A judge ordered the New Jersey attorney General’s Office during a Monday hearing that to provide a “detailed” explanation of why it only recently discovered new evidence in a case it filed nearly 18 months ago against a Paterson cop accused of shooting and paralyzing Khalif Cooper, who was believed to be unarmed, the New Jersey Monitor reports. Superior Court Judge Marilyn Clark said the new evidence — including photos that surfaced in June showing the shooting victim holding a gun hours or a day before the shooting — “necessitates” dismissal of the indictment against the officer, Jerry Moravek. Clark, who tossed the indictment Monday, said the state has a “legal responsibility” to deliver the new evidence to Moravek’s attorney, Charles Sciarra. Clark also ordered the state to let Sciarra know by Nov. 1 whether it plans to drop the case or present it again to another grand jury by Dec. 1.
Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Kormann said the state intends to continue its investigation into the shooting, including by issuing new subpoenas and conducting more interviews. The state had alleged that Cooper was unarmed on June 11, 2022, when Moravek shot him in the back, paralyzing him, a shooting captured on Moravek’s body camera. From the start, Moravek told investigators he believed Cooper had a gun. But the Attorney General’s Office charged Moravek with aggravated assault and official misconduct in February 2023, and a grand jury indicted Moravek on those charges in December. Since the photos only came to light six weeks ago, from two iPhones found near the crime scene and entered into evidence in Passaic County, they were not presented to the grand jury that indicted Moravek. The Attorney General’s Office first revealed that it had the new evidence in a letter it sent to Clark last week asking her to dismiss the indictment out of “fairness” to Moravek.
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