Questions over evidence prompted a postponement of the municipal court trial of Red Bank Red Hot publisher Claudia Ansorge this morning.
Ansorge, of Broad Street, faces a charge of driving while intoxicated arising from an April, 2006 accident that killed 59-year-old pedestrian Robert Lisowsky of Brick. Lisowsky was struck by Ansorge’s car as he crossed East Front Street near Riverview Medical Center, where he worked as a plumber.
In April of this year, a Monmouth County grand jury declined to indict Ansorge, sending the matter back to municipal court for prosecution of the DWI charge.
Today’s hearing before Municipal Court Judge William Himelman was Ansorge’s first in the case. But the trial was put off after Ansorge’s attorney, Peter O’Mara of Little Silver, told Himelman that he has not yet seen a videotape of an interview of his client that was conducted by Red Bank police four or five hours after the 9:30p accident.
O’Mara is also awaiting the results of a gas chromatograph analysis of a blood sample given by Ansorge after the accident. The analysis was conducted at a State Police lab in Sea Girt.
Himelman ordered O’Mara to report back to him when he had received the evidence so a pre-trial conference could be scheduled. No trial date has been set.
After the hearing, O’Mara indicated that the defense may challenge the prosecution’s evidence, which showed that Ansorge had a blood alcohol level of .08 percent, the legal threshhold for driving under the influence. Testing by an independent lab of a second blood sample taken at the same time will show that Ansorge was at .07 percent, O’Mara said.
The defense is also expected to introduce evidence at trial that Lisowsky had a blood alcohol content of nearly twice the legal limit when he was struck by Ansorge’s vehicle.
Ansorge, 63, founded the weekly Two River Times in 1990, but sold her interest in the business to television journalist Gerado Rivera in 1996.
The newspaper is now owned by Diane and Mickey Gooch of Rumson, who bought it from Rivera in 2004.
