Testimony: Rockaway Twp. cop tried to influence prosecution

Rockaway Township’s former municipal prosecutor testified Tuesday that he was “infuriated” and felt compromised when Officer Clifton “Clif” Gauthier tried to get his attention while he was reviewing details of the arrest of Gauthier’s uncle for drunken driving.

Testifying at a pre-trial hearing in Superior Court, Morristown, ex-Municipal Prosecutor Denis Driscoll nonetheless conceded that Gauthier never mentioned his uncle’s name or case, but said he believed Gauthier appeared in a municipal court conference room on Jan. 25, 2012 to speak to him about a DWI charge leveled against his uncle, Edward Garneau.

Driscoll said that he noticed Gauthier lurking in the conference room doorway and Rockaway Township Officer Michael Hatzimihalis, who had arrested Garneau, mentioned that Gauthier was Garneau’s nephew. Driscoll testified that he was angered, and approached Gauthier with “gritted teeth.” Garneau was charged with DWI in Rockaway Township on Nov. 23, 2011, and his case came up in court on Jan. 25, 2012.

“I went up to Mr. Gauthier and I said ‘You should know better than this.’ I was absolutely infuriated,” Driscoll testified.

He said he felt that a conflict had arisen and he didn’t want to prosecute a police officer’s relative so he notified the municipal court judge and asked to be recused. The Garneau case was transferred out of Rockaway Township as a result.

But Driscoll acknowledged under questioning by defense lawyer Scott Krasny that Gauthier never said a word, and didn’t have a chance to, because he admonished him. He also admitted that when he later spoke to the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office about the Jan. 25, 2012 event, he didn’t mention being infuriated or gritting his teeth and in fact had admitted to a prosecutor’s office detective that he didn’t know why Gauthier showed up in the conference room.

“He never said a word to you?” Krasny asked Driscoll in court Tuesday. “No, he never said a word,” Driscoll said.

Though Driscoll was never asked to give special treatment to Gauthier’s uncle, Driscoll said Tuesday that his perception of Gauthier trying to intervene was “very disturbing.”

“To try to approach me...it’s very unusual. It’s quite disturbing. It’s putting me in a very difficult position,” Driscoll testified.

Gauthier, 35, of Sparta, is criminally charged with official misconduct and witness tampering in connection with actions he allegedly took on Feb. 9, 2012, to get a DWI ticket dismissed against a second relative, cousin Sean Costigan.

But before a potential trial occurs on the official misconduct case, Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Sahil Kabse wants a ruling from Judge Robert Gilson that would permit him to introduce at trial evidence of an uncharged, “prior bad act” committed by Gauthier.

In Gauthier’s case, the prior “bad act” -- which would be used at trial to show intent and absence of mistake -- is that he tried to interfere with Garneau’s DWI arrest just a few weeks before a second relative, Costigan, was in court on a drunken driving charge.

Driscoll, who now is in private practice, is a witness in both the uncharged and charged cases against Gauthier. Without deciding whether Gauthier tried to influence the Garneau case, the judge has to decide whether the information is sufficiently “reliable” to be told to a jury if the official misconduct case involving Costigan goes to trial.

Much of the information presented to the judge Tuesday was circumstantial. Kabse played recordings of three calls that Gauthier placed to police headquarters on Nov. 23, 2011, the evening his uncle was at headquarters. In one call, he asked to be connected to the booking room; in another, he asked a dispatcher to call him on his cell phone; his third call was transferred to an unspecified destination.

In the criminal case, Gauthier is accused of calling State Trooper Nagib Saad on Feb. 9, 2012, and telling him he had discussed the matter with the Rockaway Township municipal prosecutor and Saad didn’t have to report to court on the Costigan DWI case. Gauthier was indicted for this incident, accused of using his police position to gain a benefit for himself or another.

Kabse, the assistant prosecutor, finished his motion to have the “prior bad act” admitted at trial. Krasny said he wants to call as witnesses an employee of Rockaway Township and Garneau’s defense lawyer, Vincent Nuzzi. A date for the continued hearing has yet to be set but the judge said he wants the motion completed by April 1.

Gauthier, a Marine Corps veteran who served from 1999 to 2003, including in Operation Iraqi Freedom, has rejected a plea offer of five full years in state prison. By law, a public official who is charged with official misconduct has to serve the full term unless the state Attorney General's Office approves an alternate plea offer. If convicted, he also would have to forfeit his job and future public employment in the state.

Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@njpressmedia.com.