Dashcam video and audio are raising new questions about how Bogota police and Bergen County prosecutors handled the 2018 fatal crash investigation involving the wife of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ).
Nadine Menendez is on dashcam video from the scene that December night saying she did nothing wrong and asking this about the pedestrian who was hit and killed: “Why was the guy in the middle of the street?”
Several sources familiar with the matter are asking why a retired chief of detectives in the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office showed up at the crash scene to apparently speak to police and also assist Nadine Menendez.
In one part of the Bogota police dashboard video, the sources pointed to one section of the tape where retired Chief Michael Mordaga is heard asking police what is going on. One officer replies: “That’s what we are gathering now … [it’s] dark… her breath, ya know?”
Police reports have suggested there was no signs of impairment with Nadine Menendez at the time of the crash, and police reports show no breathalyzer or other tests were done that night.
“One can imagine police ordering someone to at least perform field sobriety tests just based on those words and observations alone,” said NBC Legal Analyst Danny Cevallos.
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Investigators said the victim, Richard Kopp, 49, had jaywalked after drinking with friends when Nadine Menendez hit him with her Mercedes.
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As News 4 first reported, the state attorney general is now investigating whether police and Bergen County prosecutors handled the fatal crash scene appropriately - with Nadine Menendez’s connection to the death of Koop only coming to light this week.
Menedez’s lawyer, David Schertler, issued a statement: “This is a case of a tragic accident, but Nadine Menendez was not at fault, did not violate any laws, and was therefore not charged with any crimes. We are confident that any “re-opening” of an investigation into the accident will confirm that conclusion.”
Several sources said Public Integrity & Accountability investigators from the NJ Attorney General’s Office want to know who called Mordaga to come to the crash scene.
In a statement to NBC 4 New York, a spokesperson in Sen. Menendez’s office, said: "The Senator did not call Chief Mordaga to the scene of the accident.”
Mordaga did not return numerous calls for comment.
A source close to Menendez said she was not drinking before the crash.
It still remains unclear who might have called Mordaga to the scene.
“The optics of a former police chief or retired officer coming out to an accident scene and intervening on behalf of one of the people involved in the accident, they just aren’t good,” Cevallos said.
Records from the AG office sow one of the Bogota officers on scene; Michael Laferrera was later suspended for about six months for handling of a separate DUI-related case. The officer, union officials and other Bogota police representatives did not returns calls for comment.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who had his investigators questioning prosecution and police staff on Thursday about the handling of the crash, had no comment.
Questions about the crashed Mercedes came to light amid the sprawling bribery indictment against Sen. Menendez, his wife, and three New Jersey businessmen.
The FBI said Bob and Nadine Menendez asked businessman Jose Uribe for help paying for a new Mercedes and, in exchange, the senator allegedly tried to intervene with a state attorney general investigation Uribe was concerned with. All charged in the bribery case deny any wrongdoing.
