Lakewood SCHI founder to get new trial on corruption charges, appellate judges rule
Appellate judges Friday upheld a lower-court ruling granting a new trial for Rabbi Osher Eisemann, founder of Lakewood's School for Children with Hidden Intelligence (SCHI) who was convicted of money laundering and corporate misconduct in 2019.
In a unanimous decision, Judges Thomas W. Sumners Jr., Richard J. Geiger and Ronald Susswein of the Appellate Division of Superior Court said Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone did not abuse his discretion when he ordered a new trial for Eisemann, 66, of Lakewood.
Paone, who sits in Superior Court in Middlesex County, ruled in July that a witness, discovered by Eisemann's defense attorneys only after the trial, had information that could exonerate him.
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Paone also said the state knew about the witness but failed in its obligation to inform the defense about her.
The witness, a former bookkeeper for SCHI, said in a certification that she, not Eisemann, made the 2015 bookkeeping entry upon which the state based its allegation of money laundering.
The bookkeeper, Rochel Janowski, certified that the $200,000 ledger entry in question was made to balance the books, not to write down a loan to Eisemann, as the state had alleged.
Reacting to the appellate court ruling, Lee Vartan, an attorney representing Eisemann, said, "This is the result when the state hides exculpatory evidence from the defense.
"Rabbi Eisemann is innocent, and now we have the Appellate Division decision to prove it,'' Vartan said. "We look forward to the state doing the right thing and finally dismissing this wrong-headed prosecution.''
The state Attorney General's Office, which prosecuted the case, vowed to file an appeal.
"We disagree strongly with the Appellate Division's opinion, and we will be appealing further to the New Jersey Supreme Court,'' said Dan Prochilo, an office spokesman.
Eisemann founded the SCHI school in 1995 to serve a handful of developmentally delayed, medically fragile and emotionally challenged children, in part because he has a child with special needs. The school, on Oak Street in Lakewood, now serves more than 600 special needs youngsters, according to its website.
The school receives about $1.8 million a month from public school districts that send students there, the Attorney General's Office said when charges were first bought against Eisemann in 2017.
Eisemann has been on a leave of absence from the school since he was first charged in the case.
At his 2019 trial, the jury rejected the state's allegations that Eisemann diverted $979,000 from the school to his own purposes, acquitting him of first-degree corruption of public resources, as well as theft and misapplication of entrusted property.
The panel, however, in convicting Eisemann of money laundering and misconduct by a corporate official, found he moved $200,000 of school money through private accounts, including his own, before funneling it back to the school through third-party organizations to make it appear he was repaying a debt.
Paone, however, in ordering a new trial, said the only evidence presented at trial to suggest Eisemann owed a debt to the school came from William Fredrick, deputy chief of detectives for the Financial Crimes Bureau of the state Division of Criminal Justice, whose testimony was based on his own review of the school's books.
"Janowski, on the other hand, is the person responsible for the bookkeeping entry at issue,'' Paone wrote in his ruling. "She had first-hand knowledge.''
Paone wrote that the state was aware Janowski made the ledger entry in question, but didn't call her to testify at the first trial and didn't turn over her identity to the defense.
"The motion judge did not abuse his discretion in ordering a new trial,'' the appellate judges wrote in their decision. "The record supports his determination that no evidence in the record shows defendant had an outstanding loan with the school, other than Fredrick's interpretation of Rochel's QuickBooks entry.''
The appellate judges also said there was no basis to disagree with Paone that the state committed a violation by withholding evidence from the defense, "because it denied defendant his constitutional right to a fair trial.''
It was the Attorney General's Office that appealed Paone's ruling.
At a hearing before Paone in July, Deputy Attorney General John A. Nicodemo unsuccessfully argued that a new trial was unwarranted because Janowski's claims were uncorroborated and contradicted by evidence presented at the 2019 trial.
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Eisemann's defense attorneys only became aware of Janowski's existence as they were preparing for their client to be resentenced.
Eisemann had been sentenced to 60 days in jail, but the sentence was put on hold pending the outcome of an appeal.
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Appellate judges upheld Eisemann's conviction, but said Superior Court Judge Benjamin Bucca was too lenient on him, and they ordered the defendant re-sentenced because the crimes he was convicted of, by law, carry prison terms of five to 10 years.
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Before Eisemann could be re-sentenced, however, his lawyers discovered Janowski and the potentially exculpating information she had, and they filed a motion for a new trial.
Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Will Lakewood SCHI founder get new trial? Unanimous decision reached
