Charges Dropped In Profiling Case

A judge on Tuesday threw out criminal charges against two state troopers whose 1998 shooting of three minority motorists on the New Jersey Turnpike created a racial profiling controversy.

Superior Court Judge Andrew J. Smithson said overzealous prosecutors had set up a "minitrial" before the grand jury and repeatedly violated the troopers' constitutional rights.

"There's no legal authority in the state of New Jersey to justify the state's action," Smithson said.

Gov. Christie Whitman ordered an immediate appeal, saying New Jersey residents deserve justice and not a ruling based "on perceived procedural deficiencies."

Troopers John Hogan and James Kenna had faced charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault after the April 23, 1998, shooting that wounded three of the four minority passengers in a van stopped for speeding.

Hogan and Kenna, who are white, pleaded innocent and said they fired at the van thinking the driver was trying to run them over. Both were suspended without pay.

A year later, the attorney general reversed years of denials that racial profiling was practiced by New Jersey troopers.

Official misconduct charges against the troopers still stand, and the state can present the shooting case again to another grand jury.

The judge said the troopers deserved the right to a fair trial as much as any other citizen. When prosecutors abused that right, he added, the only option was to dismiss the indictment.

Smithson also said he was disturbed by the state's decision to make public another indictment on official misconduct charges while the grand jury hearing the shooting case was still in session.

The only explanation for that was the attorney general at the time, Peter Verniero, bowed to political pressure from protests on racial profiling, the judge said. Verniero delivered a landmark report on racial profiling to the state Senate, which later confirmed his nomination to the bench.

Last week, Smithson dismissed one charge of attempted murder against Hogan after Special Prosecutor James J. Gerrow admitted in court that part of the state's theory was wrong.

The remaining indictment against the troopers alleges they falsified records to hide the race of motorists they stopped. Civil lawsuits filed by the victims are still pending against both troopers.

Members of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey said they would continue their push to have the Justice Department take up the case. Justice Department officials had no immediate comment on whether a federal civil rights case would be pursued.

Michael Drewniak, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Robert Cleary in Newark, said, "It would be inappropriate to comment at this stage."

In late 1999, New Jersey and the Justice Department entered into a consent decree requiring semiannual reporting on traffic stops by state police.

By JOHN P. McALPIN