Bound Brook Restauranteur's Trial Adjourned

by Nyier Abdou
Monday June 18, 2007, 1:07 PM

A Superior Court judge today adjourned the trial of Bound Brook restaurant owner Rafael Rosario
to an undetermined date following a new indictment handed up earlier this month.

Jury selection for Rosario's twice-postponed official misconduct and tax evasion trial was due to
begin July 10, but a new indictment added June 7 named Rafael Amaro, Rosario's half-brother,
as a co-defendant in the case. The business they ran, the Cafe Imperialas, was also named.

Rosario, 45, is charged with conspiring with suspended Bound Brook Police Chief Kenneth
Henderson to thwart a raid on his restaurant by the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control
in 2004. He was later charged with tax evasion.

Judge Robert B. Reed, sitting in Somerville, is due to leave the criminal division for family court in
September, when a new judge who has not yet been assigned will take over the case.

With the new indictment and the addition of the new co-defendants, Reed estimated Rosario's
trial would not be scheduled until September or October 2008. Henderson, who the state has
decided will be tried after Rosario, "will not likely be tried until winter (or) spring 2009," Reed said.