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‘High’ bail has made Hackensack man accused of killing wife ‘psychotic,’ lawyer says

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: The $2 million bail that judges have refused to lower for a 65-year-old Hackensack man charged with beating his wife to death with a cane in their home has made him “psychotic,” his lawyer told a judge today.

Photo Credit: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Correspondent Mary K. Miraglia
Photo Credit: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Correspondent Mary K. Miraglia

Thomas Fabbricatore’s condition is so bad, 91-year-old defense attorney Frank Lucianna said, that he’s asked for a lawyer with more experience.

“This is a good example of what high bail does to a defendant,” Lucianna told Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi. “It’s impossible to discuss the case with him.”

Fabbricatore cannot use his home to post bail because it was joint property with his wife and the ownership is now in dispute, he noted.

“I have made four applications before you for reasonable bail,” he told the judge. “In my opinion you were wrong.”

DeAvila-Silebi refused to lower the amount. Instead, she ordered a psychiatric evaluation at the Ann Klein State Forensic Hospital.

Lucianna, who turns 92 this January, Fabbricatore has gone “steadily downhill” since his November, 2013 arrest after police found his 58-year old wife, Elizabeth, badly beaten and bleeding from the head.

She died six days later at Hackensack Medical Center. The charges against her husband were then upgraded to murder.

A grand jury also charged Fabbricatore with two counts of weapons possession for the cane, which the grand jury said he “used unlawfully against another” under “circumstances not manifestly appropriate for lawful use.”

The indictment also accuses him of lying to police.

Fabbricatore’s attorneys have insisted that the injuries sustained Elizabeth Fabbricatore — a former account executive at The Bergen Record — were the result of an accident.

She fell while she and the Viet Nam War veteran were pushing one another during an argument, they contend.

“We need medical records for Elizabeth for the last ten years,” co-counsel Diane Lucianna told the judge this morning. “There’s an issue of old injuries, past injuries — the doctor will not release them without a court order.”

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer said a court order woultn’s be necessary because her office is obtaining the same records and will share them.

Grootenboer, who is trying the case, previously said that Fabbricatore “habitually stalked his wife” and was reported seen in March 2013 “dragging her across the yard by the hair.”

He also beat her several times and threatened to kill not only her but her mother and goddaughter if she told anyone, the assistant prosecutor said.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer, Frank Lucianna, Nancy Lucianna, Thomas Fabbricatore ( STORY/PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Correspondent Mary K. Miraglia)

 

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