Whether it’s beating cancer, defending one’s country overseas, feeding the hungry at a soup kitchen, or meeting a soulmate for the first time, each person has a moment when they know their lives will never be the same.
For defense attorney John Hartmann, right, that moment came in the form of a 42-year-old African American man who had a lazy eye, reeked of Wild Irish Rose liquor, and had a thing for elderly paramours which he called “granny candy.” Hartmann, fresh out of Seton Hall Law School, was apprenticing at the Middlesex County public defender’s office, and his first gig was to get this man off from a drug charge.
While the man and his story may have sent others packing, it only reaffirmed Hartmann’s decision to pursue defending the good, the bad, and always the innocent.
“Hell, I had a nice upbringing and went to nice schools. I went to college and law school, and this was just so different,” said Hartmann, 45. “It was crazy, his story was crazy — you can’t make that up.”
Hartmann did have a nice upbringing. A Toronto native, he moved to West Windsor when he was five and was raised on Woodmeadow Lane. His father was a scientist at Merck in Rahway, and his mother stayed at home. The sleepy town Hartmann grew up in is quite different from present day West Windsor.
He remembers a lot of grass, farms, and guns. “My neighbors would shoot their guns at opossums,” he recalled. “One time, I remember waking up and seeing a horse just running wild in my backyard.” When he was little, he used to pick strawberries at a farm behind the Dutch Neck School.
Hartmann attended Maurice Hawk School and graduated from Princeton Day School. He went on to pursue his bachelor degree in history at Georgetown and then to Seton Hall for law. Like most college kids, he needed a part-time job to make a little extra cash.
So he ran for the Assembly in the 15th district in 1991 and became the youngest Republican to be elected to the New Jersey General Assembly at the tender age of 24. Though unable to raise the state highway speed from 55 to 65 mph, he did bring a state-of-the-art neonatal center to a hospital in the heart of Trenton.
“It helps people, it helps kids, and it helps babies,” said Hartmann. “No matter what, no one will take that away from me.”
Hartmann quit politics in 1993 after he ran for re-election and lost by a little more than 100 votes. Instead, he focused on law and defending those who were charged with breaking it. Hartmann was hooked on defense law and intrigued by the parallel society of prostitutes, drug addicts, and hustlers that was so different from his upbringing.
“It’s like a Charles Dickens story. It’s not even like a poor, rich or middle class –– it’s just the underbelly that’s out there,” he explained. “It’s not necessarily good or bad, just different.”
It’s this society Hartmann has learned to navigate in his more than 15 years of law practice. From higher profile murder cases to petty theft charges, Hartmann has defended more than 10,000 people. He has spent as much time in prison as the ones locked inside it and has come to know the ins and outs of New Jersey’s fractious criminal justice system.
Now he decided it was time to write about it.
Hartmann released his second book, “Jacket: The Trials of a New Jersey Criminal Defense Attorney,” on Monday, November 5. “Jacket” is a colorful mixture of Hartmann’s memoirs in law and politics and tips and tricks he has learned along the way. The book includes plenty of humor and amusing details as Hartmann takes shots at haughty lawyers, pompous politicians, arrogant cops, and clients who weren’t the brightest crayons in the box.
His inspiration and main plot for the book is Nathaniel Oliver — a Trenton man who spent almost four years in jail for a robbery he did not commit. Oliver refused to plead guilty and relied on his faith in God that justice would be served. Justice was served, thanks to Hartmann, who helped Oliver win back his freedom.
A self-described cynic, Hartmann said Oliver was a “breath of fresh air.”
“It was clear he wasn’t guilty and that it was just shoddy police work,” said Hartmann. “It just shows the trial is like a roll of the dice –– you don’t know what is going to happen.”
From recalling former vice president Dick Cheney rolling up to his college in a 1987 Ford Mustang, to divulging the recipe for the prison moonshine called “hooch,” Hartmann peppers the book with many colorful anecdotes.
On Friday, November 16, Hartmann will hold a book signing event at Cafe Ole on South Warren Street in Trenton at 5 p.m.
Nowadays, Hartmann is still an active defense attorney and has a practice based in West Windsor on Princeton-Hightstown Road across from Sun Bank. A part-time public defender for West Windsor for about 10 years, he now works as the town’s public defender on a contractual basis. He, his wife Marjule, and their two children Lilly, 9, and Robert, 2, all live in Lawrenceville.
“I still get a lot of drug cases and then anything from speeding tickets to a murder case,” said Hartmann. “Doing murder trials, you can’t get paid enough, but I have to make a living and support a family, so I take whatever walks through the door.”
Author Event, Cafe Ole, 126 South Warren Street, Trenton. Friday, November 16, 5 p.m. John W. Hartmann, author of “Jacket: The Trials of a New Jersey Criminal Defense Attorney.” An attorney with a private practice in the Princeton area, he is a former member of the New Jersey State Assembly. Raised in West Windsor, he graduated from Princeton Day School. Reading and signing. 609-396-2233 or cafeolecoffee.com.
John Hartmann, Attorney, 50 Princeton-Hightstown Road, West Windsor. 609-897-1111.
