The state's key witness said he paid Dr. Felix Roque kickbacks to refer patients to his MRI lab. The defense argued the lab operator is saying what prosecutors want in return for leniency.
HACKENSACK -- The commercial bribery case against Felix Roque is a tale of two defendants, his lawyer told jurors during opening arguments of the trial on Tuesday.
Roque, a physician and mayor of West New York, was indicted in June 2015 on charges he took more than $200,000 in kickbacks from 2010 to 2014, in exchange for some 2,000 referrals of patients to an MRI lab in Hackensack, American Imaging Affiliates. The charges, brought by the state Division of Criminal Justice, are unrelated to Roque's official duties.
One of the two defendants, Roque, is a Cuban immigrant and naturalized U.S. citizen who volunteered for military service, became a doctor to patients in largely working class West New York, and was twice elected mayor, defense lawyer John McDonald said in State Superior Court in Hackensack.
The other defendant, lab operator Rehan Zuberi, is a native of Pakistan in the United States illegally, who had twice pleaded guilty in kickback schemes, reaping millions in Medicaid payments that he spent on exotic cars and a mansion in Boonton, said McDonald, asking jurors to forgive his reference to the Charles Dickens novel, "A Tale of Two Cities."
"It's a story about two men, and the contrasts between them," said McDonald.
Zuberi is a key prosecution witness, and testified later on Tuesday how he would deliver pockets full of cash -- sometimes thousands of dollars at a time, at $100 per referral -- to Roque's West New York medical office, and sometimes to his mayor's office nearby.
By drawing the stark contrast between Roque and Zuberi, McDonald sought to elevate his client and discredit the prosecution's star witness in the eyes of the jury.
As McDonald told jurors, Zuberi is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in May 2015 to related charges in the scheme. And, McDonald pointed out, under a plea agreement Zuberi's prison term could be reduced if Roque and other doctors charged in the scheme are convicted.
Because Zuberi had a critical interest in Roque's conviction, McDonald told jurors, his testimony could not be trusted.
Several doctors have pleaded guilty in the case, while the trial of another, Dr. John Fritz of Jersey City, has been delayed by Roque's case.
Deputy Attorney General Peter Sepulveda, who is handling the state's case along with Deputy Attorney General Crystal Callahan, plainly acknowledged the plea deal, in which Zuberi could reduce his recommended sentence from 10 years to eight.
But under questioning from Sepulveda, Zuberi said he was not told to identify Roque among the doctors who took kickbacks.
"Nobody ever told me who I had to name, no," Zuberi testified.
In his effort to discredit Zuberi, McDonald described him to jurors as, "a lifetime criminal," driven by "a sickness, an insatiable greed for material things." He showed the jury photographs of a Rolls Royce, Lamborghini and rare Mercedes Benz Zuberi had purchased with what McDonald said were the ill-gotten gains of a complex scheme involving recruiters, couriers, and doctors who received illicit payments in laundered cash.
"It was so complex there were complexities within the complexities," McDonald said.
But Sepulveda tried to keep the focus on Roque, who he said made $149,000 in cash deposits in his own bank account during the same period that Zuberi made the illicit cash payments to him.
"Defendant Roque sold his patients to the highest bidder," Sepulveda told jurors.
The prosecutor promised jurors they would see and hear five types of evidence in the case during the trial: testimony from Zubari and others; testimony from investigators; communications between Roque and Zuberi arranging meetings for payments; corresponding referral information; and bank deposit records.
In addition to the bribery charge, Roque's indictment had also included counts of fraud and conspiracy, alleging he failed to report the kickbacks, and that he plotted with Zuberi in the scheme.
However, those two counts were dismissed in July by Judge Christopher Kazlau, the judge presiding over the case.
Another lawyer for Roque, Christopher Adams, began his cross examination of Zuberi on Tuesday afternoon. But the judge let jurors go for the day before Adams concluded, and told Zuberi to return on Wednesday.
In addition to a dozen Roque supporters, seated in the gallery during the morning arguments was the mock trial club from St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, on a field trip. The club advisor, English teacher John Vreeland, was not impressed with the Dickensian reference by Roque's lawyer contrasting the doctor and the lab operator testifying against him.
But it worked for club member Luke Brouwer, a 17-year-old junior from Park Ridge.
"I thought it was interesting," Brouwer said.
Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.