Former Hackensack chief Zisa sentenced to 5 years in prison, remains free on bailThursday, September 20, 2012 Last updated: Thursday September 20, 2012, 3:35 PM
BY MARLENE NAANES AND STEPHANIE AKIN
STAFF WRITERS
The Record
HACKENSACK — Former Police Chief Ken Zisa was sentenced to five years in prison without parole for improperly removing a woman, his then-girlfriend, from the scene of a 2008 car accident and filing a fraudulent insurance claim.
State Superior Court Judge Joseph Conte granted a request — lodged by defense attorney Patricia Prezioso — to allow him to remain free on $50,000 bail while he appeals his conviction.
Conte said Zisa posed no flight risk, no risk to the safety of the community and that he was convinced there were significant issues that would be raised on appeal. Zisa will have to wear a monitoring bracelet and submit to regular drug tests.
Zisa was sentenced to five years for official misconduct and three years for insurance fraud, and the terms will run concurrently, Conte said.
He was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine to the court for the official misconduct charge, along with standard court fees, and restitution for the insurance.
Before he was sentenced, Zisa stood, buttoned his sport coat and looked directly at the judge while he listened, and gave small nods, at the sentence for each charge.
Conte said he would address Zisa's pension at a later court date, saying he would hear arguments from Prezioso, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Daniel Keitel and the attorney for Zisa's ex-wife.
Before handing down the sentence, Conte said he has received 53 letters on behalf of Zisa, only one of which argued for a more serious sentence. The authors included public officials, residents, current and former police officers and attorneys.
He cited one letter from a Hackensack University Medical Center nurse who remarked upon the many times she had seen Zisa in the emergency room over the past three decades checking on patients after hours, many of them injured police officers.
About 40 people attended the hearing, including Zisa's brothers Jack and Frank, and several of Zisa's friends and political supporters, including Lynne Hurwitz and School Board Attorney Richard Salkin. Several members of the police department sat near the back, including some who filed civil lawsuits against the former chief and sat through much of the seven-week trial.
Earlier in the hearing, Prezioso asked Conte to downgrade the official misconduct charge, waive the mandatory minimum sentence of five years and sentence Zisa to probation.
Prezioso compared the evidence against Zisa to other cases in which an official helped a friend and said in those situations the public officials were disciplined or reprimanded but they weren't charged criminally. She described Zisa's actions as a momentary lapse of judgment.
She pointed to his long history of public service, his brothers’ service to the city as a former mayor and former deputy police chief and the family's devotion to the city.
"He comes from a family dedicated to public service for many years and up until approximately 2010 that was seen as an honorable accomplishment," Prezioso said.
Keitel said there is only one person in the courtroom responsible for what happened to Zisa, and that's Zisa himself.
"It was a betrayal of public trust," he said. "It is the reason people distrust public officials."
The damage to public perception and the department's morale is incalculable, he said. He then asked the judge to sentence Zisa to 13 years: eight years without parole for the official misconduct charge and five years on insurance fraud.
He also asked for Conte to impose the sentences consecutively and to make Zisa pay his share of the insurance claim payout as restitution.
Zisa, who appeared tired with circles under his eyes, commented only once during the hearing when the judge asked if he wanted to speak.
“I think Ms. Prezioso covered everything I would have said,” he said, standing, with a slight bow to the judge. “I appreciate the opportunity, and I don’t have anything to add to her comments at this time.”
Zisa and his brothers huddled together and engaged in a whispered conversation before he left the courtroom without talking to reporters. His brothers declined comment, as did Hurwitz and Salkin.
Former City Councilman Charles McAuliffe, a friend of the family, said he was happy Zisa will remain free on bail, calling it “some sort of justice.”
He said the sentence means “absolutely nothing” to the city.
“The city has an acting police chief, a city manager, a mayor and council,” he said. “Daily activities go on, the DPW, the garbage is going to be picked up. It doesn’t really affect the city and he’s going to be exonerated. I’m just happy he doesn’t have to serve a day in jail.”
Conte last week made a surprise ruling to partially overturn Zisa's conviction, saying he had substantial concerns about the evidence presented during the seven-week trial last spring.
Conte, ruling on a motion by Prezioso to vacate the verdict, overturned three convictions involving Zisa's failure to recuse himself from a 2004 investigation involving the then-teenage sons of Zisa's live-in girlfriend at the time, Kathleen Tiernan — charges that carried at least an additional five years.
The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office released a statement last week saying that prosecutors were confident that at sentencing, the judge would follow a 2007 state statute requiring at least five-year prison terms, without parole, for public officials convicted of official misconduct, one of the remaining charges.
The other, third-degree insurance fraud, carries a three- to five-year sentence with no presumption of incarceration.
Legal experts have said that the law leaves little leeway for judges to subvert mandatory minimum prison time, typically providing discretion only in cases where a defendant is mentally incompetent or when the prosecutor requests a lighter sentence.
Tiernan, who was also convicted of insurance fraud for her role in the 2008 incident, was allowed to enter the state's Pretrial Intervention program in lieu of a sentence. She also was required to pay her share of the insurance claim payout as restitution.
Email: naanes@northjersey.com and akin@northjersey.com
