A Rush To Misjudgment
by Hank Nuwer

An essay by Richard Lavinthal in The Times of New Jersey on September 4 eloquently describes the wrongful actions of a well meaning but overreaching grand jury and local prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr. of Mercer County.

The essay recalls my perplexed questions noted in early August for Stophazing.org and hanknuwer.com/blog. Namely, what specific instructions did Mr. Bocchini give the grand jury prior to its decision to hand down indictments for Dean Anthony Campbell and Ada Badgley of Rider University?

Here’s why, among other reasons.

In addition to the injustices done to Rider and the two defendants, Mr. Bocchini has possibly and inadvertently opened the door for procedural errors that could weaken his case against the remaining defendants. If I were the DeVercelly family--parents of the young man who died at Rider--and their attorney Doug Fierberg, I would be spitting nails with anger. Since I am not, I merely want an audit of actions by the grand jury and Mr. Bocchini by the proper New Jersey authorities.

If they don’t step in, by all that is fair New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine needs to comment on this case, no question. Even Judge Roy L. Bean asked questions first and hung people later. Mr. Bocchini’s actions made a mockery of the grand jury system that has reverberated from New Jersey into the administrative offices of every college dean and Greek adviser in the country.

In addition, my own concern is that Mr. Bocchini may have made prosecutors in the future very anxious over prosecuting any (and they are rare today but historically not rare in the pre-1980 era) university officials who actually abetted hazing by a chapter or had a reckless disregard for what a hazing chapter was doing.

Mr. Bocchini had only two courses of action and he blew both chances with his wishy-washy statements passing the buck to a runaway grand jury as he asked a judge to drop the indictments against Badgley and Campbell.

1) Mr. Bocchini either needed to apologize for instructions he gave the runaway grand jury that led to their indictments.

or, 2) If his instructions were above reproach, he needed to apologize either for his lack of understanding of the law or his brashness in going forward with virtually no tangible evidence against Badgley and Campbell.

Because he failed to do either of these, the New Jersey State Bar disciplinary committee needs to look into the non-public grand jury hearings conducted by Mr. Bocchini and to go step-by-step through the prosecutor’s paper and electronic trail to give an interpretation as to whether he is fit to continue in his office.

I am not asking for a gunslinging man hunt. I am asking for a formal review of the grand jury indictments.
Mr. Bocchini himself has shown the error of such a rush to judgment in going after two Rider officials with resulting disgrace to himself and, as Mr. Lavinthal demonstrates, to two innocent Rider officials.

It may be that his errors were understandable. Only a review by the New Jersey State Bar disciplinary committee can make that decision.

The essay by Mr. Lavinthal follows [note that RL corrected Raymond Donovan as secretary of Labor under President Reagan, not President Ford]:
Link:
http://www.nj.com/timesoftrenton/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1188878799209570.xml&coll=5