An appeals court upheld the lying conviction of former Bordentown Township police chief but calls for him to be resentenced
Former Bordentown Township Police Chief Frank Nucera will get a reduced prison term in his hate crime case, a federal appeals court says.
Did white guilt lead jurors to convict former Bordentown Township Police Chief Frank Nucera Jr. of lying to the FBI about assaulting a Black teenager?
That was the issue that landed before the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which was asked by Nucera’s lawyers to overturn his 2019 conviction, among other legal issues it raised. Nucera alleged that some white jurors were bullied by Black jurors into finding him guilty.
In a 66-page ruling handed down Friday, the court found that affidavits taken by the defense of white jurors following a contentious verdict failed to meet legal standards required to show that jurors voted to convict “based on racial animus toward, or stereotypes about, the defendant.” It also rejected Nucera’s request for a hearing on alleged juror misconduct.
Yet, the appeals court said Nucera was wrongly sentenced and set aside his 28-month prison term. Nucera will be resentenced later this month and likely receive a reduced term in federal prison.
The case made international headlines when federal prosecutors announced assault and hate crime charges against Nucera, alleging the chief had a history of spewing racial hatred — talking about joining a firing squad to shoot Black people or sending police dogs to intimidate Black spectators at high school basketball teams, and comparing Black people to ISIS.
Nucera was charged with using excessive force against Timothy Stroye, then 18, of Trenton, in 2016 and with assaulting him because of his race. Police were dispatched to a hotel where Stroye and his girlfriend were swimming in a hotel pool and had not paid their bill. Nucera was accused of slamming the Black teenager’s head into a wall.
» READ MORE: Judge rejects claim that ‘white guilt’ led jurors to convict former South Jersey police chief
“Trial evidence often divides jurors. In a trial about race with jurors of different races, that division can be explosive,” the appeals court wrote.
The jury of nine white and three Black members convicted Nucera on a count of lying to the FBI. Defense attorney Rocco Cipparone contended that race unfairly played a role during deliberations. U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler, who presided over the trial, rejected those arguments and refused to grant a new trial.
On the other charges, after deliberating for 45 hours over eight days, the jury was deadlocked on one count each of hate-crime assault and civil rights violation, and a mistrial was declared.
Read the opinion here:
White jurors told defense lawyer Rocco Cipparone that they believed they had to convict Nucera on at least one charge or they would be labeled racists. In interviews with The Inquirer, the Black jurors have said that race was an issue in their deliberations.
Cipparone did not respond to a message seeking comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined comment.
The appeals court ruling offered an inside view of the heated deliberations from the affidavits, which have not been made public. The white jurors accused Pamela Richardson, one of the Black jurors, of bullying and misconduct, for telling jurors “[h]ope you are all thinking guilty, I can be here all day, I have f— nowhere to be,” the documents said.
» READ MORE: Ex-Bordentown Township police chief gets 28 months in prison for lying to the FBI in a hate-crime case
Richardson denied any misconduct. She said three Black jurors, all women, thought Nucera was guilty on each count. The nine others initially voted to acquit and later found him guilty on the lying charge.
“I don’t know how they can say I was the angry Black juror,” Richardson, a retired pharmaceutical representative, said Monday. “I did my job. This just seems to be an attorney trying to justify his salary to a highly flawed and clearly guilty client.”
Frank S. Pezzella, an associate professor of criminal justice at John Jay College in New York who followed the trial, said that he was surprised by Nucera’s allegations and that jurors could not reach a verdict on the more serious charges in the case.
“That’s how hard it is to get justice if you’re a Black person,” said Pezzella, referring to Stroye.
» READ MORE: After another mistrial for a former South Jersey police chief, the mother of his teen victim seeks justice
The hate crime charges against Nucera were dismissed after his second trial ended in a hung jury. He was ordered to begin serving the 28-month prison term in April 2022 at a federal prison in Kentucky.