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They acquitted Luis Santana, 34, of the Bronx on charges of resisting arrest and aggravated assault on police.
Santana was 23 as investigators tracked his movements that August 2003 night, based on an informant’s tip. The Dominican national was carrying a black leather bag filled with $50,000 worth of MDMA when they stopped him, authorities said.
He made one court appearance, posted $50,000 bail and wasn’t seen again until U.S. marshals picked him up last fall.
Santana’s trial closed yesterday with defense attorney Glenn Garber calling for acquittal because, he said, his client didn’t know what was in the bag. Garber also claimed that the investigators lacked credibility.
Luis Santana (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor James Santulli countered that Santana’s story of coming across the bridge at 11 p.m. carrying a bag “for a friend” was belied by the telephone conversations he had with the informant.
Jurors returned their verdict after about 3½ hours.
Featured prominently in the trial was the bag of Ecstasy pills, which was placed front and center on the prosecutor’s table: 10,000 pills weighing about 6.6 pounds.
“That amount of drugs is not something you’re just going to give to some guy who doesn’t know what’s in the bag,” Santulli told jurors yesterday. “He has to know what it is so he can receive all the money for it.”
Garber pointed to bruises on police photos of Santana taken at the time of his arrest. He reminded jurors that one of the arresting detectives at first testified that Santana wasn’t injured but then, after being shown a photograph, said: “Oh, that was just a little scratch.”
“It’s not appropriate for police to gratuitously beat someone after they’re arrested,” Garber said.
“But you’re not supposed to be sympathetic to Luis Santana because he got his ass kicked by the cops,” the lawyer added. “What is important is that this shows they’re not telling the truth. They’re shading things.”
Santulli told the jury that detectives from his officer were listening when Santana missed the first meeting place, a Pizza Hut on Route 46 just off the bridge.
He was supposed to get off at Bergen Boulevard to reach the parking lot but missed the exit, the prosecutor said, so he quickly called and arranged to meet the informant at a Sunoco station on the highway’s eastbound said.
“Who takes a ride at 11 p.m. with 10,000 pills, $50,000 worth – it was a person called Juan Carlos, it was perfume, it was maybe aspirin,” Santulli told jurors, repeating defense claims. “Would you think it was credible a person would come here at 11 at night to give a bag of perfume to someone at the Sunoco station?”
He then referred to the monitored phone calls.
“It was about a drug deal. They were talking about numbers of pills,” Santulli said. “Never was perfume or anything else mentioned.”
Santana was convicted of first-degree possession of more than five ounces of Methylenedioxyamphetamine with the intent to distribute it; third degree-possession of Methylenedioxyamphetamine.
He was found not guilty of third-degree attempted bodily injury to Detectives Donald Ingrasselino and Anthony Martino of the Bergen County Narcotics Task Force; and third-degree attempting to prevent the same two officers from arresting him by threatening them with violence.
He remains held without bail pending sentencing on Sept. 5.
STORY / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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