Judge hears arguments to dismiss complaint against Christie

A Superior Court judge will issue a ruling by the end of the week on a motion to dismiss an official misconduct complaint against Gov. Chris Christie for his alleged knowledge of and failure to reopen traffic lanes during the scandal known as Bridgegate.

Judge Bonnie J. Mizdol  heard about 20 minutes of oral arguments Wednesday during a hearing that was largely attended by media and a few others. Television cameras gathered on one side of the courtroom trained on Craig Carpenito, an attorney for the governor, and Annmarie Kozzi, a senior assistant Bergen County prosecutor – both of whom argued for the judge to throw out the probable cause finding on a citizen’s complaint against Christie.

The matter was before the court for arguments on motions by Carpenito challenging the probable cause ruling of Central Municipal Court Judge Roy McGeady from Oct. 13. Carpenito argued that the lower court denied Christie his right to counsel because McGeady did not let the governor’s attorney, who was present, participate in the probable cause hearing. McGeady said that there was no defendant prior to the finding of probable cause.

Probable cause is a relatively low bar in the legal system that allows law enforcement agencies to search, charge or arrest individuals suspected of wrongdoing, but it is not enough to prove guilt.

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William J. Brennan, a retired Teaneck firefighter and outspoken critic of government officials, filed a citizen’s complaint alleging second-degree official misconduct against Christie in Fort Lee municipal court Sept. 28. It says that on or about Sept. 11, 2013, the governor failed to order his subordinates to reopen access lanes to the George Washington Bridge that were closed for a purported traffic study.

Carpenito also argued that there was insufficient evidence to find probable cause for Brennan’s complaint. The attorney said the municipal court relied upon excerpts of testimony from David Wildstein, a former high-ranking Port Authority official who took a plea deal after being accused of masterminding the plan. The testimony presented at the probable cause hearing for the complaint against Christie consisted of eight pages excerpted from 1,168 pages of Wildstein's testimony at the federal trial of former Port Authority Executive Director Bill Baroni and Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, who were convicted for their roles in the Bridgegate scandal. Kelly and Baroni were found guilty of seven charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and civil rights violations. Meanwhile, Wildstein, a former political operative of Christie, pleaded guilty in the scheme.

Carpenito said all three defendants testified that they didn’t discuss the “criminal plot” with Christie.

“No one has implicated the governor,” he told Mizdol.

Wildstein said, according to Carpenito, that he was present for a conversation where Baroni said there was heavy traffic in Fort Lee and that the borough's mayor, Mark Sokolich, was not getting his phone calls returned.

Carpenito said Christie was walking into a 9/11 ceremony where he was going to speak and that it would have taken great “mental gymnastics” for the governor to realize there was a plot.

"His mind was not on what they were telling him," Carpenito said.

The lanes were reopened within 48 hours of that conversation, Christie's attorney added.

Kozzi, the assistant prosecutor, said that the state agrees that Christie’s right to counsel was violated, but she said the state would not delve into the merits of the evidence for the finding of probable cause.

“We believe from the outset due to this procedural violation that the finding of probable cause cannot stand,” Kozzi said.

Brennan, a Wayne resident who is no longer involved in the process through a ruling last month by Mizdol that found his role ended when probable cause was declared, attended the Wednesday hearing as an observer.

Outside the courtroom he said Carpenito “fabricated an entire record.”

“What he’s attempting to do here is rewrite the probable cause standard,” Brennan said, adding that in McGeady’s 27 years on the bench “he has never once allowed somebody to be cross-examined at a probable cause hearing.”