Lawyer seeks change in venue for murder trial
BY JAMES YOO
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Authorities and the lawyer for a man charged with murdering a Morris County teenager are at odds over where a fair trial could be held.
Jonathan Zarate's lawyer, Richard Mazawey of Clifton, said his client cannot receive a fair trial in Morris County because of pretrial publicity and prejudice against Hispanics.
But the county Prosecutor's Office argues that such reasoning doesn't meet the burden of proof to prompt such a change.
Mazaway said Friday that publicity has fostered "an atmosphere that is not conducive to producing a jury pool of Morris County residents to be fair and impartial to preserve and protect the Constitutional rights of this resident and anyone of us in any kind of situation."
In May he filed legal papers in state Superior Court, Morristown, asking for the change in venue or for jurors to be brought in from a neighboring county or counties. The Prosecutor's Office argued otherwise in a signed brief filed with the court this week.
Zarate is charged with murdering Jennifer Parks, 16, in the basement of his father's home in Randolph on July 30, 2005.
Authorities say Zarate, then 18, a former Rutherford High School student, invited the girl to watch television. Zarate's brother, James, who was 14 at the time, was hiding in the closet and joined in beating and stabbing the girl to death, authorities said.
Mazawey said pretrial publicity has prejudiced and inflamed people to the point that they have demonized the accused without considering all information.
Looking at previous stories, "You'll note that every article and every story starts with killing and dismembering," Mazawey said.
He also said Morristown is home to a pro-America movement that is anti-Hispanic and anti-immigrant. That could lead to a jury pool prejudiced against his client, who is Hispanic, he said.
"I don't think they are making a distinction between legal and illegal immigrants," the lawyer said.
But the Prosecutor's Office disputed that notion. Assistant Prosecutor David Bruno wrote the movement focuses on illegal immigrants and noted that Zarate is not presumed to fall into that category. The county's population is large and diverse enough to ensure a fair trial, he wrote.
Bruno also wrote that news accounts were not prejudicial against Zarate but reported on alleged facts of the case and charges. Recent reports close to the trial date gave only updates, he wrote.
He also argued that neither Zarate nor Parks were prominent enough to trigger a change of venue, according to case law.
Bruno added that bringing jurors in from another county is unnecessary because lawyers have the opportunity to vet potential jurors during the jury selection process.