Defense attorney Lee Vartan is calling for an immediate investigation into circumstances involving the state’s prosecution of Osher Eisemann, a prominent Lakewood rabbi who was vindicated two days ago when a judge dismissed the state’s case because the evidence was “insufficient to warrant a conviction.”
The Attorney General’s controversial Office of Public Integrity and Accountability had retried the rabbi and educator on money laundering charges after Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone previously vacated a 2022 conviction because a top prosecutor withheld evidence – a Brady violation.
In a letter to Lyndsay Ruotolo, the acting attorney general, Vartan said two prosecutors, Jeffrey Manis and Frank Valdinoto, “exhibited a shocking disregard for both the facts of the case and the law.”
“OPIA has a history of slipshod and failed investigations and unethical prosecutors whom courts have found violated defendants’ rights,” said Vartan. “John Nicodemo is perhaps the prime offender, but as you well know, there are others. Mr. Manis and Mr. Valdinoto now must be added to the list.”
Vartan said the attorney general’s office refused to meet with him in 2022 to discuss the Brady violation and the “glaring deficiencies in the state’s case, thereby preventing further prosecution of an innocent person and the resulting unnecessary expenditure of State resources.”
The lead detective in the original Eisemann investigation, Tom Page, who is now retired, testified that he didn’t believe a crime existed and didn’t understand why prosecutors were trying the case. Another state witness said the entire theory of OPIA prosecution was wrong.
Vartan wants to know why the OPIA didn’t adhere to its own guidelines on disclosing evidence and is asking who made the decision to proceed with another trial.
“It seems to me that any investigation or prosecution that Mr. Nicodemo, Detective Page, or Deputy Chief Fredrick have been involved with since the Court’s Brady finding in July 2022 must also be examined due to the strong possibility that the State’s failure to disclose vital Brady/Giglio information in those cases may have led to convictions that a court may now need to reverse,” said Vartan.
After the first trial, Paone said Nicodemo withheld crucial evidence and disregarded a court rule requiring prosecutors to disclose important information in the government’s possession to the defendant’s lawyers.
Nicodemo has been accused of holding back evidence from defense attorneys and lying to grand juries to obtain indictments. He has since been reassigned to an administrative job with the Division of Highway Traffic Safety and is no longer a line prosecutor.
A spokesperson for the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability pushed back on Vartan’s statements, doubling down on their defense of their own department.
“The Office of Public Integrity and Accountability handles important, complicated, and sensitive cases, and we stand by the work of the dedicated attorneys and investigators who perform this work knowing that they may be criticized by powerful and influential people,” a spokesperson said. “We recognize that no prosecutor or agent is infallible, and when legitimate concerns are identified, we review them and, if necessary, address them.”
The spokesperson accused Vartan of cherry picking from motions and transcripts, and said it “Does not reflect the overall litigation of a case that spanned multiple administrations and was tried twice.”
“Defense had every incentive to raise concerns with the court in this case, which he did at every turn, without the court expressing concerns about the prosecutors or our office in this case,” the spokesperson said.
This story was updated at 12:54 PM on August 3.