Seven days and counting for jury in Frank Nucera hate-crime trial
CAMDEN » Not exactly seventh heaven for “Fast Frankie.”
Jurors have deliberated more than 44 hours over seven days since being handed Frank Nucera’s hate-crime case Oct. 2 but are still undecided on counts of hatecrime assault and deprivation of civil rights, stemming from the alleged beatdown of a handcuffed black suspect in 2016.
“This is probably now the longest I’ve had a jury out,” said Nucera’s defense attorney Rocco Cipparone Jr., who previously asked for a mistrial when the jury first indicated it was deadlocked. “I gave up trying to predict anything a few days ago. We just have to sit. [The judge] is just sitting and waiting them out.”
The 12-member jury, consisting of three black women, reached a partial guilty verdict Wednesday on count three of the indictment, lying to the feds — the least serious of the charges faced by the former top cop.
The jury believed that Nucera, then the Bordentown Township police chief, misled FBI special agents Vernon Addison and Arthur Durrant III when they interrogated him Dec. 22, 2016, about an alleged assault of Timothy Stroye at a township hotel months before.
Stroye, then 18, of Trenton, had his head slammed into a metal door jamb by the police chief, federal prosecutors said during the three-week trial. One of Nucera’s colleagues, Sgt. Nathan Roohr, described the chief grabbing the teen’s head “like a basketball” and slamming it with such force that it made a “loud thud.” Roohr recorded his boss making racist and hateful remarks about Stroye and other minorities, and turned them over to the FBI.
Nucera repeatedly denied going “hands on” with Stroye, who earlier struggled with another cop. Police were called to the Ramada Inn on Sept. 1, 2016 after a manager mistakenly believed Stroye and his 16-year-old girlfriend were swimming in the pool without paying for a room.
Prosecutors must prove Nucera struck Stroye and did so because he was black in order to secure convictions on the two remaining counts. The defense has insisted Nucera never put his hands on Stroye, and urged jurors to be leery of the word of two cops with potential axes to grind. Nucera was described as a micromanging perfectionist who stayed tough on the rank-and-file.
The jurors deliberated nearly uninterrupted Thursday, only taking a half-hour break in the afternoon to go outside for fresh air. They returned to deliberating before breaking for the day around 4:15 p.m.
Nucera, who retired from dual roles as police chief and township administrator in January 2017 amid the FBI probe, faces up to five years in prison for lying when he’s sentenced Feb. 6.
The two remaining counts, which jurors at one point indicated they were deadlocked on, each carry up to 10 years in prison. Nucera could also lose his pension following his conviction.