Former police chief is sentenced to 17 years

Published: Saturday, February 05, 2011, 7:00 AM Updated: Saturday, February 05, 2011, 8:28 AM
By Lisa Coryell/The Times


BORDENTOWN CITY — Calling former Bordentown City Police Chief Phil Castagna unremorseful for soliciting a hit man to kill his ex-wife, a judge Friday sentenced him to 17 years in prison.

Burlington County Superior Court Judge Jeanne Covert said she sentenced the 48-year-old Castagna to the harsh sentence — just three years shy of the 20-year-maximum and well above the 10-year minimum — in part because she believes he is at risk to commit another crime.

“Despite his conviction (for conspiracy to commit murder) Mr. Castagna refuses to accept responsibility for and shows no remorse for the seriousness of his actions,” she said.

Clad in an orange prisoner’s jumpsuit with the words “God is my judge” inked across the back in small letters, Castagna showed no reaction to his sentence.

“Phil we love you. We’re going to get you out of this,” his sister Claire Lindsey yelled to Castagna as a sheriff’s officer led him from the courtroom in handcuffs.

Under the terms of his sentence Castagna must serve 85 percent of his sentence — more than 14 years — before becoming eligible for parole. Covert also sentenced Castagna to a concurrent sentence of 15 months in prison for violating a 2003 permanent restraining order prohibiting any contact with his ex-wife Joyce Leopold.

“Phil Castagna devised a sinister scheme to murder his ex-wife using someone he believed not only could be manipulated, but also would be discredited if details of the plot were divulged,” Burlington County Prosecutor D. Bernardi said in a press release Friday. “He has been disgraced by his actions, which would have been tragic had the bungled plan been successful. Fortunately the jury accepted the corroborating evidence presented by the state, and the sentencing court has brought the weight of the law down on him with this prison term.” Defense attorney Robert Leiner declined to comment on the sentence.

In October a jury found Castagna guilty of soliciting an ex-con buddy to kill Leopold. It was the second trial for the former top cop whose first trial ended in a hung jury in 2009. The buddy, Gary Hall, who had done time for aggravated assault, notified the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office about the request. Hall agreed to wear a wire to tape conversations he had with Castagna and those tapes figured prominently during both trials.

Leopold, who had asked Covert to sentence Castagna to the maximum 20 years, said she was satisfied with the sentence. “Justice was served,” she said as she left the courtroom surrounded by friends and family. “They heard me crying for justice.”
Speaking to the court, Leopold said that learning her ex had tried to have her killed was devastating to her and her daughter from her first marriage. They fear strange noises, unfamiliar cars and have nightmares, she said.

Prosecutors said Castagna was furious with Leopold because she filed domestic abuse charges against him and he lost his police chief job when he was convicted in 2004. That conviction was overturned on appeal in 2006 but by then he’d been charged in the attempt on her life.

She told the court Castagna believed he was above the law. “It is Phil’s own self-serving manipulation and deceit that has culminated in him being found guilty of conspiracy to murder me,” she said. “This very act of creating a plot to commit murder is a culmination of years of threats and acts of domestic violence.” Castagna’s friends and family asked the judge for leniency, citing his otherwise clean record, his military service, his stellar law enforcement career and his community service.

“I ask your honor to weigh and credit these accomplishments against the crime he now stands convicted of; a crime of words, not action, spoken in a moment of weakness at a time so vulnerable,” said Mark Yelen, a longtime friend.
Lindsey refused to believe her brother is guilty of any crime.

“My brother is innocent,” she said as she left the courtroom. “We look forward to the appeal process and are confident he will be vindicated. His family and friends are standing by him 100 percent. We are a strong team.”

Castagna, who had been suspended without pay from his job in Bordentown City while the case against him was pending, was ordered to vacate his job upon conviction last fall.


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