Just who is Joseph Rubino?

On Thursday, he was the gaunt, silent man with the streaks of gray in his beard and shoulder-length hair, who slumped in a wheelchair for his bail hearing in a federal courtroom in Newark, as a federal prosecutor described his firearms arsenal, his drugs and his box of neo-Nazi junk.

And then his attorney, Daniel Marchese, rose to describe another Joseph Rubino.

Not a drug dealer, said Marchese. Not a Nazi sympathizer or a white supremacist. Not a danger to anyone.

It was as if there were two Joseph Rubinos.

Marchese suggested that Rubino should be set free on bail, with an electronic bracelet attached to his ankle so law enforcement officials could monitor his comings and goings.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph B. Clark III shook his head. No way, he said. There would be no bail for Rubino.

And so Rubino, in his wheelchair and silent except for a single "yes sir" response to Clark as the hearing began, was pushed through the side door of the courtroom by two New Jersey state troopers and two U.S. Marshals and returned to the Warren County Correctional Center in Belvidere while federal investigators build a case against him.

That’s only part of the story, however.

Rubino, 57, was arrested by the State Police a month ago when he lost control of his white Chevy van on Route 517 in Allamuchy and smashed into a tree.

It wasn’t Rubino’s driving that caught the attention of police who rushed to the crash scene and pulled Rubino and a passenger, Kenneth Coe, from the van. It was the three handguns, two sawed-off double-barrel shotguns, the pile of ammunition and the brass knuckles, ax handle, baseball bat and wooden club that police saw in the back of the van.

The next day, when State Police searched Rubino’s home in Lafayette, they found more than a dozen other weapons, including what authorities describe as a grenade launcher, an “assault rifle of unknown make/model,” four “high capacity magazines,” 60 silencers, a bulletproof vest and a box of neo-Nazi “paraphernalia” that included bumper stickers, T-shirts and a white supremacist “instruction manual for owning a slave.”

Oh yes, let’s not forget the drugs: approximately 70 grams of “suspected methamphetamine,” 200 marijuana vape cartridges and edibles and three kilograms of marijuana

To say that Rubino is in trouble is an understatement. He already has a criminal record – for writing bad checks in 1999. So as a felon, he is not supposed to own guns. As for the silencers, it doesn’t matter if you have a criminal record or not. They’re illegal.

Coupled with the drug charges, Rubino faces life in prison if convicted of all charges and sentenced to the max. In addition, the crash in his van shattered his left knee, leaving him confined to a wheelchair even while in jail.

But the deeply fearsome thread in this narrative is not so much the fact that Rubino had enough guns to outfit a SWAT team and more drugs than he needs to get high for the night. What’s scary here is the allegation that Rubino also had a questionable and downright scary batch of neo-Nazi and white supremacist items, too.

Why did he have that junk?

Sadly now in America, police stumble upon plenty of people with large arsenals of firearms. In a nation that has more guns than people, this should hardly come as a shock. As for drug possession – this, too, is the new normal. Whether you are a hotshot Wall Street broker or just another poor kid from Newark or Paterson, drug use is far too common.

But, as we have learned from the recent spate of mass shootings across America, the combination of guns, drugs and neo-Nazi and white supremacist sentiments has become a toxic brew that is hardly a recipe for a Kumbaya party.

This is why the story of Joseph Rubino is more than just another federal court case.

“Let’s not lose sight of what we have here,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Vera Varshavsky, as she reminded Judge Clark of the 17 guns, the 60 illegal silencers, “the huge quantity of ammunition,” the bulletproof vest, the drugs and the neo-Nazi, white supremacist items.

“There is absolutely no set of factors,” Varshavsky added, “that can assure the safety of the community from this defendant.”

As she spoke, Rubino gazed to the side, his eyes settling on a spot on the courtroom floor. His tattooed forearms were handcuffed to his waist. If he disagreed with Varshavsky's warnings about community safety or even the understandable questions about his arsenal of firearms, drugs and neo-Nazi, white supremacist trappings, he did not show it.

He did not grimace or smirk or even shake his head.

Marchese, in trying to convince Judge Clark to set Rubino free on bail and in an interview later outside the courtroom, went to great lengths to paint a kinder and gentler portrait of his client.

The grenade launcher, Marchese said, was “more of a novelty.” And the sawed-off shotguns were “inoperable” and merely items that Rubino used to prop up a display stand for selling ammunition.

Wait? Selling ammo? Where? Is Rubino a licensed firearms dealer?

Marchese said he did not know. But Marchese is sure of one thing – that Joseph Rubino is no bigot.

“He’s not a racist. He’s not a white supremacist,” Marchese said in a telephone interview the night before the court hearing. “He’s not a Nazi sympathizer. He’s a kind guy, a kind soul. I wouldn’t represent a Nazi sympathizer. He’s not a domestic terrorist.”

So why the guns, drugs and neo-Nazi, white supremacist bumper stickers, T-shirts and literature?

This is the question that haunts this case now – and a prime reason Rubino is being kept behind bars.

America is slowly facing up to the fact that beneath the veneer of modern life is an angry, volatile culture that has embraced some of the world’s most prejudicial beliefs. Was Joseph Rubino a card-carrying member of that creep-show culture?

For now, no one is quite sure.

“He is not a white supremacist,” Marchese told Judge Clark as the hearing ended. “He’s not a racist.”

Clark looked across the courtroom toward Marchese and Rubino.

“I hope you’re right,” he said.

Email: kellym@northjersey.com

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