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| In Courtroom 312, some people were nodding off today. |
After reading The Record's report of a "bruising cross-examination" and the judge threatening a witness with "contempt of court," I rushed over to hear testimony today in the criminal trial of suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa.
BOR-R-R-R-ING.
Even the headline on Wednesday's L-2 story was incorrect -- as Editor Liz Houlton's news copy editors continue to shoot themselves in the foot:
Hackensack cop grilled by Zisa's lawyers
The trial is being held in a small, plain courtroom on the third floor of the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack.
Superior Court Judge Joseph S. Conte is presiding, having lost a far nicer courtroom on the fourth floor that had a view of the ornate courthouse dome (see photo).
Akin and Kelly
Hanging on every word are Staff Writer Stephanie Akin -- the so-called Hackensack reporter -- who typed occasionally on a laptop computer, and other reporters.
Sitting next to Akin this morning was Staff Writer Mike Kelly, whose hair has turned all gray or white. I can't imagine how he is going to hype the tedious proceedings and turn them into a column.
Police Officer Laura Campos continued her testimony today under questioning from Zisa's defense lawyer, Patricia Prezioso, a tall, thin woman with an annoyingly high voice.
Not much of a defense
Prezioso is trying to attack the credibility of Campos, using the officer's previous testimony in related proceedings, including a lawsuit.
Trials don't get any more boring than this.
Prezioso referred to interrogatories, transcripts and certifications, at times projecting them on a large screen opposite the jury box, where women outnumber men.
During a break, Zisa got up from his seat at the defense table and asked a woman in the audience for her opinion of Campos as a witness against him.
Today's paper
Don't you love to see a top Port Authority executive squirming under questioning about high tolls (A-1)?
But readers shouldn't be fooled into thinking lavish front-page coverage of all this thunder from Sen. Frank Lautenberg is going to result in a rollback in the price of admission to the Hudson River crossings.
What's the matter with Lautenberg anyway?
The multimillionaire could have reached into his pocket, taken out $2,000 or $3,000 in large bills and thrown them at PA bigwig Bill Baroni, who said the senator enjoyed free tolls for years.
"Here's your crummy money, you bum!"
But that never happened.
Word pusher
On L-1 today, where is Kelly's gray hair in that unflattering thumbnail photo with his column?
He's writing about the death of a 19-year-old immigrant, and another photo shows people laughing in a hardware store.
Kelly's lead paragraph says Denis Batres Duarte's "American Dream came to end ... on a street where pink dogwood is blushing and the summer's canopy of sycamores is just beginning to bud."
Is it "summer" already? Is Kelly the gardening columnist now? Is that kind of random detail really appropriate?
Free advertising
On L-7, the business editors again eat Better Living's lunch with a long, promotional story on the latest venture from one of the biggest restaurant families in North Jersey.
The Dohertys own nearly 100 restaurants. Imagine how rich they are. Why are they getting all this publicity for a wine bar in Clifton?
For balance, shouldn't the reporter have told readers just how little employees of this restaurant empire are getting paid?
Wednesday's paper
Road Warrior John Cichowski is getting so desperate for material that he answered a supposed e-mail from his father, referred to as "Dad," in his L-1 column on Wednesday (L-1 and L-2).
Doesn't he ever visit the poor soul?
Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes had to rely on another freak accident photo to fill her Local section (L-1).
It doesn't look like the SUV actually broke through a wall, so the photo over line is incorrect:
AN UNEXPECTED HOUSEGUEST
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