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Defense attorney Angela Rodriguez told the jurors during closing arguments in Hackensack that the recording – which she said was made without David Fernandez’s knowledge – was “coerced and [made] under duress.”
Superior Court Judge James J. Guida explained, however, that only one party needs to consent to a telephone recording in New Jersey.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Kristen DeMarco (left), defense attorney Angela Rodriguez (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Kristen DeMarco also told jurors that the call was recorded in March 2012 while Fernandez was helping to make funeral arrangements for his father in Florida — “not in the same room, house or state with the victims, not with a gun to his head, but with his family and friends.
“Imagine his 39-year old hands all over a 13-year old child, impairing and debauching her morals,” DeMarco told the jury yesterday.
Rodriguez countered that investigators from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office didn’t collect DNA samples or analyze the recording to determine whether it might have been edited.
“Even Monica Lewinsky kept her dress for a year,” she said.
DeMarco said there was no opportunity for DNA testing because “the defendant wore a condom, and the 5-day time period had lapsed.”
“There’s no sperm, there’s no physical evidence, no Monica Lewinsky dress,” the prosecutor said.
Rodriguez also claimed inconsistencies in the girl’s testimony during the week-long trial.
Closing arguments followed testimony by several people, including Fernandez’ mother, Doris, and sister, Daisy, who attested to his character as a loving son and brother.
An Englewood resident, Fernandez has volunteered in Hackensack community recreational soccer for at least 10 years, they said.
Guida told jurors that such statements “are always credible and are entitled to be considered by you.”
He also told them that Fernandez, 40, who didn’t take the stand in his defense, “has an absolute right to remain silent, and failure to testify should not enter into your deliberations at all.”
STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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