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Dorgan claimed that Boone agreed to a sentence in Sussex of six years, with parole eligibility in two, but got eight after Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor David Calviello “called the prosecutor in Sussex.”
“It was due to his intervention he got a longer sentence, and that’s why my client is withdrawing his plea,” she said.
Calviello dismissed the contention.
“That letter I sent to Sussex, which I sent a of copy to her, simply asked that his sentence not be adjourned any further because Bergen has been waiting for it to conclude so we could complete sentencing here,” he told Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi.
The judge said Boone’s Bergen sentencing had been scheduled and then rescheduled several times.
That included two weeks ago, when co-defendant Renando Sheffield got eight years in state prison — half of which he’ll have to serve before being eligible for parole — in the same break-in.
DeAvila-Silebi said she’d consider the request once she receives it in writing.
She then asked Boone whether he had anything to say.
“You’ve been playing with me for three years,” he responded. “You don’t hear what I say.”
Calviello noted that Boone “takes zero responsibility for any of his actions. He even denies his guilt in the pre-sentence interview.
“He has never had a consistent story,” the assistant prosecutor said. “Some days he comes to court pleasant and others with an attitude a mile wide. He has no respect for the law.”
He reminded the judge Boone was on bail from burglary charges in Sussex County when he was arrested in Old Tappan in November 2011.
A patrol officer became suspicious after finding Sheffield parked on a borough street. Sheffield told the officer he had a fight with his girlfriend, who ran off. He was waiting for her to return, he said.
Boone then suddenly emerged from the burglarized home, Calviello said. Seeing police, he ran, throwing away his clothing and gear, some of which got caught in tree branches, the prosecutor said.
He still had his cellphone, though, which he used to call a Ridgewood cab.
The cabbie was stopped by Old Tappan police who’d set up a perimeter. They questioned the driver, who said he was headed to pick up a fare.
He then gave them a familiar address: It was a condemned house used for drills by police and firefighters.
Police asked the cab driver to signal them on his way back if the passenger matched Boone’s description. He did and Boone was arrested.
“I’m not coming back to Bergen. I’m not even going to throw a bubblegum wrapper on the ground,” Boone said during his plea this past April.
The case continues the dismantling of the loosely-knit crew spawned by the James Bond Gang out of Englewood and Teaneck.
Those convicted at trial or pleading guilty in the past year include:
Akeem Boone, Aasim’s brother and the man whom authorities identified as the group’s main player;
Melvin Collins, a convicted burglar with 60 indictments on his record;
Jarrell Bordeaux, Marc Rainey and Jamelle Singletary, who were involved with the Boones and Sheffield in the theft of a 600-pound safe from Connecticut;
Rainey earlier this year had three years tacked onto a 10-year sentence he began serving last October.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor David Calviello, defense attorney Donna Dorgan, Aasim Boone (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
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