Sussex NJ prosecutor won't seek jail time for animal rights activist

by Jim Lockwood/The Star-Ledger

Friday May 09, 2008, 5:45 PM

The Sussex County Prosecutor's Office will not seek jail time for an animal-rights activist from Vernon who is appealing his 30-day sentence for resisting arrest during a bear-trap tampering incident last year.

Albert "Ali" Kazemian instead should be sentenced to a 30-day sheriff's work detail, Sussex County Assistant Prosecutor Gregory Mueller told a judge today during a hearing on the appeal in Superior Court in Newton.

"There does have to be a punitive sanction, but the state has no objection to converting this (jail sentence)..." Mueller said.

"This is encouraging. I have always argued that the 30-day jail sentence was excessive," Kazemian's attorney, Gina Calogero, said.

Superior Court Judge N. Peter Conforti ordered a pre-sentencing report to be completed before issuing a ruling on June 6.

Kazemian, 51, was arrested at 12:10 a.m. July 17, when he allegedly was caught by state Division of Fish & Wildlife officers pouring human urine from a gallon jug near a bear trap that had been set up on his neighbor's property, authorities had said. If bears pick up the scent of urine, they won't go near the area.

In a plea bargain last year in Vernon Municipal Court, Kazemian pleaded guilty to two disorderly-persons charges of resisting arrest and a summons of interfering with officials, while other summonses alleging he poured urine in a bear trap to deter bruins, trespassed and harassed neighbors were dismissed.

Vernon Municipal Court Judge C. William Bowkley sentenced Kazemian to 30 days in jail because it was his second conviction in Vernon for a similar offense and he represented a risk of re-offense.