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YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A prosecutor told a judge in Hackensack today that he’ll be looking to introduce writings of a man charged with plotting a series of Bergen synagogue firebombings that show his hatred of Jews and the government.
Defense attorney Brian Neary, Aakash Dalal (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
First Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Higgins was referring to handwritten charts from 23-year-old Aakash Dalal’s jail cell that court papers described as labeled “ENEMIES” — with the name of a former presiding judge in Bergen County listed as a “high profile enemy” — and “DEAD COPS, DEAD COPS.”
The second one names “the presiding judge, the second judge, and one of the assistant prosecutors assigned to [the] case,” Higgins said.
Dalal was charged with conspiring to murder Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Martin Delaney, which will be handled in a separate trial, he said.
His co-defendant in the firebombing case, Anthony Marco Graziano, isn’t implicated in the threats, Higgins said.
Handling the trials will be Superior Court Judge Joseph V. Isabella, of Hudson County, who was appointed in the wake of the threats to avoid any apparent conflict of interest.
Isabella said he hoped to have the main trial begin in May 2016, following a series of motion hearings in September, October, December and January.
Superior Court Judge Joseph V. Isabella (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
Among the arguments he will decide are whether prosecutors can use statements both men allegedly made to police — and whether to try Graziano and childhood friend Dalal separately.
Both are the first defendants in New Jersey charged with terrorism under a state law enacted in 2002, months after 9/11.
Prosecutors said Graziano, also 23, carried out the bombings in December 2011 and January 2012 under Dalal’s tulelage — including one at Congregation Beth El in Rutherford, another at Temple K’Hal Adath Jeshrun of Paramus, and an attempted arson at the Jewish Community Center of Paramus.
The pair are also charged with bias intimidation offenses at Temple Beth Israel in Maywood and at Temple Beth El Hackensack.
Graziano was arrested in January 2012 following an intense manhunt after surveillance footage released to the public showed him leaving the Route 46 Wal-Mart in Saddle Brook with a bag of items that included hair spray cans, duct tape and Orange Crush – to be used as bombs, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said at the time.
Defense attorney Ian Silvera, Anthony Marco Graziano (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
Authorities first believed that Graziano was a “loner,” as Molinelli put it. But a check of his computer turned up correspondence with Dalal, a childhood friend.
CLIFFVIEW PILOT received information pointing to Dalal early in the investigation and immediately notified Molinelli. However, the prosecutor said his detectives independently got onto Dalal’s trail based on a biased posting of his on a Jewish online site after the firebombings.
Dalal had arranged to post $1 million bail when the alleged murder plot against Delaney was discovered.
His bail was then increased to $4 million. Graziano’s is $2.5 million.
Both remained held in the Bergen County Jail.
Higgins said he and Senior Assistant Prosecutor Annmarie Cozzi will try the arson case, while Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Daniel Keitel will try the murder conspiracy and terrorist threats case against Dalal.
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