Morris jury sees footage of fatal East Hanover crash

  MORRISTOWN - A Morris County jury saw 90 seconds of surveillance video-camera footage on Monday that shows Vanessa Brown's Toyota Camry running into Ralph Politi Jr. as he stood between the front and rear doors of his pickup truck on the shoulder of Ridgedale Avenue in East Hanover.

By agreement between Morris County Assistant Prosecutor John McNamara Jr. and defense lawyer Edward Bilinkas, the videotape was stopped immediately after Politi, 49, was thrown by the impact of the collision around 1:48 p.m. on May 5, 2012.

The videotape retrieved from Politi Auto Parts, the business owned by the victim, was played during the testimony in Superior Court, Morristown, of a crash reconstruction expert during the trial of Brown on charges of aggravated manslaughter and vehicular homicide.

Jurors heard Monday from four witnesses called by McNamara, including Prosecutor's Office Agent Gary Gouck, a crash reconstruction expert whose testimony will continue Tuesday.  The packed courtroom of Judge Salem Vincent Ahto was hushed as the videotape was played on a projection screen, most of it showing Politi, a married father of twin daughters, moving around the 2011 Chevrolet pickup as traffic drove by on Ridgedale Avenue.

In the final seconds of the video, a dark car is seen driving down Ridgedale Avenue and leaving the marked lane of travel before it hits Politi as he is standing on the road's shoulder between two doors of the pickup truck. The impact throws him several feet. McNamara has said data was retrieved that shows Brown's Toyota never braked upon impact nor as her car continued through the parking lot of Politi Auto Parts where it struck two parked cars.

Brown, 35, of Parsippany, was found to have a blood alcohol content of .133 percent during a blood draw two hours after the collision. Politi lived for a short period of time with catastrophic injuries to his pelvis and legs, authorities said. The BAC is higher than the 0.08 percent level at which a motorist is considered legally intoxicated in New Jersey.

Jurors also heard from deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Carlos Fonseca who conducted an autopsy of the victim on May 6, 2012.  Fonseca said that most of Politi's injuries were to the right side of his body, beginning at the flank, down the hip and pelvic area to the thigh bone. He also suffered fractures in his left leg. Fonseca said the pelvis fracture resulted in heavy bleeding and the cause of death was attributed to multiple injuries to the pelvis and lower extremities.

Bilinkas drew an explosive objection from McNamara when he asked Fonseca about a comment that Politi's widow, Rosemarie Politi, supposedly made to a Medical Examiner's Office investigator. The widow allegedly stated that she had often asked her husband not to park or unload items on the side of Ridgedale Avenue because it was dangerous.

Bilinkas tried to ask Fonseca about the comment while McNamara's shouts of "objection" drowned out the defense lawyer's voice. The judge ultimately ruled that Fonseca could not be asked about Rosemarie Politi's remark because it amounted to "double hearsay" and was not used as a basis by Fonseca to form his opinion about the cause of death.

In defending Brown, Bilinkas is trying to show that Brown was not intoxicated to the point of recklessness and that at least one investigator claimed she had bloodshot eyes and slurred her speech while other officers said she did not. Bilinkas has said, outside the presence of the jury, that Brown was leaning over to the passenger floor of her car to retrieve her fallen cell phone when she struck Politi.

McNamara has been calling witnesses about several incidents that occurred in the few hours leading up to the fatal crash, which he contends shows Brown was impaired.  Morris County Sheriff's Officer Max Englert testified about his collection of pieces from a vehicle undercarriage splash guard that were torn off when Brown allegedly did a U-turn on a front lawn of a home on Troy Road before the fatal collision.

McNamara also called as a witness Gregory Smith, who said Brown was at his sister's East Hanover home the morning of May 5, 2012, the day Smith's 9-year-old niece was receiving her First Communion at Rose of Lima Church in East Hanover.  Bilinkas has said that Brown had a relationship with the child because she used to date her father, and she met May 5, 2012 with the girl to apply her makeup and fix her hair for the First Communion.

Smith said he saw Brown at the church but she attracted attention in his mind because she stood against a wall while others sat in pews and knelt as part of the mass.

"She stood out...she was very noticeable," Smith said of Brown, who he described as "rocking back and forth" as she stood against the church wall.  Bilinkas had stated in his opening trial statement that Brown got upset and left the church because the little girl's father demanded she leave but Smith said he never saw a confrontation and believed Brown was present for the entire mass.

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