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New Brunswick attorney lost in diving expedition remembered: 'a force of nature'
Funeral services have been set for a popular New Brunswick-based attorney who died last month pursuing his other passion as the captain of shipwreck hunting expeditions.
A religious family funeral for Joseph M. Mazraani is at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 23 at Saint Sharbel Maronite Church, 526 Easton Ave., in the Somerset section of Franklin.
Visitation is from 4 to 8 p.m. Aug. 22 at the DeMoro Funeral Home, 517 Route 33, Millstone.
Mazraani, 47, died July 29 in a diving-related incident believed to be related to a medical emergency about 200 miles offshore from Massachusetts, on the eastern edge of Georges Bank, during a dive to a shipwreck the team called The Big Engine Steamer, according to a Facebook post by D/V Tenacious, Mazraani's New Jersey-based dive vessel that locates, dives, and salvages shipwrecks.
"Joe Mazraani was larger than life. He was kind, compassionate, and generous. A mentor and a student, a friend, brother, son, and partner. Whether motoring aboard D/V Tenacious, diving into deep and dangerous water, or defending his clients in court, Joe demanded the best of everyone around him. Sometimes he demanded it grumpily – but he always demanded by example," the Facebook post said.
According to his obituary, Mazraani was born in Beirut, Lebanon and grew up during the height of the Lebanese Civil War. He came to the U.S. at 15 and later graduated from the City University of New York with a degree in film studies and earned his law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law.
He was a founding partner at the Mazraani, Liguori & Farmer law firm, 57 Paterson St., New Brunswick, located across the street from the entrance to the Middlesex County Courthouse, where he practiced both criminal and civil law.
"In the courtroom, Joe was a force of nature – brilliant on his feet and on paper, with a mastery of the rules of evidence that allowed him to dismantle cases before they began. It was the conflicts Joe witnessed growing up in Lebanon that led him to be peculiarly sensitive to victims of government oppression. He dedicated his life to criminal defense because he wanted to be the bulwark between the State and the individual," his obituary states. "If you sought to take away his client's freedom, you had to go through him first. He left nothing on the field. He could turn a routine pretrial motion into hours of argument that, for better or worse, held the attention of everyone in the room. When cases went to trial, his authenticity, clarity, and dramatic approach won over juries time and again."
Mazraani's career included victories in two separate cases that led to exonerations recognized by the National Registry of Exonerations.
One of those involved Timothy Puskas who, after spending a decade behind bars, was found not guilty last year of all charges in the 2014 murder of former Rutgers student William "Billy McCaw.
It was the second trial for Puskas after his 2017 conviction was overturned in state appellate court. Mazraani and Puskas posed for a photo together when Puskas was released from custody.
A Facebook page remembering Billy McCaw also included a news story post about Mazraani's death.
According to his obituary, Mazraani was known as one of the world's leading shipwreck hunters and technical divers and will be remembered as one of the great East Coast dive boat captains.
His love of the ocean began during childhood summers by the Mediterranean and he became a certified scuba diver in the mid-1990s and started exploring wrecks along the Northeast coast. In 2010, he founded Atlantic Wreck Salvage and acquired his own vessel, D/V Tenacious, which he outfitted for ambitious deep-water expeditions, his obituary states.
"He lived every moment fully, without compromise," his obituary states.
Mazraani is survived by his partner Jennifer Sellitti, who is also an attorney, his parents, brother, law partners, friends, colleagues and fellow divers.
Atlantic Wreck Salvage has organized a memorial fund in Mazraani's name to promote shipwreck exploration and preservation of maritime history. Contact Jennifer Sellitti at jsellitti@ for the address for donations to be made to the Captain Joe Mazraani Memorial Fund.
Email: srussell@
Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on Funeral set for New Brunswick attorney Joe Mazraani
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