Daily Record
November 29, 2011
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20111129/NJNEWS/311290025/Defendant-in-Chatham-priest-murder-trial-loses-cool-under-cross-examination
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| Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi cross examines Jose Feliciano in state Superior Court Tuesday. Feliciano is accused of killing the Rev. Edward Hinds of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Chatham. / bob karp/staff photographer |
Ex-custodian Jose Feliciano told a jury Tuesday that he heard “a voice” telling him to “do it” and attack the Rev. Edward Hinds in the rectory of a Chatham church during their argument in 2009 over Feliciano’s firing.
“Tell this jury, nice and loud, what voice did you hear?” Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi asked, sarcastically baiting the 66-year-old defendant, who is accused of fatally stabbing the pastor of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church 44 times on Oct. 22, 2009.
“I heard a voice say ‘Do it now, now, now. Do it now,’ ” Feliciano testified.
By the end of the court day Tuesday, the jury had heard three different versions from Feliciano of the priest’s killing, all elicited by Bianchi, who cross-examined the suspect for at least five hours — and still is not finished.
In his direct testimony that spanned Monday into Tuesday, Feliciano said the priest had been sexually molesting him since October 2004 in exchange for keeping silent about a criminal charge involving a child that the church janitor was a fugitive since 1988.
Feliciano testified that Hinds, 61, called him into the rectory on Oct. 22, 2009, and said he had to fire him because of “issues” in the parish. Feliciano said he “lost it” after arguing with the priest and stabbed him, feeling angry and betrayed that the priest had sexually exploited him and promised to let him retire in March 2010 with his past never revealed.
Feliciano had a downtrodden demeanor throughout his direct testimony, but flared in anger within minutes of Bianchi starting his cross-examination. Sheriff’s officers surrounded the suspect, and the jury was hustled out of the courtroom when Feliciano started to rise from the witness chair to respond angrily to a question from Bianchi, even as Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan ordered him to stop speaking.
“No sir, not really, no sir, not really. Don’t change my story! Don’t change my story. Don’t change my story,” Feliciano cried, his eyes bulging.
His reaction was in response to Bianchi alleging that his reasons behind the killing differed vastly from his trial testimony and the account he gave Prosecutor’s Office Capt. Jeffrey Paul on Oct. 24, 2009. Peace was quickly restored in the courtroom, and the jury brought back after Feliciano agreed that he would stop speaking when ordered.
Bianchi confronted Feliciano with the 152-page transcribed statement he gave Paul in 2009. In this sworn statement, Feliciano said that he approached the priest to demand that he stop the sexual abuse, and Hinds said he would be fired if he did not continue to submit to his advances. Feliciano had insisted to the jury that Hinds promised to let him continue working until retirement age in March 2010, but Bianchi pointed out that he specifically told Paul he never discussed retirement with the pastor.
“I didn’t mention a lot of things to Paul,” Feliciano repeated multiple times while being cross-examined.
Feliciano also was asked by Bianchi why he told a mental health therapist at Morristown Memorial Hospital, six hours after he confessed to Paul, that he heard “female voices” telling him to hurt the priest. On the stand Tuesday, he said he didn’t recall saying he heard female voices but a voice in his head told him to “do it, attack him.”
Prosecutors contend that the priest had no wrongful relationship with the janitor, but had discovered through records searches that he was wanted for an offense involving a child and should not be employed at the church. In evidence is a portion of the priest’s diary in which there is a notation on Oct. 22, 2009, that Feliciano would be let go as of Oct. 23, 2009, but paid through the end of the month.
Bianchi also questioned Feliciano about counseling sessions he went through between 2004 and 2005 with a therapist who is a nun. Though Feliciano, a father of two, claims the priest began abusing him in 2004, he said he never revealed Hinds’ assaults to the therapist, though he talked to her about death and being abused as a child by a priest in Brooklyn.
Bianchi expressed incredulity that he would not confide the trauma of the more current, alleged sexual abuse to a therapist. Feliciano said he never told anyone about Hinds’ advances until he was charged with his homicide.
As one of the last defense questions posed to Feliciano, co-counsel Balin Baidwan asked Feliciano how he felt about Hinds’ conduct toward him.
“How I feel, what he did to me … I feel anger. I feel a lot of anger toward him. Even today I feel anger for what happened, for what he did,” Feliciano said.
The trial continues today in Morristown. While prosecutors want a murder conviction, the defense is pursuing a passion/provocation manslaughter verdict.
Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@njpressmedia.com
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