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Ordinarily, a grand jury foreman will hand a signed indictment to a judge, with a prosecutor in attendance. In Scharf’s case, all of the grand jurors insisted on being there for the closed-door presentation.
“I have never seen this request,” a veteran attorney told CLIFFVIEWPILOT this afternoon, adding that the rare demonstration bodes well for prosecutors.
Jody Ann Scharf’s death 17 years ago was a cold case until John L. Molinelli became Bergen County prosecutor earlier this decade. He created a special unit of investigators who have put down several unsolved crimes since then.
In this case, they said they found proof that Stephen Scharf pushed his wife from the Rockefeller Lookout in Englewood Cliffs on Sept. 20, 1992.
Authorities consulted celebrity coroner Michael Baden, who also concluded that Jody Scharf was murdered.
Although prosecutors prefer not to talk of motive in advance of a trial, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Wayne Mello did concede the circumstances were quite coincidental.
“With the insurance angle and the divorce, you can see the picture that is developing here,” Mello told CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM.
Mello told a judge earlier this year that Scharf forged his wife’s signature on the insurance policy and didn’t touch the money after her death, even though they had a 10-year-old son.
Scharf, who was arrested in December 2007, remains held on $1 million bail in the Bergen County Jail.
Grand juries in New Jersey consist of 16 to 23 ordinary citizens chosen at random. They are considered part of a checks-and-balances system that prevents a case from going to trial simply on a prosecutor’s.
The grand jurors, whose proceedings are secret under law, must find reason to suspect or believe a crime has been committed before returning an indictment. Otherwise, they can present a “no bill,” meaning there is no reason to take the case any further.
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