A Gloucester County Superior Court judge rejected Washington Township police officer Joseph DiBuonaventura's motion to dismiss a grand jury's indictment on Friday.

DiBuonaventura, who is currently suspended without pay, is facing 14 criminal charges including official misconduct and falsifying a police report in connection with his July 2012 arrest of Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-4 of Washington Township) on charges of driving while intoxicated.

Judge Christine Allen-Jackson denied the motion filed in February by DiBuonaventura's attorney Louis Barbone, of the Atlantic City-based Jacobs and Barbone law firm, stating that it did not show the grand jury did not have access to evidence that was exculpatory, or able to prove DiBuonaventura's innocence.

Barbone argued that the grand jury was not told the full story of DiBuonaventura's arrest of Moriarty that would show the officer was fulfilling his duty as a police officer to stop Moriarty after hearing the assemblyman was possibly intoxicated and operating a motor vehicle.

Moriarty, a former township mayor, confronted a manager of a car dealership in the township that afternoon, and the manager's concerns he was acting erratically and was possibly intoxicated were unofficially relayed to detectives at the police station. A detective then mentioned Moriarty might be "drunk at Nissan" to DiBuonaventura during an unrelated phone call, but directed him not to act on the incomplete information.

Moriarty's actions inside the dealership, the manager's and employees statements and details of the subsequent arrest were not included in the testimony given to the grand jury, Barbone said, adding jurors' questions regarding some of those details were deemed irrelevant.

"This grand jury never heard a peep about an officer's duty," to stop any intoxicated driver, Barbone said, adding later they "don't have a problem with an indictment," but they "want a grand jury to know what it's doing."

First Assistant Prosecutor Michael Curwin, however, called the defense's argument a "red herring" that was meant to distract from DiBuonaventura's crimes.

In his brief responding to the motion to dismiss, Curwin stated the video from DiBuonaventura's police vehicle clearly shows the officer waiting for Moriarty to pass by, speeding up to 80 miles per hour without lights or sirens to catch up to Moriarty -- who is in the right lane the entire time -- and then pulling him over. Curwin wrote that the video evidence contradicts DiBuonaventura's initial police report, which states he pulled Moriarty over for cutting him off in traffic.

Curwin said DiBuonaventura believed his motor vehicle recorder only turned on when lights and sirens were activated, and after learning the entire video was retrievable, wrote additional reports to cover his tracks.

The purpose of the grand jury is to deem only whether or not criminal charges should proceed, Curwin argued, and that Moriarty's actions before or after the arrest were irrelevant in that setting.

"What matters is what he did as a public servant," Curwin said, adding they may never know whether Moriarty -- who denies drinking at all that day -- was intoxicated.

"We'll never know," he said. "But it doesn't matter. What matters is [DiBuonaventura] made up lies ... They want to look at everything but what he did."

All charges against Moriarty have been dismissed.

If convicted of the charges against him, official misconduct being the most serious, DiBuonaventura could face as many as 10 years in state prison.

A status conference for the case was scheduled for May 29.

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Contact staff writer Michelle Caffrey at 856-686-3686 or mcaffrey@southjerseymedia.com