‘Just pure rage’: Attorney seeks to bar statements Newark cop made after wife’s death – Daily Record

Hours after authorities say John Formisano killed his estranged wife outside their Jefferson home, the off-duty Newark police lieutenant was sitting in an interview room in the Jefferson Police Department, his body noticeably shivering.

It was July 15, 2019, when records show the high reached 91 degrees.

His hands pulling tight a blanket covering his body, Formisano for over two hours divulged key details of a horrific crime at his Mirror Place home that also left Christie Formisano’s new boyfriend seriously wounded.

“It was crazy, it was crazy,” Formisano whispered, breathing heavily, according to video played in state Superior Court in Morris County on Monday. “I’ve never been involved in a domestic in my life.”

But before Formisano gave a timeline of events from the prior evening, a detective used a mental tactic while giving his Miranda warning that Anthony Iacullo, Formisano’s attorney, says should bar the entire conversation from ever being heard by a jury.

And it’s just one of three conversations Formisano had in the early-morning hours of July 15, with three different officers, that should be barred, Iacullo said, despite prosecutors’ seeking to allow them at trial.

While giving his Miranda rights, Sgt. Michael Puskas, of the Major Crimes Unit of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, asks Formisano: “Having these rights in mind, do you wish to speak with us now?”

Formisano, shaking his head “no,” says in response twice, “I want to, but it’s not in my best interest,” according to the video.

Formisano had exhibited signs of shock, Iacullo said. He was withdrawn, his body was cold, his hands were shaking and his words were mere whispers — but Puskas continued.

“He’s basically stating to you that he does not want to speak to you,” Iacullo said. “You knew, with 40 years of experience, that when you got him talking, you would be able to get him to admit his guilt.”

Instead of reiterating to Formisano that he did have a right to remain silent and that anything he said could be used as evidence, Puskas instead told Formisano that he could stop talking at any time.

“To me, it was a rhetorical statement he was making. Of course it’s not in his best interest to admit to a crime … however, we can still talk about that crime. It’s up to you,” Puskas said during Monday’s hearing. 

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The video shows that Formisano gave jarring statements to Puskas and another detective around 5:23 a.m., detailing how he was in the beginning process of a divorce with 37-year-old Christie Formisano. The night of the incident, Formisano had just left his shift at the Newark Police Department and headed to the Jefferson home to drop off a pair of his daughter’s glasses, he said in the stationhouse interview.

He called first, but his estranged wife did not answer the phone, so he instead walked inside the home, he told Puskas. He “lost it” when he saw his wife wearing a robe at the top of the steps and heard someone behind their bedroom door, he said.

Although he did not detail the shooting itself, Formisano said that “when it was over,” he went to his car and started to drive. He had plans to commit suicide and called his two best friends to say goodbye, he said. 

He placed his service revolver — the weapon authorities say he used to kill his wife on the steps of a neighbor’s home and shoot her 40-year-old boyfriend, Timothy Simonson — in the trunk so police knew he did not want to hurt them, and he began to drive, he said. He was taken into custody around 2 a.m.

“Just pure rage, why would she do that?” Formisano said in the interview, upset his wife had brought over a man with their two children in the house. Formisano said he had last slept over at the house two nights before the shooting and talked to his wife “every day.”

Formisano was present during Monday’s hearing, held both virtually and in person. Wearing a yellow jail jumpsuit and black-rimmed glasses, he appeared alert and often wrote in a notepad.

The back of a patrol car, the station

After he was taken into custody in Livingston, Formisano was handcuffed and placed in the back of Livingston Patrolman Brian Kelly’s car. 

Formisano told the officer he was “sorry to put you guys through this” when he was put in the patrol car, and later he allegedly told Kelly he “went home and found his wife with another guy.”

Kelly then asked Formisano if the gun “you used” was in the car — a statement that alluded to Formisano’s shooting his wife, Iacullo said. Kelly had failed to give Formisano his Miranda warning before questioning him, Iacullo argued.

Kelly admitted he did not give Formisano his Miranda rights, but said he asked the question about where the weapon was “for officer safety.”

Livingston Officer Sheena Maldonado testified she was alone with Formisano in an interview room for roughly two hours on July 15. Formisano was given his Miranda rights, she said, and he told her the timeline of events, repeating them over and over.

But Maldonado said the sergeant in the department told her to not write up anything and instead to document it in an investigation report when she returned to work on July 19 — four days later. The interview room, she said, had a camera, but she did not believe it was recording.

Formisano, a 24-year veteran of the Newark Police Department, is charged with murder and attempted murder. He spent months in the psychiatric unit at St. Clare’s Behavioral Health in Boonton Township and the Ann Klein Forensic Center in Trenton. He rejected a 40-year plea deal in 2020.

Closing arguments are scheduled to take place on July 15, and a judge will make a decision on the motion after those arguments.

Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.