezioso, who represents Charles 'Ken' Zisa, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Daniel Keitel, and Attorney Francis Meehan, representing Kathleen Tiernan, meet in the judge's chambers on April 2 before open arguments got underway.
The prosecution stated that Zisa abused the power of his job for his own ends, while the defense countered that members of Bergen County's power elite politically conspired to end his career.
PROSECUTION: ZISA'S 'WHIMS'
With jury selection complete, Daniel Keitel, assistant Bergen County prosecutor, set the groundwork on April 3 for his case against the suspended police chief by reviewing the Zisa family's acquisition of power and influence in Hackensack over the past 50 years.
According to Keitel, Zisa used that power inappropriately when he allegedly interfered with two police investigations to shield his ex-girlfriend, Kathleen Tiernan, and members of her family.
"We're a nation of free people. We are not subject to rulers and despots and dictators," Keitel said. "What we're subject to is the law. We're not subject to somebody's whims."
Keitel outlined the state's charges against Zisa, which stem from two incidents. Zisa is charged with abusing his power by allegedly interfering in a 2004 assault and robbery case in which Tiernan's then-teenage sons were suspects, Keitel said. He is also accused of removing a reportedly intoxicated Tiernan from the scene of a February 2008 automobile accident before a sobriety test was administered. Tiernan was driving a car owned and insured by Zisa, who later filed an $11,000 insurance claim for the accident.
Keitel also noted that four police officers scheduled to provide critical testimony in the case against Zisa — Hackensack officers Joseph Al-Ayoubi, Laura Campos and John Hermann and Bergen County Sheriff Sgt. Eric Arosemowicz — allegedly experienced a pattern of retaliation from superior officers that extended to within a few days before testimony was to begin. The officers will elaborate on this pattern when they testify, Keitel said, but the alleged retaliation includes numerous administrative disciplinary charges, criminal charges and pension deductions.
Overall, the prosecution maintained that Zisa not only retaliated against these officers, but also acted without appropriate respect for the law.
"Mr. Zisa didn't do his job by enforcing the law," Keitel said. "He injected himself where he should not have injected himself, into cases where he knew the suspects."
DEFENSE: 'WITCH HUNT'
The mention of these officers led Patricia Prezioso, Zisa's attorney, to call for a mistrial, a step defense attorneys use when, in their judgment, the prosecution has made unsuitable statements.
Prezioso and Francis Meehan, Tiernan's attorney, argued that Keitel's statements about the police witnesses made an unfavorable impression on the jurors, suggesting that Zisa had created problems for the officers that they had made for themselves. The defense also asserted that the prosecution had circumvented a court rule that states that defense attorneys must be notified about new information before it is given to a jury.
"The story that was told to this jury was ridiculous," Prezioso said.
But Judge Joseph Conte ultimately denied the defense's request for a mistrial, stating that Keitel's statements failed to do the kind of irreversible damage that would make a mistrial necessary.
Prezioso proceeded with her opening statement on April 4. She countered Keitel's suggestion that an all-powerful Zisa guided the police force by personal impulse with the idea that his leadership style and prominence made him the target of a politically inspired "witch hunt" designed to take him down.
Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli was the instigator of a conspiracy against Zisa, using the claims of disaffected members of the city police force to build a case that would save his job and advance his own political ambitions, maintained Prezioso.
"I would call this a politically convenient prosecution for Mr. Molinelli," Prezioso said.
Prezioso also asserted that Molinelli's motives were influenced by the heated environment of Bergen County politics, and that Molinelli went after Zisa in order to curry favor with Zisa's longtime political foe, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D – Teaneck), who has also at times been at odds with the prosecutor.
Molinelli, who was appointed by a Democratic governor, was coming to the close of his term and could use the support of Weinberg to get reappointed by Republican Governor Christie, Prezioso said. Weinberg had used senatorial courtesy privileges, which allow state senators to block gubernatorial nominees from their home counties without need to justify their actions, to hold up Molinelli's 2007 reappointment.
