Defense lawyer calls Frank Nucera a ‘cop who cares’
CAMDEN >> Witness testimony and secret recordings played at the hatecrime trial of former Bordentown Township Police chief Frank Nucera have put into sharp focus the ugly panorama of the excop’s racist worldview, one in which he believed Republican President Donald Trump — a man who has been criticized for his perceived support of white nationalist ideals — was the “last hope for white people.”
Nucera was caught on tape calling a Trenton teenager the N-word and comparing blacks to ISIS, feeling he reached a point in his life where he could be on a firing squad and mow them down. The 62-year-old former cop is on trial over allegations he grabbed and slammed the same black teenager, Timothy Stroye’s head “like a basketball” against a door jamb at the township Ramada Inn in Sept. 2016.
Nucera, who retired in January 2017 amid the federal probe, has maintained his innocence. And his hired legal gun, Rocco Cipparone Jr., has been placed in the unenviable position of trying to counter the government’s unflattering portrayal of his client as an unapologetic racist whose beliefs influenced the way he policed the predominantly white township, miles away from Trenton, while the department was under his iron-fist rule.
On Tuesday, Cipparone, attempting to rehabilitate his client’s battered image, told The Trentonian in an interview outside federal court that Nucera is remorseful for his hate speech.
“It’s Frank Nucera on the tapes. Do I think that paints a picture of the whole man?” Cipparone said. “No, I don’t. From my interaction with him, I know he says those things. Look, I said it in my opening. They are ugly words. They’re unacceptable. I can say he embarrassed himself, the badge and his family . ... Did he express remorse? Yeah . ... If you’re asking me if that’s who he is at his core, I don’t think so.
“He’s a cop who cares, who held his officers feet to the fire about, and this is in Roohr’s recordings, not congregating, just hanging out in [the community] but riding in the community. Check the community. Make sure it’s safe. Do your job. I think that’s a cop who cares . ... I’m not, and I won’t, and I can’t justify what he said. But that doesn’t mean you can’t care about the town . ... There are people who didn’t like Frank Nucera and a lot people who liked him as the chief.”
Cipparone was unable to continue making his case to jurors Tuesday morning because the third day of a trial marked by dramatic and explosive testimony was postponed due to a juror’s illness.
Juror No. 9, one of three African American women on the 12-member panel, called out sick, forcing U.S. District Court Judge Robert Kugler to send the jury home for the day.
The trial is expected to resume Wednesday morning with the government’s star witness, Bordentown Township Police Sgt. Nathan Roohr, back on the stand.
For his part, Nucera, a 34-year police veteran who doubled as township administrator, has exercised his right to remain silent, inside and outside of court. He hasn’t spoken publicly
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