Jury hears that driver in East Hanover fatal was legally drunk
MORRISTOWN - A Morris County jury on Tuesday heard that Vanessa E. Brown, the motorist charged with killing Ralph Politi Jr. in East Hanover, was legally drunk but the trial judge barred testimony that Brown also had cocaine metabolites in her urine.
As the case presented by the Morris County Prosecutor's Office draws to a close, Assistant Prosecutor John McNamara Jr. on Tuesday called Michael Baklarz, a forensic scientist for the New Jersey State Police lab who analyzed blood drawn from Brown two and one-half hours after the 1:48 p.m. crash on May 5, 2012 that killed the married father of twin daughters.
The blood draw has created a commotion in the trial because last week a sealed box containing two glass vials of blood drawn from Brown in 2012 was opened by a Prosecutor's Office detective, who discovered one tube had broken and the blood had oozed out to partially fill the plastic bag that contained both vials.
Detective Dan Haber, who briefly testified Tuesday and will return to the witness stand Wednesday, opened the box in preparation last week for testimony by another witness, East Hanover police Sgt. John "Jack" Ambrose.
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Baklarz, the scientist, testified that the tubes were intact when he analyzed Brown's blood at the State Police lab on May 9, 2012. He determined that her blood-alcohol content was .133 percent, or higher than the 0.08 percent level at which a motorist is considered legally intoxicated in New Jersey. Baklarz said that, despite the tube breakage that occurred sometime over the past four years, his conclusions were made in 2012 and are not impacted.
Defense lawyer Edward Bilinkas, who has attacked the investigation as one allegedly fraught with evidence mishandling and bias, has pinpointed Ambrose in particular. The 29-year police veteran previously testified, denying any bias and freely admitting that he was personal friends for two decades with the 49-year-old victim, an East Hanover businessman, board of education member and recreational softball coach.
When the defense case starts next week, Bilinkas has said, he expects to call several East Hanover police officers who -- unlike Ambrose -- did not detect signs of intoxication in Brown at the scene. He also plans to call a paramedic who allegedly was told by Brown that she crashed as she was reaching for her cell phone that had dropped to the passenger side floor of her car.
Brown's urine also had been tested at a laboratory and was positive for the presence of cocaine metabolites. The prosecutor's office elected not to introduce evidence of the metabolites at trial, mainly because it couldn't be proven that cocaine was ingested close in time to the crash. But on Tuesday, outside the jury's presence, McNamara asked Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent Ahto if he could introduce evidence of the cocaine metabolites.
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McNamara contended that Bilinkas had "opened the door" to the testimony by suggesting that Ambrose had tampered with the blood vials. McNamara said tampering would be more difficult for the defense to argue if jurors also knew that Brown's urine contained cocaine metabolites. McNamara said such testimony would only be given to jurors for their use in assessing Ambrose's credibility.
"I think that's an absurd position," Bilinkas countered. He claimed he was not arguing that Ambrose switched blood vials to frame Brown for the DWI and fatal crash but he believes it "outrageous" that the Prosecutor's Office and East Hanover police only discovered last week that one tube was broken, awash in blood in a plastic bag.
The judge said he would not permit any references or testimony to cocaine metabolites. He told McNamara that a report produced by one of his experts says the metabolites are not exactly cocaine. The judge said the state previously asserted it would not raise the issue in its direct case and if allowed, the evidence would be too prejudicial to Brown and confusing to the jury.
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Brown, 35 of Parsippany, is charged with aggravated manslaughter, a crime that is punishable upon conviction by up to 30 years in prison, and with vehicular homicide, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years upon conviction. The two crimes are distinguished by the level of recklessness displayed by the defendant.
A crash reconstruction expert has testified that Brown was traveling about 47 mph in a 45 mph zone in her Toyota Camry down Ridgedale Avenue when she veered out of the travel lane and struck Politi. The victim had parked his Chevrolet pickup in a legitimate parking space at 30 Ridgedale Avenue. The space was parallel to the shoulder and road. When struck, Politi was standing between the open front driver's side door and rear door of his pickup. The crash expert was not able to say whether Politi was standing in a small strip of parking lot outside his vehicle or on the shoulder.
Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@GannettNJ.com.