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Marc Rainey, already serving time for his part in the burglary of a 600-pound safe in Connecticut, is counting on a three-year plea offer that Bergen County prosecutors originally extended and then withdrew.
A prosecutor cut off plea negotiations with Rainey in January, calling him “a complete waste of the court’s time.” Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi then gave both sides two more months to cut a deal.
Defense attorney Robert N. Kalisch told the judge yesterday that Rainey’s plea to two counts of burglary is contingent on prosecutors dropping a proposal to call a burglary expert to testify against him.
Marc Rainey file photos (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
“In 20 years of representing defendants, I have never heard of such a thing,” said Kalisch, a senior member of the state public defender’s staff.
“I am ready to start this case instantaneously if the [judge] sees things my way,” Kalisch told DeAvila-Silebbi. “If such an expert could be called, I have some arguments.”
With no formal deal in place, the lawyer said, “I believe the judge will be merciful.”
Assistant Bergen Prosecutor Nicholas Ostuni, who is handling the case, was off yesterday and couldn’t be reached for comment.
Rainey had been free for three days after spending three years in East Jersey State Prison in Rahway when he was arrested in Wyckoff.
An alert neighbor called police about a suspicious vehicle on Ravine Avenue. Several police officers who had just left a “crime summit” flooded the area and eventually stopped Rainey on Route 208.
They also discovered that a Ravine Avenue house had been broken into and every soom ransacked. A pillowcase filled with jewelry was left behind on the floor, they said.
They also found footprints that they suspect indicated Rainey likely had help.
DeAvila-Silebi set sentencing for April 25.
STORY / FILE PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse reporter
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