Lawyer says Giordano alive; prosecutor ‘very skeptical’

By: Vic Monaco
   Amy Giordano of Hightstown is "absolutely alive," according to the lawyer representing the man labeled a person of interest in the disappearance of his mistress.
   But Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini says he is "very skeptical" of the comments and information recently supplied by the attorney representing Rosario DiGirolamo of Millstone.
   Meanwhile, Mr. DiGirolamo – barring anything unforeseen — will stand trial on charges of abandoning the couple’s baby boy outside a Delaware Hospital after waiving his preliminary hearing, which had been slated for this morning. And his attorney, Jerome Ballarotto of Trenton, says he will plead not guilty.
   Mr. Bocchini said Wednesday that Trenton attorney Jerome Ballarotto contacted his office last week and provided "information that he believes would be helpful in determining where Amy might be."
   "We’re in the process of following through on that," he said. "We’re tracking down people."
   Mr. Ballarotto said Thursday evening that Ms. Giordano is "absolutely alive."
   "We would love for her to return and we fully expect her to turn up some day," he said.
   "I have a whole list of reasons to believe she is still alive but I can’t share them with you," he continued while quickly adding, "At the top of the list, there’s no evidence she’s not."
   Mr. Bocchini said finding Ms. Giordano "would be nice but let’s face it, how long has it been that we haven’t heard a word…
   "I’m very skeptical."
   Speaking about the assistance being provided by Mr. DiGirolamo, Mr. Bocchini added, "There’s help and then there’s really help."
   In defending his skepticism, the prosecutor said there has been no activity on Ms. Giordano’s cell phone or credit cards. But Mr. Ballarotto said that holds no pertinence.
   "If you have credit cards and they’re no good, why would you care if you took them or not?" he said in a reference to several of Ms. Giordano’s credit cards being found in her Hightstown apartment.
   "If she ran off with somebody, then somebody else is paying the bills," he continued. "If she doesn’t want to be found because she’s left two children behind in her life, it’s easy enough not to create a financial trail."
   Ms. Giordano has an ex-husband with custody of another child of hers in New York.
   The prosecutor wasn’t the only person expressing skepticism this week.
   "You mean to tell me she left her apartment by herself, leaving her cell phone, her clothes, her pocketbook, her money, her cigarettes behind?" said Stephen Fishbaum, a cousin of Ms. Giordano through her adoption.
   "Two weeks before the disappearance, she sent me an e-mail excited about moving to East Windsor," he added Thursday.
   According to a warrant issued in Delaware, Mr. DiGirolamo told a local Realtor that he was backing out of a lease on a new apartment for his mistress because he was tired of supporting her while she "sat at home and did nothing."
   Mr. Fishbaum said he doesn’t believe the things Mr. DiGirolamo is now saying through his attorney.
   "He dumped this child on a curbside, he fled the country for two months. Now he comes home and says Amy is alive and should be found?" he said. "My heart wants to believe him, but the facts and my head say that he is lying."
   In response to those comments, Mr. Ballarotto said he didn’t want to disparage a person worried about someone they care about.
   "My heart goes out to him also," he said.
   Ms. Giordano, 27, was last seen June 7 at the ShopRite store on Route 130 in East Windsor with Mr. DiGirolamo and their then-11-month-old son, Michael DiGirolamo. That was two days before Michael was found outside the Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del. And five days later, June 14, Mr. DiGirolamo flew to Italy.
   He returned from Sicily on Aug. 2 to face the child abandonment charges.
   Mr. Bocchini said Wednesday that he was "somewhat surprised" with Mr. DiGirolamo’s return and declined to speculate why he came back. He said he had no idea if the arrest of alleged Mafia members in Sicily on Aug. 2 had anything to do with his return.
   Mr. Bocchini was asked if law enforcement officials had yet ruled out a possible connection between the mob and Mr. DiGirolamo and his wife, Maria DiMaggio – who bought their Millstone home from an alleged Mafia leader who is now in jail on murder and racketeering charges.
   "We haven’t ruled it in," he said, while quickly adding, "We haven’t ruled anything out."
   Mr. Ballarotto laughed when a possible mob connection was mentioned, and said his client always planned to return from Italy. He said Mr. DiGirolamo didn’t immediately come back because he feared he’d be stopped somewhere along the way because of the Delaware charges.
   "He bought a round-trip ticket," he pointed out.
   Mr. DiGirolamo, 32, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing today, but he waived that hearing.
   "The case now continues along a track heading to trial," said Jason Miller of the Delaware attorney general’s office.
   Mr. DiGirolamo faces a maximum prison sentence of five years for a felony charge of reckless endangering and a maximum one-year term for a misdemeanor charge of child abandonment, Mr. Miller previously explained. He was charged in Delaware after police said it was determined his cell phone had been used to make several calls from near the hospital on the day the boy was abandoned.
   Mr. Ballarotto declined to comment on the use of his client’s cell phone.
   He said he is pursuing "all possible resolutions" to the charges in Delaware including a plea bargain.
   Mr. DiGirolamo has not been charged in connection with Ms. Giordano’s disappearance. And Mr. Bocchini said Wednesday, absent charges being filed in New Jersey, his office has no means to pressure Mr. DiGirolamo into cooperating more.
   As for the ongoing investigation, Mr. Bocchini said law enforcement officials made contact with Ms. Giordano’s biological grandmother early last week and he is awaiting a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on that. He said the woman reported that Ms. Giordano’s biological mother is dead.
   Ms. Giordano was raised as Amy Bernstein in New York after being adopted by an Orthodox Jewish family, to which she has been estranged for several years.
   Closer to home, Mr. Bocchini said results of forensics testing at Ms. Giordano’s apartment at 108 Mercer St., where trace amounts of blood were found, are essentially complete with the exception of a "couple little reports" and a comparison of the apartment results with additional forensics.
   A DNA report aimed at officially confirming Mr. DiGirolamo as the boy’s father has not been completed.
   Mr. Bocchini said the apartment testing was "absolutely helpful" despite the fact that the apartment was left unsealed for almost two weeks by Hightstown Detective Ben Miller, with numerous people, mostly media, allowed inside.
   "Would it have been more helpful if less people had been there? Probably," Mr. Bocchini offered. "But you take the scene as you encounter it."
   The prosecutor said the analysis of three computers – two used by Mr. DiGirolamo and a laptop used by Ms. Giordano – is still not done.
   Mr. Bocchini was asked if the Giordano probe has taxed his office’s resources.
   "It has not," he initially responded, while explaining that he has 50 detectives and about a dozen agents at his disposal.
   But he added, "There are times when we’re stretched to the maximum, especially with gang-related stuff."
   He acknowledged that the case is an unusual one.
   "It’s not the kind of case that comes across our desk every day but is certainly something we can deal with," he said.
   The next step in the court process will be the formal indictment of Mr. DiGirolamo by a grand jury followed, usually in a matter of days, by an arraignment, Mr. Miller said.
   The arraignment is typically followed by two case review hearings before the state Superior Court judge assigned the case in Wilmington, he said. The second such hearing usually occurs about 10 days before the trial begins, he added.
   "In general terms, it’s a matter of months, not weeks and not years, for someone to get to trial," Mr. Miller said of the entire process.