Judge tosses indictment against Paterson cop accused of shooting unarmed man

The state alleges Paterson man Khalif Cooper was unarmed on June 11, 2022, when officer Jerry Moravek shot him in the back, paralyzing him. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

A judge told the Attorney General’s Office during a Monday hearing that it must provide a “detailed” explanation of why it only recently discovered new evidence in a case it filed nearly 18 months ago against a Paterson cop accused of shooting an unarmed man.

Superior Court Judge Marilyn Clark said the new evidence — including photos showing the shooting victim holding a gun hours or a day before the shooting — “necessitates” dismissal of the indictment against the officer, Jerry Moravek. Clark, who tossed the indictment Monday, said the state has a “legal responsibility” to deliver the new evidence to Moravek’s attorney, Charles Sciarra.

Clark also ordered the state to let Sciarra know by Nov. 1 whether it plans to drop the case or present it again to another grand jury by Dec. 1.

Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Kormann said the state intends to continue its investigation into the shooting, including by issuing new subpoenas and conducting more interviews.

The state alleges Paterson man Khalif Cooper was unarmed on June 11, 2022, when Moravek shot him in the back, paralyzing him, a shooting captured on Moravek’s body camera. Moravek told investigators he believed Cooper had a gun. The Attorney General’s Office charged Moravek with aggravated assault and official misconduct in February 2023, and a grand jury indicted Moravek on those charges in December.

Kormann told Clark that around June 20 this year, he received two photos that appear to show Cooper had a gun the morning of or the night before the shooting. The attorneys did not otherwise describe the photos in court on Monday.

The photos were not presented to the grand jury that indicted Moravek. Kormann said he would have presented them if he had known they existed.

The Attorney General’s Office first revealed that it had the new evidence in a letter it sent to Clark last week asking her to dismiss the indictment out of “fairness” to Moravek. The photos emerged after Moravek’s attorneys asked for records in April, which led the Attorney General’s Office to discover that some evidence remained with the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office.

The photos are on two iPhones found near the crime scene that may belong to Cooper.

Kormann said Monday he wants initially to share evidence from the phones just from June 10 and 11, 2022, saying he hadn’t been able to review the phones’ full contents.

Clark pressed Kormann on why the state hadn’t looked at the phones’ contents in the six weeks since it received them. Kormann called it a “resources issue,” saying his office “doesn’t have manpower at this time.”

Sciarra came to court Monday with an external hard drive, saying he was ready to dig through all the new evidence. Clark ordered the state to transfer all the information they have within two weeks.

The case was investigated by the attorney general’s public integrity and accountability office, which was created in 2018 to investigate public corruption. The department has come under fire for several high-profile cases that have been dismissed, and one lawmaker has called for an outside investigation into the office.

Cooper is suing Paterson for $50 million in federal court. The Attorney General’s Office seized control of the Paterson Police Department in 2023 , after years of scandals, an FBI investigation into the department, a high number of use-of-force incidents, and several deaths involving police.

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