Although Prezioso made it clear that she was not accusing Weinberg of being involved with any plan suggested by Molinelli, she noted that the prosecutor was well aware of Weinberg's enmity for Zisa, who had fought Weinberg in a bitter senate campaign in 2005.
Molinelli declined comment on Prezioso's conspiracy claims and stated that he would not comment until the end of the trial.
Weinberg, who was the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor against Christie and Kim Guadagno in 2009 and who has sparred with him over policy issues since his election, called the defense's line of reasoning "pretty laughable."
"Anybody who thinks that currying favor with me will get them a nomination from Governor Christie lives in some kind of fantasy world," Weinberg said.
Prezioso also pointed to Zisa's strict leadership style as a factor in his prosecution. Discontent generated by disciplinary actions and lack of promotions began to be publicly known when Zisa brought up Anthony Ferraioli, the PBA Local 9 union president, on disciplinary charges.
Prezioso noted that William Wilks, a private investigator who works with Patrick Toscano Jr., Ferraioli's attorney, first discovered the details of the two incidents that led to Zisa's criminal charges.
These charges were reinforced by police officers who stand to monetarily gain if Zisa is convicted, Prezioso said, adding that these officers allegedly made deals with the prosecutor's office to avoid the consequences of their own misdeeds.
"When there's money at stake, when there are jobs at stake, people are motivated to lie," Prezioso said. "Let me be blunt — the main witnesses of the prosecutor, Laura Campos, Joseph Al-Ayoubi, John Hermann and Eric Arosemowicz are lying. If Ken Zisa loses, they win."
The opening statement of Francis Meehan, Tiernan's attorney, was comparatively brief.
"Miss Tiernan was dragged into it as a result of the problems the police were having, but she did not commit a crime," Meehan said.
TESTIMONY BEGINS
The opening statements concluded, Keitel called his first witness, Arosemowicz, to the stand on April 4.
The first officer on the scene of Tiernan's 2008 accident, the Bergen County Sheriff's Department sergeant testified that he could smell the odor of alcohol on Tiernan's breath when she said to him "I'm Kenny's girlfriend."
Prezioso has claimed that Tiernan was not intoxicated and swerved to avoid hitting an animal.
After the first Hackensack officer came on the scene, later identified as Al-Ayoubi, Arosemowicz advised him to call a supervisor to the scene because of Tiernan's claims about her relationship with Zisa.
Arosemowicz's testimony was cut short so that Judge Conte could hear arguments without the jury present about whether recent disciplinary actions could be used in court.
Keitel wants to demonstrate that these charges, which include a threatened charge of perjury, were generated by a politically connected sheriff's officer, who was trying to browbeat Arosemowicz before he testified.
Keitel asserts that the Sheriff's Department attempted to make a deal with Arosemowicz to coerce him into early retirement in exchange for not filing perjury charges against Arosemowicz related to his deposition in one of Zisa's civil cases.
Without the jury present, Arosemowicz testified that he was charged in May 2011 with 74 disciplinary infractions. As a result of the charges, he was told that he could receive a seven month demotion, with a 60-day suspension and a 12 month probation period or else a hearing would be held the next day to terminate him.
Arosemowicz admitted under questioning from Prezioso that he did commit the violations. His testimony was scheduled to continue on April 5, but the trial was postponed until April 9 because Prezioso became ill.
The second scheduled witness is Al-Ayoubi, who was made to take a steroid test, a move he asserts was illegal. The results of the test were positive, but both criminal and administrative charges against him were dismissed in 2009.
Keitel has said the drug Al-Ayoubi tested positive for is an over-the counter supplement that is legal, and that he was an example of someone who Zisa retaliated against.
Al-Ayoubi is one of the city police officers who have filed civil lawsuits against Zisa.
Prezioso has previously argued that the dismissal of Al-Ayoubi's charges were unjustifiable and that the move came soon after the announcement that Al-Ayoubi would testify against her client. She asserts the dismissal is part of a deal with the prosecutor's office.