Politi family reflects on shocking verdict

Still reeling after Vanessa Brown was convicted of drunk driving last month, but acquitted of felony charges, the wife of the man Brown struck and killed with her car nearly four years ago is finding that justice and closure can be elusive commodities.

Following years of delays and a six-week-long trial ending on March 24 in Morristown Superior Court, Brown, 35, of Parsippany, was found not guilty of both aggravated manslaughter and vehicular homicide in the May 5, 2012, death of Ralph Politi Jr., 49. Brown struck him with her Toyota Camry as he stood outside his pickup truck on Ridgedale Avenue in East Hanover.

His widow, Rosemarie Politi, and her daughters are hoping a new bill introduced this week in the New Jersey State Legislature by Assemblyman John McKeon may provide some small comfort and help the families of similar victims in the future.

"To go through what we went through four years ago, and then to go through the trial and relive the whole thing all over again, for this outcome, it just wasn’t what I expected at all," Politi told the Daily Record after speaking with McKeon on Tuesday. "We’re trying to get back to normal, but it's not easy because it never goes away."

READ LETTER FROM FAMILY:
Struggling to accept what cannot be changed 

​The death of Ralph Politi, a well-known township resident, business owner, school-board member and local volunteer, shocked the community, as did the acquittal.

"I thought that when she was convicted, we could put this to rest a little bit," Rosemarie Politi said. "But now that she is acquitted, there’s no closure."

Brown, who had been in the Morris County Correctional Facility since her arrest, was released following the verdict, but was found guilty on March 28 in of driving while intoxicated, a motor vehicle offense.

Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent Ahto, who presided over Brown's trial, was scheduled on April 4 to sentence Brown on the motor-vehicle charges, but postponed sentencing until May 2 after her attorney, Edward Bilinkas, said his client had entered an out-of-state substance-abuse facility.

"The judge turning around and charging her with a DUI and reckless and careless driving, he validated that the jury got it wrong," Politi said.

According to trial testimony, Brown's blood-alcohol content measured .133 percent when it was tested 2 1/2 hours after the crash. The legal limit in New Jersey is 0.08 percent. But a BAC over the legal limit does not automatically equate to recklessness if a fatal crash occurs.

Aggravated manslaughter carries a punishment upon conviction of up to 30 years in jail, while vehicular homicide carries a punishment of 10 years behind bars.

"Basically, I think the justice system failed us," Rosemarie Politi said. "I feel the prosecution did a good job, I really do. I place blame more on the jury. Either they got it wrong, or didn’t understand the law correctly, or they bought into Bilinkas' nonsense that it was a conspiracy."

During the trial, Bilinkas criticized East Hanover Police Sgt. John "Jack" Ambrose, a friend of the victim who was the only officer responding to the crash who said he smelled alcohol on Brown, that her speech was slurred, her balance off and her eyes bloodshot. Bilinkas had argued that Ambrose exaggerated signs of intoxication in Brown so he could quote probable cause to an assistant prosecutor and get permission for Brown's blood to be tested at Morristown Medical Center.

"I think it was absurd that he got to stand up there and blame law enforcement for a conspiracy," Politi said. "Jack Ambrose is one of the straightest guys you would ever want to meet. He never even saw Ralph at the scene. He got there and Ralph was gone already in the ambulance. As far as I’m concerned, Jack Ambrose did his job. But Jack Ambrose was not Ralph's best friend. Jack Ambrose didn't step a foot into my house until 2012. Ralph lived in East Hanover all his life, and Jack Ambrose is a cop there for 25-plus years. It’s a small town. How do you not know someone from your own town?"

The weeks in court took a toll on the Politi family. Her 21-year-old twin daughters were studying abroad in Greece during the trial as students enrolled in Loyola University Maryland, but flew home after the verdict to be with their mother.

"They were 17, juniors in high school when their father died," she said.

It did not escape their attention that while the high-profile trial was unfolding in Morristown, a miniseries about another headline-grabbing trial was airing on television.

"I actually did watch the O.J. trial series," Politi said. "My verdict was read and the (miniseries) finale was the following week. I compared myself and could imagine how they felt. I’ve never been involved in anything like this, I didn’t know the law and what they could charge her with. I put my faith and trust in the prosecutor. It’s not like I had my own attorney. The state was prosecuting her and we were told what they were doing. The state was taking care of it on behalf of Ralph."

But rather than speculate whether the prosecutors overreached in asking for aggravated manslaughter, Politi said she hoped the law could be changed to make it easier to put drunk drivers who injure and kill people behind bars.

"John McKeon actually reached out to me," Politi said. "He told me they were working on a bill right now to stiffen the laws."

Thursday, McKeon's office announced he was introducing a bill in the legislature to create a new crime of negligent vehicular homicide, a third-degree offense with a maximum penalty of three to five years in prison with no presumption of nonimprisonment for first-time offenders.

"I had a nice talk with her," McKeon said. "I've followed what's been going on, and it made me take a look at the law because it seemed, from what I knew of the matter, to be an inequitable result. So I took a look at the law to see what we might do to make certain that a future circumstance like this would at least result in some level of punishment commensurate with what happened."

Politi said going forward, she would work with the Ralph Politi Jr. Memorial Foundation to support McKeon's efforts and to continue to raise funds for scholarships and help fund the many charitable causes her husband supported for years.

"If we can do something to make a difference in another victims family’s life, I would like to see that happen," she said.

She still regrets, however, not being able to speak directly to Brown, which would have followed a conviction and come prior to sentencing.

"I would have told her how she single-handedly ruined our family by killing my husband and my kids' father," Politi said. "As far as I am concerned, her public apology was BS. It was rehearsed, she was reading off a piece of paper, So her apology was not sincere."

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-917-9242; wwesthoven@GannettNJ.com.