FISHY

Retired NJ Cop Convinced Officer to Let Bob Menendez’s Wife Go After Crash: Report

Former police chief Michael Mordaga arrived at the crash scene, reportedly explaining that Nadine Arslanian was close to his friend’s wife.

The New Jersey attorney general’s office has seized documents from Bergen County law enforcement as part of an inquiry into whether a car crash involving Bob Menendez’s wife was properly investigated, The New York Times reported Friday, citing unnamed officials. It comes after the New York Post reported that a high-ranking ex-New Jersey cop persuaded an on-duty officer to release Nadine Arslanian after she hit and killed a man with her Mercedes in 2018. She left the scene without performing a sobriety test or showing her phone, and told cops that the victim was jaywalking. When he arrived at the crash, the former cop, Michael Mordaga, 66, who was the director of Hackensack Police and chief of detectives in the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, explained that his friend’s wife, who was close to Arslanian, told him about the car accident. In the dashcam footage, he could be heard asking, “Are you guys getting a statement that you’re going to give to the prosecutor’s office?” A Bogota police officer responded, “I don’t believe so, as of right now. She’s good to grab her stuff from her car.” Arslanian and Menendez were indicted last month in a bribery scheme that involved gold bars, $500,000 in cash, and a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible. Local officials declined to comment to the Times.