By John Petrick
North Jersey Media Group
PATERSON, NJ — Bordering suburban police unfairly targeting Paterson-bound drivers for various violations was called a “pervasive problem” by Paterson Councilman-at-large Ken Morris on Wednesday in the trial of Councilwoman Vera Ames-Garnes, charged with wrongly interfering when a Prospect Park police officer stopped a motorist in her city.
“Residents felt they had been unfairly targeted by neighboring towns,” Morris testified before Hawthorne Municipal Judge John Meola. “My constituents have approached me personally about this issue and all nine council members,” he said.
Morris’ testimony as a defense witness came over the strenuous objection of Passaic County Senior Assistant Prosecutor Paul De Groot, who argued that any other incidents of non-city police stopping motorists in Paterson are irrelevant to the case.
However, lead defense lawyers Miles Feinstein of Clifton and Frank Sciro of Paterson argued that Ames-Garnes’ actions must be viewed within historical context and not as an isolated incident. That context, they argued, is that there were many incidents of Prospect Park police profiling Paterson-bound motorists, so much so that it became the subject of many Paterson City Council meetings in the early 2000s. A former Prospect Park municipal prosecutor, Harley Breite, previously testified that he, too, saw such a pattern and it was enough to prompt him to resign in 2001.
Meola spent much of the day wrestling with the relevance issue, though he appeared to lean toward the prosecution’s position that Breite’s previous testimony was not supported by hard facts or statistics and should not factor into his decision. He also agreed, for the most part, with the state that whatever alleged pattern there may have been of profiling Paterson motorists was not supported by anything more than either anecdotal information or opinion.
Moreover, the judge said, even if there were other incidents of non-city police following motorists into Paterson, they are irrelevant to this case. They have nothing to do, Meola said, with Ames-Garnes trying to prevent Prospect Park Police Officer Brian Koppenal from issuing a summons for a broken taillight to a motorist in her ward on Nov. 18, 2007. “This is not a racial profiling case,” he said.
Nonetheless, Meola noted that he wanted to wait until today, when the trial resumes, to decide whether at least some portions of Morris’ and other defense witnesses’ testimony about the alleged pattern of profiling might be admissible because it might go to Ames-Garnes’ state of mind. As for Breite’s previous testimony, which the state wants Meola to strike altogether, he said only, “I’m giving it the weight I consider relevant.”
Ames-Garnes, who won reelection in 2008, doesn’t face the voters again until 2012 but the prosecution has said it will ask Meola to remove her from office if he finds her guilty.
She is charged with obstructing the administration of the law, obstructing highways and other passages and disorderly conduct. A riot charge, the only indictable offense she faced, was found unsupported by a state grand jury and was dropped. She could also face fines.
The trial, which began in June, has been grinding along piecemeal, rather than on consecutive days, and has often been delayed by family deaths, illnesses, scheduling conflicts and pre-trial bickering. The case is being heard in Hawthorne to avoid any conflict of interest, given that all parties are public servants of their respective communities.
Meola vowed to get the case finished in short order. He concluded the day’s proceedings by quipping from the bench: “I just want to let you guys know I only have another two years left here.”
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