Accused Chappaqua Shooter Calls Ex-Boss a ‘Crook,’ ‘Scammer’
The man accused of trying to murder his former boss outside a Chappaqua deli last summer took the stand Friday afternoon to testify in his own defense recounting his feelings toward the victim.
Defense attorney Stewart Orden called Dr. Hengjun Chao to the stand where Chao took aim at Dr. Dennis Charney, dean of the school of medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center, accusing him of being a fraud. The testimony came after the prosecution rested its case earlier in the day.
Chao was fired as a research assistant professor and lab director at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City following nearly three years of investigation into claims of research fraud. A committee that included Charney terminated Chao in May 2009.
Speaking in broken English, the Tuckahoe resident testified that he brought allegations of data falsification against one of his researchers to the attention of Charney’s administration, which then turned on him, protecting the accused researcher, he said.
“I couldn’t understand why Dr. Charney fought so hard to cover up researcher fraud and protect crooked doctors,” Chao told the jury. “Under the disguise of a respectable dean of a medical college, Dr. Charney is a seasoned scammer, a bona-fide crook.”
Charney is the person who manipulated the process, he maintained.
Chao, 50, was charged with three felony counts, including attempted murder, after he fired rounds from a 20-gauge shotgun at Charney the morning of Aug. 29, 2016, outside Lange’s Little Store & Delicatessen on King Street.
Video footage shown to the jury revealed Chao canvasing the deli in his car parked across the street during the week leading up to the shooting. Earlier this week, the defense acknowledged that Chao shot Charney but did not intend to kill him. Instead, he hoped the publicity would expose his former supervisor.
Orden submitted a motion to dismiss the attempted murder charge, stating that because only one shot was fired by Chao it demonstrated there wasn’t an intent to kill. Judge Barry Warhit denied the motion.
During his testimony, Chao said that after dealing with multiple failed attempts to appeal his loss of employment and an unsuccessful federal lawsuit against the school, he tried contacting numerous levels of government about his case, including former President Obama.
“I got nowhere,” an emotional Chao said. “This country is completely rigged.”
During his 90 minutes of testimony, he never discussed the shooting. Orden questioned Chao’s stance toward many unidentified articles where Charney had contributed his medical expertise.
Chao said after reading the articles, he was convinced Charney had conspired with drug companies to get money for research, fooling medical professionals to prescribe drugs that would harm the health of the American public. Chao described Charney’s work as a “legendary masterpiece of fraud.”
Throughout the testimony, Assistant District Attorney Christine O’Connor objected to the questions citing lack of relevancy, but Warhit said he wanted to give the defendant the broadest opportunity to discuss his state of mind.
Warhit interrupted the testimony twice for sidebar discussions with the lawyers and repeatedly reminded jurors that Chao’s accusation against Charney was simply a reflection of his state of mind in the years following the termination.
After continuous questioning, with Chao repeatedly making scathing accusations about Charney, an irritated Warhit interrupted testimony, adjourning the trial for the weekend.
While Orden disagreed with Warhit’s decision to suspend testimony, the judge replied that Chao’s state of mind couldn’t be clearer and Orden needed to move on.
“What is actually happening, whether you’re doing it intentionally or not, the defendant is attacking Dr. Charney,” Warhit said. “At some point you’re going to have to get to the facts of the case.”
O’Connor agreed stating that the testimony is a transparent attempt on the part of Chao to smear the victim.
“There’s nothing relevant within these articles about why he took a shotgun and pointed it directly at Dr. Charney’s chest and fired at him,” O’Connor said.
If convicted, Chao faces up to 25 years in prison.
Chao will continue his testimony when the trial resumes on Monday at 9:30 a.m.
