by Kathy Barrett Carter
N.J. Online/Star-Ledger
Two white state troopers who opened fire on a van carrying four minority men on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1998 admitted yesterday that they had engaged in a pattern of racial profiling, and they revealed that dozens of fellow troopers coached them to lie to investigators on the night of the shooting.
The admissions by ex-troopers James Kenna and John Hogan came as they pleaded guilty yesterday in Superior Court in Mercer County to charges of official misconduct and making false statements in connection with the incident, which sparked a national debate over the practice of targeting minorities by police.
The guilty pleas end what is believed to be the most comprehensive and costly criminal investigation in New Jersey history, and they spare Kenna and Hogan from any jail time. The two former troopers, who once were facing the possibility of more than 20 years in prison, will not even be placed on probation under the deal worked out with prosecutors. Each was forced to forfeit his job and was fined $280.
Judge Charles Delehy said the two men acted out of “misguided zeal and misguided loyalty born of an indoctrination into an approach to law enforcement that can generally be described as Machiavellian -- the end justifies the means.”
In a hushed courtroom filled beyond capacity, Hogan read from a prepared statement, disclosing how approximately 75 troopers talked to him the same night he and his partner had riddled a van with 11 shots, seriously wounding three of the young, unarmed men inside.
“They told me what to say and how to say it,” said Hogan. “They told me we needed to justify why Jimmy shot. There was a concerted effort to protect my partner.”
As a result of this coaching, Hogan made false statements to investigators, he said. Without going into detail, Hogan said the misstatements he made to investigators pertained to the speed at which the van was traveling when he pulled it over, and the manner in which it backed up afterward.
Similarly, about 40 troopers talked to Kenna, advising him what to say, Kenna said in court yesterday. Kenna, the son of a State Police captain, said on the night of the shooting in Mercer County, near Interchange 7A, other troopers showed him the van to make sure his story lined up with the physical evidence.
“I began to put together the pieces as to what happened from what others told me at the scene, the hospital and at Cranbury Station. For example, at the scene I was in contact with at least 40 people. Some of the people gave me advice as to what to say to investigators,” said Kenna. “My memory of what happened was contaminated with facts I should not have known or could not have known.”
Under questioning from Assistant Burlington County Prosecutor James Gerrow, the special prosecutor assigned to the case by the state Attorney General’s Office, the two troopers admitted they “exaggerated and embellished” the events of that night, April 23, 1998, to justify the shooting and to impede the investigation.
The two also admitted they routinely targeted minority motorists for illegal car searches in hopes of finding drugs. Hogan said troopers often engaged in “rip and strip” -- dismantling car doors in search of drugs -- primarily with minorities.
Hogan said that covering up racial profiling was commonplace and condoned. “No one at the station, including supervisors, seemed to be concerned when a minority arrestee was brought to the station after the radio call had identified that driver as white,” Hogan said. “From the time when I first came to the Turnpike I was aware this was occurring. It was so common I just assumed it was how it was done.”
For the troopers, who had long denied wrongdoing, the admissions were a dramatic turnaround.
Previously, Hogan and Kenna said they believed the van driver was trying to run them over and that they fired their weapons in fear for their lives.
Van passengers Jermaine Grant, Danny Reyes and Rayshawn Brown were wounded; driver Keshon Moore was not.
Hogan and Kenna were both charged with aggravated assault. Kenna also faced a charge of attempted murder. Hogan and Kenna were also accused of falsifying records to cover up their ongoing practice of racial profiling.
The shooting led to a full-blown investigation, not just into the incident but into long-simmering allegations that State Police routinely stopped minority motorists, particularly on the Turnpike. That probe later resulted in the state admitting racial profiling in New Jersey was “real, not imagined.” As a result, the U.S. Justice Department brought a civil rights lawsuit against the state. It was settled when the state agreed to a long list of reforms with federal supervision.
Eleven months ago, the state agreed to pay $12.95 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the four van passengers, the largest civil settlement in New Jersey history.
Gerrow said yesterday that Kenna, who had been involved in a shooting a month earlier, should not have been on the road without undergoing counseling.
“An organization failure on the part of New Jersey State Police led to Jim Kenna being on the road that night and overreacting, causing his partner to overreact as well,” said Gerrow.
Outside the courtroom, the two troopers offered sympathy to the victims.
“I’d like to express to the family of Mr. Reyes, Mr. Grant and Mr. Moore,” Kenna said. “I’ve been thinking about you ever since this occurred. . . . I hope you will able to go on with your lives and are able to understand what happened.”
Hugging his sister, Hogan cried after the sentencing and said, “I really, really send my heart out to the three injured men in that van.”
Jack Arseneault, the Chatham attorney representing Kenna, said Kenna and Hogan were merely carrying out policies and procedures that were established by others at the top.
“I blame the institution, the superintendents, the attorneys general,” said Arseneault.
Since the shooting, Kenna had been in a “living hell,” the lawyer added said.
The Rev. Reginald Jackson, executive director of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey and a prominent early critic of racial profiling, said: “What happened today was like a hit-and-run. This administration, on its last day, comes in and basically says Kenna and Hogan are not at fault after 16 months and a million dollars.”
David Ironman, the attorney for Reyes, the most seriously injured of the men in the van, said the four were disappointed with the outcome of the case.
“The only positive is that at least the troopers admitted there was no reason to pull the kids over, that they weren’t speeding and that they lied to everybody about how the incident took place.
“It would be reasonable for people to believe that if they lied about why they pulled people over and lied about how the incident took place, that there was no justification for shooting these kids and that’s why they had to lie,” said Ironman.
Regina Waynes Joseph, president of the Garden State Bar Association, a group of black lawyers, said her organization was outraged.
“That the judge characterized Kenna and Hogan as victims in this debacle, rather than the four students who were shot at 11 times for no reason at all, I believe tells the whole story about race in this country,” said Joseph. “Essentially the message this sends is that the life of a child of color is worth $280. We cannot conceive that the attorney general would cut a deal such as this.
Defending the plead deal, Gerrow said: “Our responsibility was to do justice and to do the right thing. I really believe this was right thing.”