Judge Acquits Mullica Mayor, Accuser in Confrontation

From the Atlantic City Press Published: Oct 21, 2008








A judge on Monday found Mullica Township’s mayor and another man innocent of criminal charges associated with their public confrontation five months ago, noting that rarely do incidents of such limited consequence proceed so far in court.

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“You have to excuse the court if I become trivial about this matter,” Judge Frank J. Raso told Mayor William Kennedy and Mullica resident Louis Vitale, neither of whom visibly reacted as Raso announced their acquittals. Vitale had accused Kennedy of assault, and a countercharge followed, citing Vitale for harassment.

The encounter happened May 12 outside a township school board meeting. Neither man was injured, and Raso said after deliberating for 30 minutes he was unconvinced either intended to harm the other.

“I’m just relieved that it’s over. It’s a waste of a lot of good people’s time,” Kennedy said. The parties’ pretrial attempt at out-of-court settlement failed.

Said Vitale: “It’s a disappointment, but I’m not upset. If I ever get assaulted again, I’ll do it (file a complaint) again.” He said he and his attorney, Frank Lentz, are still considering legal options.

According to state sentencing guidelines, a simple-assault conviction can carry a sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. The maximum for harassment is 30 days and $500. Raso said he usually sees those crimes illustrated more dramatically, with a gun aimed at one’s head or a pattern of unwanted telephone calls.

“Mr. Vitale, you have to expect that if you call someone a liar, they’ll turn around and ratchet something up,” Raso said. “Mr. Kennedy, you’re a politician. If the worst thing said about you is that you’re a liar, consider yourself lucky.”

The incident landed in Folsom court because Kennedy’s elected Mullica position created a conflict of interest. Kennedy is up for re-election to Township Committee two weeks from today.

Seven witnesses, including Kennedy and Vitale, provided two hours of testimony. All seemed to agree on the following details:

n In a hallway outside the board’s closed session, Kennedy’s township committee colleague Michael St. Amour told the mayor he planned to recognize at the next meeting the recent death of resident Larry Angel, a longtime irritant to the township government. Kennedy objected, mentioning that Angel had misrepresented his military record.

n Vitale overheard this and called Kennedy a liar, then the meeting room reopened and Kennedy filed in, with Vitale close behind. Kennedy turned around to face Vitale, and his hand touched Vitale’s chest. The men were told a child behind Vitale had fallen down. Kennedy apologized to her. Vitale left the building.

Witness Kathleen Wooton identified herself as the great-grandmother of the 7-year-old girl and claimed the girl told her, “Oh, these people stopped, and I walked into them.”

Vitale testified Kennedy grabbed and “push-punched” him in two motions.

“It was on an angle, in the gallbladder area,” Vitale told Raso. Kennedy shook his head and smiled at his lawyer, Steven J. Feldman. “I knew the blow was coming, so I was just, ‘If he’s going to hit me, let him hit me.”

Attorneys asked both men to give their height and weight. Vitale, 62, said he is six feet tall, 330 pounds; Kennedy, 63, is six-foot-one, 250 pounds, he said.

Vitale’s police report did not reflect that he was punched because he was told to keep it short and that the reporting officer would elaborate in court, Vitale said. Officer Paul Sarraf said Vitale did not mention getting punched, and no other witness corroborated this.

Some witnesses did say Kennedy had grabbed Vitale by the shirt, knocking him off-balance; Kennedy testified he held out his hand to keep a “screaming” Vitale at bay and that Vitale ran into it.

“I needed some space between the two of us,” Kennedy said.

Thomas Carl only saw Kennedy point at Vitale, who was “agitated,” and shout, “I don’t need your vote.” Carl added, “You never hear Bill Kennedy raise his voice, so that got everybody’s attention.”

Kennedy plans to request that the Township Committee pay his legal bills, but he said he would recuse himself from the vote. Without Kennedy’s own vote, his proposal would be unlikely to get majority support, St. Amour predicted.

The testimony of St. Amour largely matched that of Vitale. Though both St. Amour and Kennedy are Democrats, they have been at odds on prominent issues when Kennedy has aligned with the Republicans.

St. Amour recalled Kennedy told him, “I hope Larry Angel died a slow painful death.” An apparent heart attack killed Angel on May 8, four days before the Kennedy-Vitale incident.

Kennedy did not address that allegation from St. Amour, but he testified he had not claimed Angel lied about being a veteran, only about serving in Vietnam. Kennedy said Angel’s brother told him Angel was stationed in Germany.

Prosecutor Edward Duffy said it was ironic Angel could still be the subject of controversy for months after his death: “I imagine he’s got a look of bemusement as he looks down on these proceedings.”

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