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“I did not want her bothering me at work,” Paul Wanco, 58, told a judge in Hackensack this morning, “and I wanted to intimidate her so that she would stay out of my business and leave me alone.
“I knew she was old and infirm,” he added, “but I wanted to send her a message that I was not at her beck and call even if she was old and disabled. I think she got the message.”
Wanco, whose trial was scheduled to begin today, had not spoken during any of several previous court appearances.
FILE PHOTOS: Paul Wanco, Jennifer Wanco (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
But as the trial loomed, he and his attorney struck a deal with prosecutors the past week that will keep him out of prison in exchange for a guilty plea today to bias assault.
What’s more, his pension won’t be affected, and he may be able to keep his license and his job while on probation.
An indictment returned by a grand jury in Hackensack last summer charged Wanco with elder abuse and aggravated assault “for attempted serious bodily injury with indifference to the value of human life.” Prosecutors reduced the counts to fourth-degree bias abuse as part of the plea bargain.
Wanco, in turn, admitted today that he knew that Florence Wanco was unable to get up after being called by his niece, Jennifer.
He contended that she told him that her grandmother made her promise not to call the police or the ambulance because she didn’t want him to get into trouble.
“On March 5, 2013, I was working as I do every day,” Wanco said, reading from a prepared statement. “I am employed by the borough of Lodi as a fire code enforcement officer. I received a phone call from Jennifer Wanco advising me that my mother, Florence, had fallen and was lying on the floor.
“Jennifer claims she tried to call me two other times. My mother was 89 years of age.
“I knew that she needed help, but I refused to assist her because I was working.
“I realized that she might suffer additional injuries if she continued to lay on the floor. I found out later that she suffered injuries from the fall and that she probably suffered additional injuries because she was lying there for so many hours because I did not help her.”
After a full day, Jennifer Wanco finally called police, who summoned an ambulance.
When Florence Wanco arrived at Hackensack University Medical Center, she was dehydrated, had significant bruises and bed sores, and burns, caused byeither the fecal matter she was lying in or from the plywood floor, reports indicated. She also had four broken ribs, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Jessica Gomperts said.
“The police told the grand jury conditions in the apartment were deplorable,” Superior Court Judge Edward Jerejian said during a previous hearing. “There were fecal stains, urine, sores, the victim was lying on the floor, on her side in discomfort, and was left for an extended period of time.”
Florence Wanco eventually was transferred from HUMC to a rehabilitation facility, Gomperts said. State Adult Protective Services workers met with Paul and Jennifer Wanco before releasing Florence Wanco to her son’s care, the assistant prosecutor said.
She lived with him for several months before dying three months ago, a little over a year after the March 5, 2013 incident.
Jennifer Wanco, who was indicted along with her uncle, entered Pre-Trial Intervention, a move that Gomperts didn’t oppose. If she follows its requirements, she will be cleared of the charges.
Prosecutors refused to sign off on the same arrangement for Paul Wanco, however.
Gomperts, who struck the plea deal, said that he remodeled a bedroom for his mother and cared for her appropriately.
During today’s hearing, she said, he seemed “very, very remorseful.”
Proofs were difficult in the case, Gomperts said, because state law doesn’t describe “a legal duty to care for” parents.
“It covers parents to children, husband to wife, but not children to parents.”
“I am sorry for what happened,” Wanco told Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana-DeAvila-Silebi, “but we had a difficult relationship. When she became old and feeble she needed to be taught that I was not going to run for any reason she asked.
“After these events, we made some peace with each other.”
The judge scheduled sentencing for Aug. 8.
STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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