CAMDEN - Defense attorneys for Cherry Hill rabbi Fred J. Neulander, accused of hiring a hit man to murder his wife, want to know if investigators interviewed reputed mob boss Joey Merlino about a possible link to the case.
The attorneys said they have obtained information that investigators talked with Merlino, the alleged head of the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia, and believe they asked him about hiring a killer for Neulander. The rabbi is charged as an accomplice in the November 1994 bludgeoning death of his wife, Carol.
"We've heard from more than one source there may have been contact" between investigators and Merlino, defense attorney Jeffrey Zucker said Monday after a status hearing on the case. One of those sources is a television news interview in which Merlino said investigators contacted him.
Zucker denied Neulander has ever had any contact with Merlino. The rabbi has pleaded innocent to the charges.
Merlino could not be reached, but denied during the TV interview any link to the case.
Defense attorneys also told the court they plan to file a motion seeking dismissal of the charges against Neulander, saying prosecutors mishandled the case. They are seeking documents to back up allegations that investigators selectively leaked information to the news media that may have led to Neulander's arrest and would make it impossible for him to get a fair trial.
"We need information to detail what we think is a significant pattern," defense attorney Dennis Wixted told the court.
First Assistant Prosecutor James Lynch agreed to provide most of the items but initially balked at the request for copies of any news articles related to the case that were clipped and kept on file by investigators, saying there was no log of all stories written on Neulander.
But Wixted convinced Superior Court Judge Linda Rosenzweig that the information was needed to establish a possible link between the appearance of certain articles and Neulander's arrest. Rosenzweig will hear the motion Oct. 1.
"We want to know what is on file in order to see what is used (in the investigation)," Wixted said.
Lynch declined to comment on the allegations that prosecutors leaked information to bolster their case.
"We're not going to try this case in the media," Lynch told reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing. "We're going to try it in the courtroom."
Other documents the defense requested include:
-- Copies of correspondence between Neulander and Philadelphia radio personality Elaine Soncini, who has admitted to having a two-year affair with the rabbi.
-- Internal documents regarding former Cherry Hill police officer Larry Leaf, who was assigned to guard Soncini shortly after the slaying and has since married her.
-- All police contact with Myron "Pep" Levin, a Neulander acquaintance and Cherry Hill businessman with reputed mob ties. Prosecutors said Levin has told them that Neulander once said he would like to return home and "find his wife dead on the floor."
Neulander, who remains free on $400,000 bail since his September arrest, declined to speak to the media after Monday's proceeding, saying he would talk when the case was over.
Prosecutors allege Neulander, 57, desperately wanted to end his 29-year marriage, but thought divorce would jeopardize his position as senior rabbi at Congregation M'Kor Shalom, the synagogue he founded with his late wife. He resigned from the temple in February 1995 after reports of his affairs with two congregants.
If convicted, Neulander faces life in prison without parole for 30 years.
Rabbi Fred J. Neulander