By Ben Horowitz
The Star-Ledger
December 14, 2011
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/feliciano_admits_1988_charges.html
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| Jose Felicano defendant; testifies in his own trial for the murder of Father Edward Hines of St. Patrick Church in Chatham, during his trial in Morristown. 11/28/11 Photo Jerry McCrea/The Star-Ledger |
CHATHAM — During a seventh and final day of cross-examination, murder defendant Jose Feliciano admitted today that he would have been fired and his reputation would have been "obliterated" if 1988 criminal charges he faced in Pennsylvania had been revealed.
Feliciano, 66, a former custodian at St. Patrick Church in Chatham, is on trial in the Oct. 22, 2009, stabbing death of the Rev. Edward Hinds, 61, the parish priest.
Aggressively questioning the defendant in Superior Court in Morristown, Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi got Feliciano to acknowledge the three charges involved a minor and that he had been a fugitive for 21 years after failing to appear in a Philadelphia court to face the charges in May 1988.
"Wouldn't those charges have been an embarrassment?" Bianchi asked. "Wouldn't they have shocked the parishioners at St. Patrick Church?"
"Yes," Feliciano quietly answered to both questions.
"If somebody found out about these charges, not only would you have to be concerned about your job, but your reputation would have been obliterated," Bianchi asked.
"Correct, sir," Feliciano replied, acknowledging he hadn't told his wife and children about the charges.
Bianchi did not identify the three specific charges against Feliciano, which included indecent assault, simple assault and corrupting the morals of a minor. The alleged victim was a 7-year-old girl.
Judge Thomas Manahan has ruled the prosecutor may tell the jury the specific charges, although he may not reveal the age of the alleged victim. Feliciano's public defender, Neill Hamilton, had objected to identifying the charges. Hamilton said today he plans to file a mistrial motion if they are spoken in front of the jury, along with using the issue in a possible appeal.
The 1988 charges are a key element in the prosecution's case. Bianchi contends Feliciano stabbed Hinds when the priest fired him after learning of the charges about two weeks earlier.
Feliciano has testified he told Hinds about the criminal charges five years earlier during a religious confession. Feliciano claimed Hinds agreed to keep the charges quiet in exchange for extorting sexual favors from the janitor. Feliciano says he was provoked into stabbing Hinds when the priest fired him less than five months before his planned retirement and contends the killing was a manslaughter, not a murder.
After Feliciano finally stepped down after eight days on the witness stand, the jury was sent out of the courtroom and the attorneys argued vociferously over a defense request to introduce $10,000 in cash that was found in Hinds' sock drawer.
In a ruling that pleased neither side, Manahan allowed the evidence but said he will instruct the jury that it may consider the money only to bolster Feliciano's testimony that Hinds had offered to "assist him financially" when he fired the custodian. Hamilton may not say it was "hush money," Manahan said.
Hamilton had sought to argue the money proved Hinds planned to pay Feliciano to "go away quietly" to cover up the sexual affair and the fact that he had been keeping the criminal charges quiet.
Bianchi vehemently opposed allowing the money to be introduced, regardless of the judge's instruction.
"In my world, that's character evidence against the priest," Bianchi said. "(Feliciano) murdered the priest and now he's murdering his reputation in this courtroom."
Hamilton is expected to call an investigator to testify Thursday about finding the money.
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