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By MIKE DANIELS
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN
Vicious and evil.
Liar and coward.
Murderer.
Those were just some of the words Carol Neulander's family used to describe the man she called her husband for 29 years, the man responsible for her murder at the hands of two hit men eight years ago.
Two of the three children she left behind, as well as her three siblings, bared their souls before Rabbi Fred J. Neulander on Thursday before he was sentenced to life in prison.
If the 61-year-old rabbi remembers their words, it'll likely be from nowhere but a prison cell. His sentence doesn't make him eligible for parole before 2030, when he'd be 88 years old.
Dr. Matthew Neulander, the couple's oldest child, spoke about his 9-month-old daughter, Madison, and how he hopes the father he now calls "Fred" never meets her.
"In Madison's best interest, I will take from him what would mean the world to a normal man," Matthew said in a written statement read into the court record. "Madison and her siblings will never know Fred. I will never allow him to be even the most marginal part of their lives. It is with the physical and emotional welfare of my children in mind that I request that the court permanently remove this vicious and evil person from their respective futures."
Ensuring the rabbi never leaves prison would be "simple justice for my mother," he added.
Matthew Neulander, who lives in North Carolina, and daughter Rebecca Neulander Rockoff, who lives in Connecticut, didn't attend the sentencing, although both offered written impact statements to the court. Their younger brother, Benjamin, attended the hearing but said nothing.
Rockoff, in her statement, mostly reminisced about her mother. But she closed with biting words for her father, saying she wanted him to remember the loving wife and mother he offered hit men Leonard Jenoff and Paul Michael Daniels $30,000 to kill.
"I am not sure that he will ever fully comprehend what his egomaniacal and selfish acts did to my family and to me," Rockoff said. "I hope that the longer he sits in prison, the more he will be haunted by the magnitude of his losses - there are many and they are painful."
Carol Neulander's brother Edward Lidz, who attended both trials regularly, recalled a phone call he got from the rabbi Nov. 2, 1994. It came a few hours after the rabbi found Carol Neulander lying in a pool of blood in the living room of her home on Cherry Hill's east side.
"Although we have experienced other losses, nothing can possibly compare to having you, Fred, call us at 1:30 in the morning on Nov. 2 to tell us of Carol's death and begin the string of lies that would last to this very day."
Words "cannot describe the type of person" the rabbi became, Lidz said.
"You are a murderer. You are a liar, a coward and a cheat," he said. "You dishonored Carol, yourself, your children, this court, your congregation, the rabbinate and Judaism."
Lidz ended his remarks by asking that Neulander never be eligible for parole.
The victim's other brother, Robert Lidz, talked about the family events that Carol never got to be a part of.
"In the eight years past, she would have beamed with pride, as her son (Matthew) became a doctor, married and presented her with her first grandchild. She would have been immersed in her daughter's wedding plans, enhanced their bond and shrieked in joy as a second granddaughter was born ... All of these are now memories fractured by Carol's murder."
Carol Neulander's only sister, Margaret Miele, spoke briefly and fought back tears as she talked of the bond she shared with Carol.
"I thought that I would always be able to love and help in her times of need but in the end this was not to be," Miele said. "Not to be, because the convicted, while pretending to be a caring and concerned family member, deliberately plotted and planned her brutal murder."
In the end, it was Matthew Neulander, clearly the most bitter of the rabbi's three children, who concluded his his statement on the most hopeful note:
"The time for healing has come."
Reach Mike Daniels at (856) 486-2457 or mdaniels@courierpostonline.com
