Hackensack, NJ: Trial of husband accused of shoving his wife off a cliff starts today

Lawyers will make opening statements Tuesday in Hackensack in the murder trial of Stephen Scharf, who is accused of pushing his wife off a cliff 19 years ago in Englewood Cliffs.

Background: On Sept. 20, 1992, Scharf called the Palisades Interstate Park Police and reported that his wife, Jody Ann Scharf, had slipped and fallen off a cliff at the Rockefeller Lookout. He said they had scaled a 4-foot fence and were sightseeing at the cliff’s edge.
It took rescue workers nearly three hours to reach Scharf at the bottom of the cliff, where she was pronounced dead.
What prosecutors are saying: Scharf’s death initially was ruled an accident, although prosecutors later said her husband was a suspect from "Day One."
Scharf stood to collect $700,000 from a life insurance policy that was taken out a few months earlier. Jody Scharf had also filed for divorce shortly before her death and had told friends that she was afraid of her husband.
The case remained cold for years until prosecutors revived the file and arrested Scharf in 2008, charging him with murder.
Authorities said they reanalyzed evidence and concluded that Scharf’s death must have been a homicide, considering the height of the cliff and the location where her body was found.
Scharf did not claim the insurance money upon his wife’s death, even though he had a 10-year-old son.
Prosecutors said he claimed the money years later after his son became an adult so the son would not get any money.
What the defense is saying: Scharf’s attorney, Ed Bilinkas, has said his client maintains his innocence and is eagerly waiting for a trial to clear his name.
Prosecutors relied on the same evidence that they have had since Scharf’s death — evidence that Bilinkas said had been deemed for years to be insufficient to arrest Scharf.

Scharf, 60, of Washington Township, Morris County, is being held at the Bergen County Jail on $1 million bail.

The trial: Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Roma will preside over the trial, which is expected to last seven weeks.
The witness list includes Dr. Michael Baden, a celebrity forensic pathologist who has testified in a number of high-profile cases.

Also during the trial, jurors will be transported to the Rockefeller Lookout in Englewood Cliffs to have a firsthand view of what prosecutors say was the scene of a murder.