Pubdate: Thu, 14 Jun 2001
Source: Bergen Record (NJ)
Copyright: 2001 Bergen Record Corp.
Contact:  http://www.bergen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/44
Author: Deena Yellin, staff writer

SUIT SAYS POLITICS PLAYED INTO ARREST ON POT CHARGES

NORWOOD -- The borough council candidate who was charged with marijuana 
possession two weeks before an election last year has filed a federal suit 
against the borough, asserting that the arrest was politically motivated.

The suit by Mark Bocchino, who lost the election, states that borough 
police officers should be held liable for trespass, assault, battery, and 
false arrest.

The lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court in Newark, comes after 
criminal charges against Mark and Melba Bocchino were dismissed following 
rulings by two courts that the search of their home was unjustified.

"They made blatant misrepresentations to the court to get a search 
warrant," said Robert Woodruff, the Bocchinos' attorney. "Two separate 
courts have said to the police, 'We don't believe you.' There was strong 
evidence that whoever prepared that affidavit did so falsely. The actions 
of the police were unconstitutional."

The suit, which seeks unspecified compensatory damages, names as defendants 
Police Chief Frank D'Ercole, police officers Thomas Eilinger and James 
McVey, and the Borough of Norwood.

Borough Attorney Francis J. DiVito responded that "we have a respected 
police department, and they are good men, and I feel confident that truth 
will ultimately prevail."

D'Ercole, Eilinger, and McVey did not return The Record's calls. Mayor Gus 
D'Ercole, brother of the police chief, refused to comment.

Bocchino, 38, a plumbing-and-heating contractor and a member of a prominent 
Norwood family, had no comment. But he has said in the past and in the 
lawsuit that he was devastated by the arrest and ensuing notoriety.

Woodruff asserted that the publicity surrounding the arrest cost Bocchino 
election to the council.

At the time of the arrest, Bocchino was in a special runoff election for 
the council against Democrat Thomas Brizzolara, a political ally of the 
mayor. Bocchino, who would have been the sole Republican on the council, 
lost the May election by a vote of 604-486.

That runoff was required because an election in November 1999 finished in a 
tie. It first appeared that Brizzolara won that election by a single vote, 
but a judge ruled that one vote was cast illegally for Brizzolara and 
scheduled the runoff for May 2000.

Two months before the runoff, Eilinger responded to the Bocchinos' house 
after a 911 call, which turned out to be an accidental call placed by one 
of the couple's three children, the suit states.

Eilinger reported to his commander that while in the home he detected a 
strong odor of marijuana. That night officers entered the house and 
arrested the Bocchinos, charging each with one count of possession of 
marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia. Police said they recovered less than 
an ounce of burnt marijuana.

Bocchino and his supporters accused Chief D'Ercole of ordering the arrest 
to aid the Democratic candidate and help his brother, the mayor. The chief 
has maintained that his officers acted properly and that he has always been 
tough on drugs. He has said in the past that the arrest was unrelated to 
politics.

But the documents filed by Woodruff accuse Eilinger, Chief D'Ercole, and 
McVey of conspiring to prepare an affidavit with "intentionally false and 
misleading information so as to obtain a search warrant for the plaintiff's 
home." The suit states there was a history of tension between Eilinger and 
Mark Bocchino.

The suit states that Eilinger wrote in an affidavit that he was familiar 
with the odor of marijuana as a result of 150 narcotics arrests. In fact, 
the suit claims, his experience with raw marijuana was limited to two 
automobile stops. Other misleading information in the affidavit, according 
to the suit, were claims that the house smelled strongly of raw marijuana 
and that there were frequent visits to the Bocchino home, which indicated 
drug trafficking.

Without such misrepresentations, a warrant to search the home would not 
have been issued by a judge, according to the suit.

The suit notes that in July 2000, state Superior Court Judge Bruce Gaeta 
ruled in the Bocchinos' criminal case that the affidavit contained 
misrepresentations. Judge Gaeta, who sits in Hackensack, ordered the 
evidence to be suppressed. An appeals court last February affirmed Gaeta's 
decision.
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