Khari Noerdlinger’s attorneys announced that they will sue a New Jersey prosecutor for misconduct after their client was cleared of manslaughter charges in September.
Noerdlinger’s attorneys Jeffrey Lichtman and Lee Vartan, in a joint statement, accused the prosecutor of withholding evidence from a grand jury and said that purposely withholding evidence put their client in harm’s way.
“Today was complete vindication for Khari Noerdlinger, having lied repeatedly to the grand jury and engaged in gross prosecutorial misconduct, the state voluntarily dismissed the manslaughter charge and agreed to dismiss the remaining charges after the successful completion of six months of the pretrial intervention program,” read the statement. “Now that the case is over, we will initiate a lawsuit against the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, Prosecutor Grootenboer and Detective Costello for their criminal actions before the grand jury.”
Noerdlinger, the son of former Bill de Blasio aide Rachel Noerdlinger, was arrested after a fight against three other people Feb. 1, 2016. The incident led to the stabbing death of Savion Lewallen. Lewallen and two other individuals were allegedly trying to rob Noerdlinger, said his attorneys.
“We also will push for criminal charges for the two and the disbarment of Grootenboer,” read Lichtman and Vartan’s statement. “In 2017, law enforcement cannot hide evidence from a grand jury in order to falsely charge innocent people with crimes. Those law enforcement officers who have sworn to uphold the law will now themselves be required to face justice.”