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By MIKE DANIELS
Courier-Post Staff
MOUNT HOLLY
For the most part, Michael Riley's life and legal practice have returned to normal in the two months since he lost the biggest case in his short career as a defense attorney.
The lawyer who got national TV coverage and high praise for his unsuccessful defense of Cherry Hill rabbi Fred J. Neulander still fields interview requests from news outlets fascinated by the sensational case. And some people who remember seeing his name in the newspapers call as potential clients.
Despite the lingering attention, Riley is still coping with his defeat at the rabbi's murder-for-hire retrial last fall. But he feels his defense strategy was the way to go and says if he could do it all over again, he'd still choose to represent Neulander.
"When you try a case and you lose, that sense of loss lasts a very long time," said Riley, "and if you're a person that cares about what you're doing, you reflect on everything that you did, looking for and analyzing everything that you did."
How it all began
Riley remembers the way it began, when he first met the rabbi accused of hiring two hit men to kill his wife.
It was a year ago, not long after Neulander's first trial ended in a hung jury. The rabbi's original defense team, Dennis Wixted and Jeffrey Zucker, knew the rabbi probably wouldn't be able to afford their services for the retrial.
So they invited their friend Riley to Camden County Jail to meet a prospective new client.
"He was soft-spoken," Riley said of his first meeting with Neulander. "Obviously very articulate, very intelligent, very composed, very polite. Conversational. We talked in generalities. I came away impressed with the man."
Ten months later, Riley stood shoulder to shoulder with Neulander in the Monmouth County Courthouse as a jury forewoman announced Neulander was guilty of capital murder, felony murder and conspiracy in the 1994 death of his wife, Carol.
Riley vividly recalls that moment of truth - shortly after 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2002 - being like so many others he has experienced throughout a 27-year career as a trial attorney.
"There's just no noise," Riley said of the crowded Freehold courtroom. "Literally, people make no noise. There' s no breathing. The tension, you can cut it with a knife. ... I sensed that."
When the jury decided two days later not to sentence the rabbi to death, Riley again stood by Neulander's side.
On Thursday, the 61-year-old rabbi was sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole before he turns 88 years old.
The appeal process
Now, with Neulander ready to begin a long stay in a yet- to-be-determined New Jersey prison, Riley will continue to help him fight for his freedom. Following the rabbi's sentencing, Riley said he would probably not be the rabbi's lead attorney for his appeals. However, Riley said, he'll aid whichever lawyer, likely a public defender, ends up helping Neulander through the appeal process.
Riley, 55, said appeals could be based on several things that occurred in both trials, but won't specify the grounds for those appeals.
One appeal, he said, would involve Superior Court Judge Linda G. Baxter's decision to prevent Riley from showing jurors photos of some tire marks that could have let them conclude Neulander was innocent.
The pictures depict the driveway of Janice Bell, who was murdered in 1995 at her Voorhees home. Bell was linked to key prosecution witness Leonard Jenoff, one of the hit men Neulander hired to kill his wife.
Here's how the photos could have helped the rabbi: Former Camden County Jail inmate David Beardsley testified that Jenoff, while the two shared a cellblock, told him the rabbi had nothing to do with Carol Neulander's murder. Beardsley also said Jenoff privately admitted to being involved in the Bell murder, for which no one was ever charged.
Most damning, Beardsley said Jenoff told him he'd worried about tire marks he might have left in Bell's driveway following the 1995 slaying.
Riley had hoped to introduce crime scene pictures of the tire marks as evidence. They prove Beardsley wasn't making up his story, Riley said. But Baxter ruled against him.
Riley keeps those pictures at his Mount Holly office, along with boxes of other documents from the case. He's eager to talk about the photos.
"If I had that ability to put that in front of a jury ... don't you think some of the jurors would have sat back and said, `Don't you think this prisoner (Beardsley) is telling the truth?'" Riley said. "I think that would have gone directly to the credibility of Jenoff and directly to the credibility of Beardsley."
One of his biggest regrets about the trial is not winning permission to submit the Bell evidence.
Riley, a former Burlington County first assistant prosecutor, won't pinpoint any one thing he would have changed about his overall defense strategy. He noted the controversial decision for Neulander not to testify was the rabbi's call, not his. He believes his strategy, to hammer away at the credibility of Jenoff and other prosecution witnesses, was the right way to defend Neulander. And he thinks investigators who searched for Carol Neulander's killer made up their mind too soon.
"In my judgment they focused on him (the rabbi) early on, almost to the exclusion of other people," Riley said. " I think they reached a conclusion, then went back and built a case around it."
Riley said Neulander maintains his innocence, as he did repeatedly in court Thursday, insisting Jenoff and his accomplice, Paul Michael Daniels, acted on their own when they killed Carol Neulander. As for when his client might grant his first jailhouse interview, Riley doesn't know.
Riley also believes police who investigated the Neulander house immediately after the murder missed chances to find evidence that would have linked Jenoff to the crime long ago.
Jenoff's involvement in the murder was not known until he came forward in April of 2000.
Riley said if police had searched the first-floor bathroom of the Neulander house, which Jenoff later admitted he had been in a week before the murder, they might have found forensic evidence of Jenoff's presence in the house.
`Nothing like this'
Since the monthlong retrial ended, Riley has been able to lighten his load a little. He no longer has to rise each morning at 4:30, drive to Freehold, spend eight to 10 hours there, drive home to Mount Laurel, and spend several more hours poring over thousands of pages of documents to prepare for the next day's witnesses before going to bed around midnight.
While he now has more time to spend with his family, Riley said part of him misses the sense of purpose he had working on a high-profile case.
Riley said the Neulander saga will always stand out because of its incredibly diverse personalities. They included a former private detective and habitual liar ( Jenoff), a well-known radio personality (the rabbi's mistress, Elaine Soncini), a colorful witness linked to organized crime (Myron "Pep" Levin) and a once-respected clergyman-turned-adulterer (the rabbi).
"I've had cases that were classic whodunit murders. I've had cases that were straight up brutal," Riley said. "But nothing like this with such a cast of characters. ... There' s no way you could make this stuff up."
Riley will also remember the case for the dozens of e- mails and phone calls he received from trial-watchers across the country. The trial was broadcast live each day on Court TV.
They sent him tips on ways he should react as the trial progressed. When the trial ended, Riley made sure to respond to each person who wrote him, politely thanking them for their interest in the case.
"I've never had to do that before," he said.
Riley chuckles a bit when asked what actor might play him in the inevitable movies or TV miniseries that will someday chronicle the eight-year story. He says an actor probably won't be needed to play him, because what happened in the '90s before and after the murder would likely be the focus of any movie.
"I don't think this is a trial story," he said. "I think it's a family story ... a people story."
And for the record, Riley said, Neulander's defense wasn' t pro bono.
"I can't tell you specifically how I got paid, he said, " but I got paid."
Reach Mike Daniels at (856) 486-2457 or mdaniels@courierpostonline.com
