By CRIS BARRISH
Gannett ContentOne
Nearly two years after Rosario DiGirolamo was charged in New Jersey with killing mistress Amy Giordano and parts of her skeleton were fished from a pond, he's living at his parents' home with no trial date on the horizon.
Had DiGirolamo been indicted in Delaware -- where he abandoned the couple's child -- he would almost certainly have been tried by now.
Almost all Delaware cases, including high-profile murders, get resolved within a year of indictment.
Instead, former computer analyst DiGirolamo, 35, faces trial in Mercer County, which has the second-worst criminal case backlog in New Jersey. Mercer has seen murder cases languish for five years, DiGirolamo's prosecutor said.
There was an outside chance DiGirolamo's trial could have been scheduled last Thursday, officials said, but the week's snowstorm postponed a status conference. Even if a trial date is set soon, it would be several months away in a case where neither side has even filed a pretrial motion.
The delay in bringing DiGirolamo to justice has Giordano's cousin, Stephen Fishbaum, fuming.
"The guy's out on bail on house arrest when he already should be spending the rest of his life behind bars," Fishbaum said. "He's home and celebrating Thanksgiving and having Christmas dinner. It doesn't seem fair to me."
Prosecutors say DiGirolamo, who lived with his wife and young son, beat his 27-year-old mistress to death with a metal bar in June 2007 in the apartment he rented for her. He then allegedly sawed her into pieces he packed into suitcases.
His former best friend, John A. Russo Jr., led police to Giordano's remains in a pond in Staten Island, N.Y. Russo told prosecutors DiGirolamo had confided he was going to kill Giordano because he could not afford two families. DiGirolamo was arrested in March 2008 and indicted in January 2009.
In Delaware, charges against DiGirolamo were resolved more than two years ago.
In July 2007, while DiGirolamo was hiding in Italy, authorities here charged him with leaving their 11-month-old son, Michael, in Christiana Hospital's parking lot. That November he pleaded guilty to endangering and abandoning his son.
DiGirolamo was put on probation that expires in May. Delaware officials have since placed the boy, who will turn 4 in July, into adoption with an unidentified relative of the man accused of killing his mother.
In Mercer County, however, the wheels of justice turn slower. The county has a backlog of more than 700 criminal cases, in large part because three of its six Superior Court judge positions were vacant for months.
In the DiGirolamo case, both his prosecutor and defense attorney cited delays in getting laboratory results as other factors that have stalled the case. Part of the state's case is based on blood evidence found in Giordano's Hightstown apartment.
Ferris Wharton, a longtime state and federal prosecutor in Delaware who now works as a public defender, said the scenario playing out in New Jersey "would be impossible here."
Swift justice
Delaware courts have a speedy-trial policy that seeks to resolve all criminal cases within a year of indictment. In fiscal 2009, 98.6 percent of the 9,315 case dispositions occurred within a year, and 92.8 percent were concluded within six months.
Soon after someone gets indicted, Wharton said, a trial judge holds a status conference within weeks, and sets a timetable that includes dates for discovery cutoff and jury selection. Should there be delays in discovery or getting test results, or due to pretrial motions, the judge can adjust the dates.
While Delaware seeks to have cases resolved in 12 months, New Jersey is more ambitious -- a mandatory goal to dispose of 70 percent of cases within four months.
In Mercer County, the goal is no more than a dream. A state report released in December showed that 735 of Mercer's criminal cases, or 64 percent -- second worst in the state -- were in backlog status, meaning they were were older than four months.
Alfred Federico, the county's criminal division manager, said officials are not pleased with the record. "I'm embarrassed," he said.
"A long process'
Federico attributed the problem in part to the vacant judge's posts -- two of which have been filled. In DiGirolamo's case, the two judges who presided over prior hearings since his March 2008 arrest have retired. "That contributes to cases not moving," he said.
Another factor, Federico said, was that court dockets have been bogged down by about 80 gang cases involving drugs and violence. "It's a long process with a lot of delays," he said. "But we're starting to move in the right direction."
Prosecutor Thomas P. Meidt, who is handling the DiGirolamo case, said he recently finished a murder trial that was 5 years old. "In New Jersey, that's not atypical," he said. "It isn't swift justice."
The DiGirolamo case also is awaiting expert and lab reports, Meidt said.
"There's limited resources to get everything you need," he said. "It's a long and tedious process and this case is just working its way through the system."
DiGirolamo's lawyer, Jerome Ballarotto, would not provide any information about his client's life while awaiting trial, except that he has been living in his parents' house in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was jailed for eight months after his arrest and released just before Thanksgiving 2008 after his family posted $1 million cash bail.
"He's under house arrest," Ballarotto said. "That all I can say."
Of the slow pace, Ballarotto also cited expert reports.
"There's a lot of DNA, a lot of lab stuff and some of it was done in New York. It takes a long time to get this stuff back. This is not unusual for New Jersey, for a complicated case to take a long time to go to trial. And this is not your run-of-the-mill case."
While Ballarotto acknowledges he's in no hurry to get the case to trial with his client free, authorities say speedy trial requirements benefit both defendants and victims.
Victims' rights
Susan Howley, director of public policy for the nonprofit National Center for Victims of Crime, said defendants such as DiGirolamo, who are free on bail facing a potential life term, aren't interested in a speedy result.
"If you can drag it out, there's a chance a case can collapse," Howley said. "When you delay cases, witnesses memories fade or witnesses may disappear, be intimidated, feel threatened or may decide not to participate even if they initially came forward.
"Judges also need to consider the rights of the victims, who often put their lives on hold. They put off weddings and family vacations because they want to stay available for the trial. When there's continuance after continuance, it can be very wearying."
In Giordano's case, her only public advocate has been Fishbaum. She was adopted as a baby and alienated from adoptive parents when she left home as a teenager. Fishbaum, who is related to Giordano through the adoption, said he doesn't expect her adoptive parents to attend the trial with him, but is eager for it to begin.
Richard Pompelio, an attorney who runs the New Jersey Crime Victims Law Center, said he's not surprised by the Mercer County backlog, which he said has more crime than most counties in the state.
"They get a lot of violent crime, a lot of big heavy cases. It always seems like this justice system is always pouring 10 gallons of water into a one-quart bottle," he said.
"This case could end up taking more than 3 1/2 years. Wow! It just shouldn't take that long."
Reach Cris Barrish at cbarrish@delawareonline.com
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