STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. AAKASH A. DALAL
A-3715-13T3
The court granted leave to examine an interlocutory order
which denied defendant's motion to recuse the Bergen County
judiciary from presiding over a prosecution that included a
charge of conspiring to murder a Bergen County assistant
prosecutor. The issue reached an acute stage when the State
informed it would offer evidence at trial that defendant
threatened the lives of two Bergen judges. Even though the
court acknowledged the trial judge, who was not one of the
threatened judges, appeared able to fairly and impartially
preside, the court held that defendant is entitled to the relief
sought because, in the final analysis, "justice must satisfy the
appearance of justice" and a reasonable person would harbor
doubts about the fairness of the proceedings.
