PUBLICATION: Times, The (Trenton, NJ) SECTION: NEWS
DATE: September 2, 2008
Hamilton lawyer 'a pirate at heart'
He's taken on notorious casesIt takes a bit of a pirate to defend accused murderers, tax cheats and chicken assassins. And veteran attorney Jerome A. Ballarotto knows just where to find somebody who fits that description."I'm a pirate at heart," says Ballarotto. "As a defense attorney, you kind of feel like a pirate. I'm somewhat rebellious. We always question authority, and in a battle with the government we're always self-sufficient. We're always defending ourselves and our clients."
So it seemed a natural that earlier this year, Ballarotto, would launch a second location for his law practice in Key West, Fla., a Caribbean town. And, to feed his buccaneer bent, he opened in 1997 and then closed in 2000 a shop specializing in pirate regalia, which he called Swashbucklers.
The name fits; in Mercer County, Ballarotto has a reputation as something of a swashbuckler. He always wears cowboy boots to court, favoring handmade boots by the Lucchese company in Texas - "not the crime family," he jokes. His Hamilton office, in a Victorian house, is unlike the staid, quiet digs most attorneys favor. Instead, it sports his collection of Italian movie posters, including one for "The Godfather," an old wooden sea chest, drum set and guitars. A musician since his youth in Hamilton, Ballarotto plays the blues and a bit of rock.
His roster of clients includes some of the most high-profile defendants in Mercer County. Ballarotto currently is representing one of the defendants in an alleged money-laundering and bribery scheme stemming from Iraq war contracts.
He's also defending Rosario DiGirolamo, who is charged with the June 2007 murder of his mistress, Amy Giordano, in her Hightstown apartment. Authorities say DiGirolamo chopped the victim's body into pieces, then disposed of some of her remains in a pond on Staten Island, N.Y. The couple's toddler son, Michael, was left in the parking lot of a Delaware hospital.
Ballarotto had represented Marc Rossi, the former Mercer County detective turned arsonist who admitted orchestrating a series of area fires, including the April 1999 blaze that destroyed the Country Barrel Inn. After pleading guilty, Rossi was sentenced to eight years in prison and ended up serving 18 months.
And Ballarotto was the lawyer for Pit Bull gang murderer Joseph Post. Post was convicted of killing Andrew Whited Jr. in November 1995 and is serving a life sentence. Whited, a fellow member of the Chambersburg gang, was stabbed 29 times. His frozen body was found about a month after the killing along Interstate 195 in Monmouth County.
Ballarotto was not always the government's adversary.
He began his career as a special agent in the U.S. Secret Service, then after law school at Seton Hall University, Ballarotto joined the U.S. Attorney's Office and became criminal division chief.
He always made an impression. "I remember the first time I saw Jerry, I was in the federal court and I saw an assistant U.S. attorney in long hair and cowboy boots," said Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Brian McCauley, who prosecuted Post. "All AUSAs have a similar look so at first I didn't believe he worked there," McCauley said. "Then a year later he was in private practice. He always has the cowboy boots and the funky ties. And a great reputation as a lawyer.
"As an adversary, you have to watch him all the time," said McCauley. "He really knows what he's doing. You have to bring your 'A' game. He's extraordinarily zealous in defense of his clients."
"We're gunslingers," Ballarotto said of his occupation. "We come into a case and try to shoot down the government's proofs. We are a little different than most lawyers. We have to be creative and not hindered by the facts and evidence or the law."
Ballarotto used to follow protocol when he worked as a Secret Service agent. He guarded Secretary of State Henry Kissinger during the shuttle diplomacy era of talks between Egypt and Israel."Kissinger was brilliant," Ballarotto said. "And really entertaining, a fantastic wit. He dated a lot of pretty women."
About 80 percent of Ballarotto's cases are in federal court. He is a solo practitioner but will enlist another firm if the case is complicated. "The federal cases are more complex," he said. "The FBI and the IRS have unlimited resources they throw at you."
When he's trying a case in New Jersey, Ballarotto spends long hours at his Hamilton office, which is outfitted with comfortable chairs, a sofa and a working fireplace.
"Most people don't realize that there are hours of preparation for a trial," Ballarotto said. "You're in court for eight hours and spend at least four hours in preparation each evening."
In Key West, his office is just across the street from the Green Parrot, "a fabulous blues bar. 'Playboy' designated it one of the 10 best bars in America," he said. At 5 p.m. every Wednesday Ballarotto can hear the call of "sound check" for whatever band is playing at the Parrot that week."That's the signal for all the locals to go have a beer," he said. "Everything stops. We grab a stool." Ballarotto shares office space in Key West with Cara Higgins, a former Mercer County assistant prosecutor who vacationed there and decided to stay. Higgins, now a partner in Horan Wallace & Higgins, sometimes works with Ballarotto.
Higgins represents the Ernest Hemingway House in its battle with the U.S. Department of Agriculture over licensing of the Hemingway cats. The cats are descendants of the felines owned by the famous author. Fearing a conflict of interest, she referred to Ballarotto another recent case for a man accused of cruelty to animals for killing feral chickens.
"I represent the chicken assassin," Ballarotto said. "Key West has all these chickens that they say were brought over by the original Spaniards. They're feral. They're everywhere. The town thinks their quaint. But some people think they're a nuisance."His client was hired by a business to get rid of the chickens on its property."He is a fully licensed individual and was shooting them with an air gun," Ballarotto said. "He got arrested for cruelty to animals. He should have wrung their (the chickens') necks like my grandfather (did).""There is going to be a trial and the courthouse is going to be mobbed with pro- and anti-chicken people," Ballarotto said. Higgins added, "You get such bad publicity for representing a chicken killer. They're nuisance animals. They make a mess and get into your landscaping." He's said he's going to take the chicken case even though he's going to get a lot of flak about it in the press.
In Key West, Ballarotto also took on a case for a man accused of poaching lobsters from federal park waters. That defendant is accused of using corrugated steel to make illegal "lobster condos" where the tasty crustaceans like to go to breed, making them easy pickings for fishermen, he said."They surveilled his house," Ballarotto said. "It's a big-time investigation. There were 30 agents with guns. It's an entirely different type of case."While the Key West cases sound like off-beat fun for a lawyer, Ballarotto protested, "It's a lot of work. Real people's lives are at stake."
Ballarotto makes an annual pilgrimage to Italy to visit family. A Tuscan cousin is also a lawyer. While in Rome he collects the movie posters that enliven his walls. Divorced with a home in Florence, Ballarotto has one son, Jake, 20, who is a junior at Hobart College in New York.
Meanwhile, Ballarotto may eventually reopen his Key West pirate store. Ballarotto owns the rights to several paintings of pirates by the late 19th-century artist Howard Pyle that he reproduced on T-shirts and other items for the previous shop. But, he said, "retail is hard, especially while running a law practice."
