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Despite Joseph Canova’s plea in criminal court in Hackensack, a state judge can still hold him liable for for the full amount of family silverware, art work, and other valuables that went missing from two of John H. French’s storage lockers in Paterson, the higher court ruled.
“[A] criminal conviction may be conclusive proof of commission of a crime,” leaving the convict responsible to make restitution, in this case, of the full amount of valuables that were stolen.
French stored the valuable antiques, family heirlooms and other collectibles at Route 80 Self Storage, court papers show.
A Passaic County grand jury indicted Canova, charging him with, among other things, theft and possession of stolen goods. He eventually pleaded guilty to lesser-degree theft charges.
French’s insurance company then him Canova with a pair of bills — for $303,900 and $245,000 — both upheld by Bergen County Judge Charles E. Powers, Jr.
The judge’s decision followed a hearing in which Canova, representing himself, cross-examined all three witnesses who testified for the insurance company: French, a property appraiser and the police detective who investigated the theft.
The thefts were a cold case until French “serendipitously” stumbled upon some of his goods at an antique shop in New York City, the judges wrote in their decision.
“French bought the family heirlooms from that dealer so that no one else might acquire them, and contacted the Paterson police detective in charge of the investigation,” they said.
Detective Carmine Pelosi traced the goods to the city dealer and identified a suspect: Canova — “a customer of the All-Stor Self Storage facility, a frequent visitor to the locale, and a regular bidder on the contents of abandoned storage lockers,” the judges said.
Pelosi testified that Canova had disabled the security alarms at the facility, entered French’s lockers and took the goods, then sold some of them to an intermediary who, in turn, sold them on eBay to the New York dealer. The detective also noted that the facility’s managers had banned Canova after they found him trying to disarms alarms there.
Powers ruled that Canova’s guilty plea in criminal court, combined with the testimony at the civil hearing, were proof enough to draw “the ineluctable conclusion that Mr. Canova stole all the items taken from Mr. French’s storage space, and is liable” for the cost of them all.
Canova appealed, representing himself in court. He told the appellate judges that he really wasn’t guilty but took the plea “solely due to economic constraints and for other personal reasons.” He even tried to present evidence he said would exonerate him.
The judges, in turn, said his claim was rendered moot not only by the guilty plea but by the evidence presented during the trial before Powers.
“[In] this case … we have no basis to disturb [the judge’s] conclusions,” they wrote.
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