Phone records of senator's wife remain missing

Subpoenas were never issued in 2018 fatal crash, probe shows

By: Katie Sobko
and Kristie Catafi
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... It was a quick mention in police reports detailing a car crash involving Nadine Arslanian Menedez in December 2018, one in which the vehicle she was driving struck and kill a Bogota man.
..... Easily overlooked in reports filed by both the Bogota Police Department and the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, officials indicated that Arslanian's phone records were to be subpoenaed as part of the investigation into the crash that killed Richard Koop.
..... Those subpoenas were never issued, nor were the phone records ever delivered to investigators. the Record and NorthJersey.com found after seeking public records pertaining to the deadly crash.
..... When those records were requested, as well as records pertaining to any warrants issued to assist with the subpoenas, authorities responded by saying no such records exist in the Bogota Police Department or at the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.
..... Arslanisan -who began dating Senator Bob Menendez in February 2018 and married him in October 2020 - did not face any charges a the time of the crash, which left 49-year-old Koop dead.

Federal bribery indictments prompt new scrutiny

..... The incident has received attention now, though, because of its connections to the indictment of New Jersey;s senior senator, his wife and three businessmen brought by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York last month. [10/2023]
..... The indictment alleges that the senator, his wife and businessman Wael Hana conspired for Menendez to act as a foreign agent form January 2018 through at least June 2023 for the Egyptian government and Egyptian officials even as he sat as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
..... Menendez - along with his wife, Hana, Edgewater developer Fred Daibes and businessman Jose Uribe - also face corruption charges, brought by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, of allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from the businessmen in exchange for helping them enrich themselves and trying to get them out of trouble.
..... Details of the December 12, 2018, crash, first published by NorthJersey.com , show that Arslanian initially agreed to let Bogota police officers look at her phone. she quickly changed her mind and took the phone back.
..... The police records don't show that any field sobriety tests were done. There is also no indication that she was questioned about drinking or using any kind of drugs.
.... The Bogota police report, filed by Patrolman Kevin Geraghty on February 25, 2019, says that on the day after the crash a subpoena was issued for the cellular phone records of Ms. Arslanisan" and later notes that a "supplemental investigation report will be issued pending ... the response to the issued subpoena for Ms. Arslanian's cellular phone records."
..... Additional reports submitted by Patrolman Michael LaFerrera and Sergent Thomas Riedel don't mention any subpoenas, nor does another report prepared by Officer Dennis DeAngelis of the Bergen County Prosecutors;s office Fatal Accident Investigation Unit.
..... The indictment says that a month after the crash, Arislanian was texting Hana, an Egyptian American businessman, about her lack of a car. Hana later provided her with a 2019 Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible, the indictment says.
..... Registration records show that the 2019 Mercedes was purchased in March of that year.
..... The New Jersey Attorney General's Office of Public Integrity & Accountability is investigating the circumstances of the crash.

'Probably a big problem'

..... Kim Yonta, a New Brunswick-based attorney, noted that depending on the parameters, the response time on a subpoena can take a few months because it goes to the cellphone provider.
..... Sometimes that requests accompanied by a warrant, but it doesn't have to be, and when the records are provided they include all phone calls or messages with the dates and times.
..... Yonta also said the subpoena would be issued by the agency investigating the incident. In this case that would be either the Bogota Police Department or the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.
..... "I remember to call these companies up and be like, "Where's my records? I sent this to you two months ago,'" she said. "So that does happen. If that was holes somewhere, that's probably a big problem."

What does the Koop family say?

..... Rosemarie Koop, the sister of the man killed that night, said it "worries" her and is "horrific to think that five years later we still don't have information on the phone records."
..... Koop's family said they can only hope that the Attorney General's Office can impartially look at it to find out what happened and how Koop's death could be "completely swept under the rug."
..... "We are grateful for the indictment bringing things to light again. We didn't think it would ever happen," Rosemarie Koop said.
..... "We don't trust anything, and we keep questioning it," she said. "If you trusted the investigation you could say OK and accept it. But we just can't after so many years. We understand that true accident happen, but when it is so one-sided an investigation, how can you determine that it's a true accident?"
..... She added: "Why didn't Richard get his due process? How did this stall? Richard deserves justice."

..... Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email sobko@northjersey.com.

..... Kristie Cataffi covers local government in Bergen County. Email cataffi@norhtjersey.com.

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