Bridgegate defense asks for mistrial

NEWARK — Defense attorneys in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure trial are seeking a mistrial after a dispute over the charges two former associates of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie now face.

The two defendants, Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni, are on trial fighting charges they worked together to close access lanes to the bridge to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie for re-election in 2013. Baroni was the deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Kelly was a deputy chief of staff to Christie at the time. A second agency official, David Wildstein, has pleaded guilty.

Baroni’s attorney, Michael Baldassare, filed a motion Thursday morning seeking a mistrial. But the four-page letter arguing for it was redacted, making it unclear why attorneys are seeking a mistrial.

The motion comes on the fourth day the jury was set to deliberate in the case. On Wednesday, the defense teams asked Judge Susan D. Wigenton to reverse an instruction to the jury that Kelly and Baroni did not have to intentionally punish the mayor, Mark Sokolich, to be found guilty of conspiracy. Kelly and Baroni are charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and civil rights violations in the traffic scheme.

The attorneys argued to the judge that punishment of Sokolich was the backbone of the case — such language is even included in the nine-count indictment against Kelly and Baroni. But prosecutors lobbied at “the eleventh hour” to remove language about retribution from the conspiracy charges, and the judge agreed that motive does not need to be proven to the jury.

The defense argued otherwise.

“The punishment is the key,” Michael Critchley, the lead attorney for Kelly, told the judge Tuesday. “They have to find they acted intentionally to punish Mayor Sokolich. And if they don't find that, then we are found to be not guilty, judge.”

Last year a federal grand jury indicted Kelly and Baroni, the governor's top appointee at the Port Authority, after the U.S. attorney’s investigation of the lane closures.

The indictment alleges that Baroni and Kelly had access lanes to the bridge realigned to punish Sokolich, a Democrat, for not endorsing Republican Christie for re-election. But the judge said Tuesday that prosecutors need only to prove that Kelly and Baroni misused the agency's resources, not their motive.

The attorneys were seen walking into the courtroom Thursday morning, but they declined to comment.

Wigenton denied the defense's request to reverse the jury instruction Thursday.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman argued in a response to the defense request that Kelly and Baroni conspired to misuse Port Authority resources to cause traffic in Fort Lee "without any legitimate justification." The defense's argument for including the language of punishing Sokolich in the conspiracy charges would be relevant if the prosecution proved that Kelly and Baroni misused an agency resource unrelated to the alleged scheme, such as the Lincoln Tunnel. The argument might be relevant if the defendants misused the property of "some entity" besides the Port Authority.

"But neither is the case," Fishman wrote.

The jury continued deliberating Thursday, but there was no word on whether there would be oral arguments in court on the motion for a mistrial.

Follow Dustin Racioppi on Twitter: @dracioppi