The incident, not its circumstances, have been talked about within the indictment towards the senator, his spouse, and three different defendants: Wael Hanna, Jose Uribe, and Farid Daibes. According to the indictmentUribe, a businessman, financed a brand new Mercedes for Nadine Menendez in trade for the senator’s makes an attempt to intrude in an unrelated authorities legal case towards Uribe by pressuring prosecutors.
There isn’t any indication that Senator Menendez’s title got here up throughout the police investigation into the incident, though one witness on the scene instructed the New York Occasions that “there appeared to be numerous secrecy” and that he heard Nadine Menendez repeatedly inform officers that she was about to… Contact somebody.
Cobb’s sister, Rosemary Cobb-Angelicola, instructed the New York Occasions that they’d by no means heard from Nadine Menendez or the senator, and suspected the case had been intentionally stored secret.
“There’s actually an absence of authorized enthusiasm for dealing with this case, a definite lack of media protection, and an absence of communication by Bergen County authorities. We felt that the entire matter was silently swept beneath the rug.”
Municipal court docket information obtainable on-line present Nadine Menendez has a historical past of quite a few visitors violations, most not too long ago pleading responsible in Tenafly Municipal Court docket in 2021 to utilizing a mobile phone whereas driving and paying $240 in fines and costs. She was charged with the identical crime in Englewood in 2016, though information point out that was dismissed as a part of a plea settlement and don’t point out what punishment, if any, she confronted. In 2012, she pleaded responsible to “failure to observe visitors management system” and paid $85. She was charged with the identical crime in Jersey Metropolis in 2005, though information weren’t instantly obtainable on the disposition of the case. In 2007, she pleaded responsible in East Rutherford Municipal Court docket and paid $85 in fines and costs.