Former SRHS Coach McInerney Granted Retrial

Former St. Rose High School baseball coach Bartholomew McInerney was granted a new trial by a state appeals court this week, APP.com reports. 

McInerney's lawyer, Edward Bertucio, in January asked a state appellate court in Trenton to overturn the conviction, claiming the coach did not have supervisory authority over the boys, the Star Ledger reported at that time.

Bertucio sought a retrial based on, in his opinion, several flaws with the original trial, the report says.

McInerney, 45, of Spring Lake Heights, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on ten counts of child endangerment for engaging in sexually explicit conversations with his players and paying them to send him text messages of their masturbation habits from 2001 to 2007, the report says.

Bertucio had argued before three appellate judges — Jane Grall, Anthony Parillo and Carmen Alvarez — not only that McInerney should not have been considered a supervisory authority, but also that the Superior Court Judge Anthony Mellaci, Jr. should have declared a mistrial when jurors were allegedly overheard at lunch discussing details of the case before deliberations, the Star Ledger report said.

Bertucio also contended that jurors should not have been allowed to hear testimony regarding team trips to Alaska and Hawaii, where McInerney allegedly asked some of his players to videotape themselves masturbating, the report said.

Although Bertucio claimed that part-time coaches are not supervisory authorities under the state's criminal code, Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Carey Huff said otherwise, the report said.