By Ben Horowitz
The Star-Ledger
September 15, 2011
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/09/judge_doesnt_rule_on_whether_i.html
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| Jose Feliciano, seated, of Easton, Pa., former Custodian of St. Patrick Church in Chatham, appears in Superior Court, Morristown, for a status conference hearing on charges that he murdered Rev. Edward Hinds in the church rectory in October. Morristown, NJ Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger |
Two weeks before a Chatham church custodian allegedly killed the parish priest in 2009, Pennsylvania State Police mailed information on the janitor’s criminal record to the priest, a detective testified in a hearing today.
Christopher Lombardi of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office testified that the information listed three charges lodged against Jose Feliciano in Philadelphia in 1988: indecent assault, assault and corruption of minors. The alleged victim was a 7-year-old girl. The documents also said there were outstanding warrants against Feliciano.
Lombardi said a Pennsylvania trooper faxed him the information in late August 2011 and told him the records had been mailed to the Rev. Edward Hinds on Oct. 6, 2009. Feliciano, 66, of Easton, Pa. allegedly stabbed Hinds 32 times in the rectory at St. Patrick Church on Oct. 22, 2009.
Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi, in introducing that mailing today, pointed out that Feliciano’s public defender, Neill Hamilton, had previously argued there was no evidence Hinds ever discussed the charges with Feliciano.
Based on the mailing, “There is a clear inference that Father Hinds reviewed the information,” Bianchi said.
The prosecution is seeking to prove that Feliciano stabbed Hinds because the priest was going to fire him after learning of the Pennsylvania charges. The Diocese of Paterson was conducting an audit at the time to determine that criminal background checks had been conducted on all church employees -- including Feliciano -- who had contact with children, and Feliciano had not undergone a check, according to testimony.
Previous witnesses from the prosecutor’s office had testified that Hinds’ computer in the rectory was used to research Feliciano’s criminal record in Pennsylvania, but they were unable to say exactly what Hinds had found.
Under questioning from Hamilton today, Lombardi acknowledged that investigators did not find the Pennsylvania mailing when they searched Hinds’ quarters in the rectory after he was slain.
Bianchi is seeking permission to use the Pennsylvania mailing during Feliciano’s trial.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Manahan, sitting in Morristown, declared that the prosecution has proven with “clear and convincing evidence” that there was a mailing to Hinds. Manahan said the evidence would be admissible at trial if the prosecution establishes the proper "foundation."
Manahan did not change his earlier ruling that the prosecution may tell the jury only that Feliciano was a fugitive from Pennsylvania, and that he faced a charge involving a child. Manahan has not yet ruled on whether the prosecution may say the charge was indecent assault.
Lombardi also testified that the Pennsylvania police provided him with something that was not sent to Hinds – a document saying Feliciano was not a multi-state offender. That would indicate that no criminal charges were pressed against Feliciano when, according to Bianchi, Feliciano impregnated an 11-year-old girl in New York “many years before” the Pennsylvania incident.
Bianchi made that revelation in court on Monday but did not say whether criminal charges were pressed and he has not filed a motion to introduce it as evidence.
Today’s hearing was conducted during a hiatus in jury selection, which started last week and is scheduled to resume on Monday.
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