Citing personal safety, former Bordentown police chief won’t return to N.J. for resentencing

Former Bordentown Township Police Chief Frank Nucera Jr., citing concerns about his own safety, asked a judge Wednesday to let him remotely attend his resentencing in New Jersey from a federal prison in Kentucky.

U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler initially expressed concern about allowing Nucera to waive the requirement that he physically attend, noting the case had “significant public interest.” After a brief telephone conference call, he granted the request by defense attorney Rocco Cipparone.

Cipparone said Nucera, 66, has adjusted to the Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Ky., where he has been held in a high-security area for the last year. Nucera is serving a 28-month sentence for lying to the FBI about striking a handcuffed Black teenager during an arrest in 2016.

Nucera was expected to return to New Jersey after an appeals court earlier this month vacated that sentence and ordered Kugler to reconsider guidelines. Nucera could be sentenced on May 31 to six months, given credit for time served, and released.

Federal marshals were scheduled to begin the process Thursday of transporting Nucera to South Jersey. But Cipparone said Nucera would rather appear by video for the resentencing.

Cipparone said Nucera was concerned about possibly being held in less secure county, state, or federal prisons during the trek from Kentucky. Prosecutors said the trip could take two weeks, depending on how many additional prisoners are transported.

“As a former police officer, he is concerned about his safety,” Cipparone said.

Kugler also rejected a motion Wednesday to release Nucera on bail, pending the resentencing. Cipparone said Nucera has “essentially been a model inmate,” had no disciplinary infractions, and has taken finance and real estate classes to hopefully find employment after his release.

The judge said he has not decided on a new sentence. Nucera was already scheduled to be released Sept. 5 to home confinement with electronic monitoring, the judge said.

Nucera was accused of the hate-crime assault in 2017 in the predominantly white community of about 11,000 just south of Trenton. Authorities said the longtime chief had a history of racist behavior, including saying he wanted to join a firing squad to kill Black people, comparing them to ISIS, and talking of sending police dogs to intimidate Black spectators at high school basketball games.

A federal jury in October 2019 convicted Nucera of lying when he told the FBI he did not strike Timothy Stroye at a Bordentown hotel in 2016. Kugler twice declared a mistrial in the case against Nucera after jurors deadlocked on the two most serious civil rights charges against him.

Prosecutors announced in January 2022 that they would not seek to try him a third time on the remaining charges.