Driver in East Hanover fatal had prior DWI

MORRISTOWN - A Morris County jury was told Wednesday that Vanessa E. Brown, who has been on trial the past three weeks for allegedly killing Ralph Politi Jr. in East Hanover by driving while intoxicated, was previously convicted of DWI in 2009 in Tinton Falls.

Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent Ahto read to the jury a stipulation -- an undisputed statement of facts agreed to by the defense lawyer and assistant prosecutor -- that said Brown was pulled over by a state trooper on the Garden State Parkway in Tinton Falls, Monmouth County, on Jan. 12, 2009.  She was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated at 7:29 p.m. Brown pleaded guilty on April 24, 2009 to driving while intoxicated, the stipulation said.

The jury was not told Brown's blood-alcohol content in the 2009 case, only that her BAC was in excess of 0.08 percent, the level at which a motorist is considered legally intoxicated in New Jersey. The judge advised that the information can only be used by jurors to consider that Brown had prior knowledge of the dangers of drunken driving and can't be used as a presumption she is guilty in the present case.

Brown's blood-alcohol content was determined to be .133 percent, two and one-half hours after the crash that killed Politi, jurors were told Tuesday.

Brown, 35, of Parsippany, has been on trial since March 2 on charges of aggravated manslaughter and vehicular homicide in the death May 5, 2012 of East Hanover community leader Ralph Politi Jr., 49. Brown's Toyota Camry veered off Ridgedale Avenue on a sunny clear day at 1:47 p.m. and struck Politi as he stood between the open front driver's side door and rear door of his Chevrolet pickup. His truck was parked in a parking space that ran immediately parallel to the shoulder of Ridgedale Avenue.

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Defense lawyer Edward Bilinkas has repeatedly criticized the investigation as one in which evidence was mishandled or exaggerated and he has, in particular, pinpointed East Hanover police Sgt. John "Jack" Ambrose as having a bias because of his friendship with the victim. Ambrose flatly denied any bias in his testimony.

While Ambrose is the only law enforcement officer to say he smelled alcohol on Brown, and that her eyes were bloodshot, her speech slurred and her gait unbalanced, Assistant Prosecutor John McNamara Jr. on Wednesday called as a witness Tamara Eick. Eick on May 5, 2012, was an emergency medical technician for the Florham Park Rescue Squad and she responded to the crash at 30 Ridgedale Ave. in East Hanover.

McNamara asked Eick her observations of Brown.

"I noted an odor on her breath. An alcohol-like odor," Eick said.

Bilinkas also plans to call Eick as a defense witness when the defense portion begins next week. Bilinkas was precluded from specifically questioning Eick Wednesday on other details of her involvement and ride in an ambulance with Brown to Morristown Medical Center. But Bilinkas has stated, outside the presence of the jury, that Brown told Eick she crashed because she was reaching to the passenger side floor of her Camry to retrieve her cell phone that had fallen.

Bilinkas also has represented that Eick did not see any other signs of intoxication during her contact with Brown.

Assistant Prosecutor Brian Kenney, who is trying the case with McNamara, called East Hanover Sgt. Christopher Berres, who is in charge of surveillance video and audiotapes maintained by the department.

In the two hours before the crash, Brown had been first at a friend's home on Troy Road to help get a female child ready to make her First Communion at St. Rose of Lima Church in the township and then was present at the church. The police department has exterior video-cameras that show the church across the street from headquarters. The jury was shown five selected segments of footage in which Brown can be seen entering the church parking lot, walking into the church and leaving it.

Coincidentally, the victim had stopped by the church about 15 minutes before the crash to talk to a woman who was selling 50-50 raffle tickets outside St. Rose of Lima. Politi is seen on the surveillance footage pulling into the church parking lot, parking, exiting his car and then leaving the premises to drive south.

While Ambrose had testified that his examination of the church parking lot footage showed Brown appearing to stumble once and "almost" walk into a statue on the grounds, Berres -- under questioning by the defense -- said he didn't notice anything awry in the way Brown walked to and from the church.

Bilinkas also was critical of the grand jury presentation that led to Brown's trial but both the judge and McNamara said the time for challenging the indictment has long passed and the legal standards for obtaining an indictment and a verdict from a petit jury in a criminal trial are vastly different.

"We are not litigating the indictment at this juncture," McNamara said.

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Bilinkas was perturbed that Prosecutor's Office Detective Daniel Haber, who testified Wednesday, was allowed to read various reports that allegedly contained false information to the grand jury that returned a two-count indictment against Brown in 2013. Bilinkas was allowed to ask a few questions of Haber about the grand jury presentation in 2013.

"Did you provide false information to the grand jury?" Bilinkas asked Haber, who replied "Not to my knowledge."

"Did you tell the grand jury my client was driving 65 miles per hour?" Bilinkas asked. "Not to my knowledge," Haber responded again.

Jurors have already heard from a crash reconstruction expert that Brown was not speeding when she crashed, instead driving about 47 mph in a 45 mph zone.

The trial will continue Thursday before Judge Salem Vincent Ahto in Morristown.

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