Edition: U.S. / Global


Published: November 1, 2000

A New Jersey judge dropped all charges today against two state troopers stemming from the 1998 shooting of three unarmed black and Hispanic men during the traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike that made racial profiling a national issue.

The decision stunned prosecutors and outraged civil rights leaders, who have seen the case as a test of the state's determination to fight discrimination by the state police.

The troopers, John Hogan and James Kenna, had faced attempted murder and aggravated assault charges for firing 11 shots at the occupants of a van that they stopped on the turnpike in April 1998. But the judge dismissed all charges in the case today, ruling that prosecutors had violated the troopers' civil rights by taking so inappropriately adversarial an approach before the grand jury that the hearings were essentially a ''mini-trial.''

The judge also said prosecutors had tainted the grand jury deliberations in the shooting case by announcing that another grand jury had indicted the officers on charges that they had falsified records in an attempt to conceal a practice of singling out minority drivers. Today's ruling did not affect those charges.

''Members of society engaged in law enforcement deserve no less protection from the criminal justice system than that which is afforded to other citizens,'' said the judge, Andrew J. Smithson of State Superior Court, as he handed down a 35-page decision heavy with criticism of the prosecutor's actions.

But the judge's most pointed criticism was directed at a state Supreme Court justice, Peter J. Verniero, who was state attorney general when several crucial decisions in the case were made.

Judge Smithson found that ''powerful and intimidating forces'' compelled prosecutors to announce the indictment in the falsified records case at the same time that the second grand jury was deliberating and the Legislature was considering Mr. Verniero's court appointment.

''The motivation to allow the return of the indictments at that time was considerably more a matter of political expediency than of concern for the substantive rights of defendants Hogan and Kenna,'' he said, suggesting that the indictment was announced to quiet a ''frenzy of public interest in racial profiling.''

Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who has been criticized for failing to heed complaints of racial profiling for two years before the shooting, said the state would appeal the ruling. Even if the appeal fails, the state attorney general can resubmit the evidence to a grand jury and ask for a new indictment.

Civil rights leaders and lawyers for the shooting victims said they were so angered by the ruling that they would ask the federal Justice Department to take over the prosecution, as it did in the beating of Abner Louima in a New York police precinct house.

The Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, executive director of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey, said the judge's decision was the latest sign that the state government lacked both the ability and the resolve to address the problem of racial discrimination.

''What is it that makes African-Americans, especially African-American men, still feared at large, especially when the officers are the ones with the guns?'' Mr. Jackson said. ''They were trailed, they were stopped, they were pulled over because they were minorities. They were suspects because they were minorities. They were accused because they were minorities. They were lied on because they were minorities. And today this judge says none of that matters because the state didn't follow procedure.''

Three of the four occupants of the van were wounded by the gunfire and were treated at hospitals.

The ruling surprised many of those in the courtroom, and Troopers Hogan and Kenna appeared emotional as the judge read his decision. As he walked out of the courthouse, Trooper Hogan said only, ''I'm happy for my family and myself.''

Only last week, prosecutors withdrew attempted murder charges against Trooper Hogan because a witness had recently corroborated his claim of self-defense.

Legal experts said it was unusual for judges to grant dismissals because of prosecutorial misconduct, but the decision, while embarrassing to the state, did not end the troopers' legal problems: they still face charges of official misconduct. The other grand jury accused them of changing arrest records to conceal the fact that many of the drivers they stopped were black. Prosecutors may also seek to reinstate the aggravated assault and attempted murder charges that Judge Smithson dropped today.

''I don't know that the cost is actually that devastating, because they can go back to a grand jury and seek a new indictment,'' said Frank Askin, a law professor at Rutgers University.

Jack Arsenault, the lawyer for Trooper Kenna, said he was gratified by today's ruling but expected the legal battles to drag on.

''It's important for everyone to understand that there's no joy in this,'' Mr. Arsenault said. ''This is a continuing tragedy, and it's far from over.