U.S.

'I Wish I Had Done More' On Profiling

March 29, 2001 / 8:49 AM EST / AP

The former state attorney general denied Wednesday withholding evidence of racial profiling from federal investigators but said he regrets not questioning state police more thoroughly about allegations they targeted minority drivers.

"I wish I had done more. I know now I could have done more. But I'm only human," said Peter Verniero, now a state Supreme Court justice, in an appearance before a state Senate committee.

Senate investigators are examining New Jersey's response to alleged racial profiling by state troopers, including whether Verniero initially tried to squelch evidence of it.

State senators demanded to know why Verniero - who called racial profiling the biggest issue he faced - could not remember key details of meetings he attended or documents he read. Other witnesses detailed two sessions, including one held Christmas Eve 1996, where racial profiling was discussed.

"Meetings in my office were not remarkable to me. I had many of them," Verniero said. "That's the best that I can offer. It's the truth."

Verniero first admitted state police were targeting minorities in an April 1999 report issued one year after two white troopers fired shots at a van stopped for speeding on the New Jersey Turnpike and wounded three men, all minorities.

Peter Verniero (AP)SIZE>

The day before releasing the report, Verniero had announced an indictment against the troopers accusing them of falsely reporting that some black motorists they pulled over were white. Witnesses have testified that Verniero rushed to release the report because the Justice Department planned a civil rights lawsuit.

The troopers have said they fired in self-defense, thinking the van's driver was trying to run them over.

Some witnesses have testified that Verniero received a study in May 1997 that said minorities made up 90 percent of people searched during traffic stops. Similar findings in Maryland led to federal oversight prohibiting racial profiling in the state.

Verniero denied knowing of the 1997 statistics at the time and said he had never instructed anyone to withhold them.

He also defended the timing of the indictment against the troopers, which aides feared could jeopardize the investigation of the shooting itself.

Verniero said he wanted to take action before the shooting's one-year anniversary because the public was losing confidence in the attorney general's office and the state police.

"It was a time in my office where credibility was an issue. The public had lost faith in the police's ability to police itself," Verniero said.

Verniero's report and indictments against the troopers were released just after then-Gov. Christie Whitman nominated him to te state Supreme Court.

Whitman, now the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has said Verniero did "nothing wrong" in his handling of racial profiling allegations but that she and Verniero were slow to realize profiling was a problem.