“Over the course of this trial, you will hear some very offensive language and I apologize for that,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Lorber cautioned the jury.

But she said it was necessary for jurors to hear those comments in the trial of a former Burlington County police chief who is now on trial for hate crimes against black people.

Opening statements in the trial of Frank Nucera, the former chief of the Bordentown Township police, were heard Friday before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler in Camden federal court.

Nucera is accused of making several derogatory and racist remarks, and prosecutors also alleged he assaulted a black teen from Trenton at a hotel in the township. At the center of the case are dozens of hours of covert recordings of Nucera made by a K-9 sergeant who wanted to report him to authorities.

Also central to the case is that hotel arrest, on Sept. 1, 2016, when Nucera allegedly slammed 18-year-old Trenton resident Timothy Stroye’s head into a metal doorway and hit him on the back of his neck while the handcuffed teen was being taken to a police car. Stroye was arrested, along with a 16-year-old girl, for not paying fees at the then Ramada on Route 206 in Bordentown.

Hours after the arrest, the sergeant, who had been surreptitiously recording Nucera for months, captured the then-chief making racially hostile comments about the teens and black people in general. Nucera used the n-word, as well as other racial slurs.

After that arrest, Nucera said “these f-----g people should “stay the f--k out of Bordentown,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey alleged.

Federal prosecutors also said Nucera can be heard in other recordings saying black people were “like ISIS, they have no value. They should line them all up and mow 'em down.”

On Nov. 1, 2017, Nucera was charged with hate crime assault, deprivation of civil rights under the color of law and making false statements.

Court proceedings went on for months as Kugler ruled on several motions and there were several requests for more time to review evidence. Jury selection took up several days earlier this week, and potential jurors were asked a plethora of questions - including questions about what they read and their views on race, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Kugler also granted a motion to bar law enforcement witnesses from wearing their uniforms in the courtroom, the Inquirer said.

In her opening statement Friday, Lorber told the jury the recordings of Nucera show “animosity toward African-Americans” and later added “the defendant himself will tell you what you need to know.”

“You will hear that the defendant came up behind (Stroye) and struck this teen so hard that it made a loud metal thud,” she said, her voice rising.

She later showed the jury Stroye’s booking photo, which shows a large welt under his left eye.

Rocco Cipparone, the Haddonfield attorney defending Nucera, made no excuses for the language his client used, but said the statements were not criminal.

“This is a case about ugly, disgusting words that my client said,” Cipparone told the jury before displaying a Powerpoint presentation with the words “CRIMINAL JUSTICE” and “SOCIAL JUSTICE” and a does-not-equal sign between them.

The “social justice” was that Nucera lost his job and was criticized publicly and on social media, Cipparone said.

Cipparone leaned toward Nucera to say “no offense, Frank” and then moved back toward the jury: “maybe Frank deserves that.”

Nucera retired in February 2017 when he learned the FBI was investigating him. He now collects a pension of $105,992, according to public records.

Cipparone characterized the statements as “just words.”

Lorber’s first witness, now-Chief Brian Pesce, served as a captain under Nucera and worked on internal affairs. He described his former boss as a difficult supervisor who micromanaged and was vindictive at times, particularly toward people who spoke ill of him.

Pesce authored a complaint against Nucera with Nathan Roohr, the sergeant who made the recordings. Roohr is behind the bulk of the allegations of racist conduct while Pesce’s complaints were more focused on the working environment in the police department.

On the stand Friday, Pesce recalled multiple occasions where Nucera ordered him to investigate trivial matters like an anonymous letter in a local newspaper and a mean comment on a news website.

The letter ran in the Register News and was critical of Nucera. He ordered Pesce to get the letter from the newspaper and forensically analyze it. Pesce was also asked to subpoena a local news website where a negative comment was posted about Nucera, and find the IP address of the commenter.

And days after Nucera, already serving as police chief, lost an election for fire commissioner to another officer in the department, he directed Pesce to open an internal affairs investigation into that officer.

“I told him what the optics of that would look like,” Pesce said. “You’re basically retaliating against the person who beat you in an election.”

On top of that, it was difficult to report Nucera to the proper authorities. Nucera also served as township administrator, and Pesce expressed confusion with the arrangement, saying later in cross-examination, “we go to him to complain about himself?”

He and Roohr brought their complaint not to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, but to the FBI, as they feared the local office would ignore the case.

“I lacked all trust and confidence in the prosecutor’s office that they would properly investigate this,” Pesce said. “I thought they would brush it off,” he said later.

A spokesman for Prosecutor Scott Coffina, who took over the office a month after Nucera retired, declined to comment Friday. Coffina was appointed in March 2017, succeeding Robert Bernardi, who had served since 1999.

Pesce said the office ignored a 2009 complaint that overtime was being unfairly distributed in the police department and had not fully investigated other complaints about Nucera.

In cross-examination, Cipparone cast Pesce as a careerist who wanted to oust Nucera and take the chief job for himself, and mentioned meetings between Pesce and township officials that the attorney said were attempts to get a promotion. Perhaps reporting Nucera played into that too, he argued.

Pesce, who was named acting chief after Nucera resigned and has officially been chief since January 2018, rejected that assertion. He didn’t know what was going to happen - a civilian police director could’ve been appointed, or the prosecutor’s office could’ve taken over the department.

“To take over a department under this much scrutiny ... there was no high-fiving and back-slapping when this happened,” Pesce said. “It was a down time for us and for my career.”

Kugler called it a day after hearing the beginnings of testimony from Terri Cowen, the former manager of the Ramada. Jurors were shown pictures of the hotel and a map, including the stairwell where Stroye was allegedly struck.

The trial resumes Monday.

Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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