IAPE Evidence Blog

Daily News (New York), SPORTS FINAL EDITION, NEWS; Pg. 13
BYLINE: JAKE PEARSON DAILY NEWS WRITER With Rocco Parascandola

Brook­lyn, NY

VICTIM’S BROTHER WAITS 28 YEARS FOR COPS TO TRACK DOWN KILLER, THEN FINDS OUT …

A BROOKLYN man who has waited nearly three decades for cops to solve his brother’s mur­der was stunned when he was told last month that police tossed the crime scene evi­dence 15 years ago. 

The shock­ing dis­clo­sure came when Regi­nald Agius says a South homi­cide detec­tive told him Dec. 22 by phone that cru­cial evi­dence from his brother Godfrey’s 1983 slay­ing was gone.

Now he fears his brother’s stab­bing death will never be solved.

“What right does the Police Depart­ment have to throw away evi­dence on a mur­der case?” asked Agius, 62. “They know mur­der cases are never closed. There’s no statute of lim­i­ta­tions.… I want justice.”

The tossed evi­dence included a bloody hat, a par­tial fin­ger­print sam­ple, a knife and a cig­a­rette butt recov­ered at the scene of the Jan. 17, 1983, stab­bing, Agius said.

“My brother wasn’t some ani­mal. He was a hard­work­ing guy,” he said. “He had two jobs. He was recently mar­ried. He had just bought the house. He was start­ing a life.”

God­frey Agius, a mechanic at a Brook­lyn bus com­pany, was work­ing on a car in his garage when he heard noises from within his E. 86th St. home, the Daily News reported at the time.

When he went upstairs, he found an intruder had bro­ken into the house. Agius was stabbed sev­eral times in the head and chest dur­ing a struggle.

“He was dis­cov­ered that after­noon by the mail­man,” his brother said. “There was blood all over the place, from the bed­room all the way down to the kitchen.”

The NYPD did not respond to repeated requests for com­ment. James Moss, the cur­rent detec­tive on the case who Agius said told him of the evi­dence snafu, declined to dis­cuss the matter.

Barry Scheck, co-director of the Inno­cence Project, who hunts old DNA to free peo­ple jailed by mis­take, has called lost evi­dence a “big prob­lem in New York City.”

Scheck said his group asked for DNA in 46 city cases from 2004 to 2009 and found that the genetic evi­dence in 27 couldn’t be found.

After Regi­nald Agius learned about the miss­ing evi­dence, he emailed NYPD Com­mis­sioner Ray­mond Kelly, ask­ing about his brother’s case. He hasn’t heard back.

“I am [in] dis­be­lief,” Agius wrote to Kelly on Dec. 22, remind­ing the city’s top cop a “cold-blooded mur­derer” could still be on the loose.

“Please help.… Give me an answer how this could have hap­pened with all my heart I would appre­ci­ate it thank you.”

Agius vis­its the 69th Precinct sta­tion­house in Canar­sie every six to eight months to check on the inves­ti­ga­tion. At least six dif­fer­ent detec­tives have han­dled the case, he said.

He’s offer­ing a $5,000 reward for any­one with infor­ma­tion that leads to the arrest of his brother’s killer.

“It’s not just me. How many other mur­ders were com­mit­ted and their loved ones don’t know if the guy will be caught because their evi­dence was thrown out?” asked Agius. “This is an atrocity.”

- — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — -
Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org

INDYSTAR.COM, indystar.com
BYLINE: Robert Annis
Link to Article

Zionsville, IN

Lat­est alle­ga­tions involve mis­use of evidence

Zionsville Police Chief Rick Dow­den is being inves­ti­gated on new alle­ga­tions of mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ing thou­sands of dol­lars of poten­tial evi­dence money and sell­ing a sports car that was evi­dence in a crim­i­nal case.

Sgt. Anthony Emery of the Indi­ana State Police said Fri­day that the inves­ti­ga­tion of Dow­den — which was expected to be com­pleted by the mid­dle of last month — is continuing.

Boone County Pros­e­cu­tor Todd Meyer also con­firmed that State Police inves­ti­ga­tors have asked him to con­vene a grand jury in the Dow­den case in the near future. After they com­plete their inves­ti­ga­tion, Meyer said, he’ll seek a spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor to take over the case.

Dow­den placed him­self on paid admin­is­tra­tive leave last month, after ear­lier alle­ga­tions sur­faced against him regard­ing mis­ap­pro­pri­ated evi­dence and misconduct.

In the lat­est alle­ga­tions, a Zionsville estate bro­ker, Brian McCall, said money he was sup­posed to have received in a vehi­cle deal gone bad is missing.

McCall said he bought a 2007 Nis­san 350 Z and a 2009 Ford Flex in May 2009, intend­ing to resell the vehi­cles locally.

How­ever, when McCall tried to sell both vehi­cles to Pear­son Ford, the deal­er­ship dis­cov­ered the vehi­cles had coun­ter­feit vehi­cle iden­ti­fi­ca­tion num­bers and had been stolen from out of state.

After McCall called Zionsville police, he arranged for a meet­ing with the alleged seller, a man who went by the alias Sean­nacy McNeil, arrived in a 2008 Ford Explorer that author­i­ties said was stolen.

McCall said Dow­den told him imme­di­ately after McNeil’s arrest that police had recov­ered $25,000 from McNeil, but then later told him they hadn’t recov­ered any­thing. Weeks later, when McCall pressed the issue with Dow­den, he was told they’d recov­ered only $4,500.

“I’m out a lot of money from this deal,” McCall said Fri­day, adding that when he tried to recover the money, Dow­den told him he couldn’t have it back because it involved stolen property.

“It’s my word ver­sus theirs. And with all the shenani­gans going on in that depart­ment, I don’t think I’ll ever get it back,” McCall said.

The Explorer and Flex were returned to their right­ful own­ers, but the Nis­san remained with the Police Depart­ment as evidence.

Zionsville Town Coun­cil­man Art Har­ris said peo­ple began see­ing Dow­den dri­ving the car around town.

“He didn’t make a secret of it,” Har­ris said.

Author­i­ties moved to claim the Nis­san as an asset for­fei­ture last year, but before a judge could act on the peti­tion, the car — which was still con­sid­ered evi­dence in a pend­ing crim­i­nal case — was sold for more than $9,000 at an auto auc­tion in November.

Glenn Green­berg, senior pub­lic rela­tions con­sul­tant for Lib­erty Mutual, con­firmed that the com­pany signed over the title of the sports car to the Police Depart­ment but didn’t have any addi­tional details.

Meyer, the county pros­e­cu­tor, said miss­ing a key piece of evi­dence, such as a vehi­cle, could present a prob­lem for the pros­e­cu­tion in such a case. McNeil is sched­uled to appear in court Feb. 17 to face three counts of auto theft.

McCall doesn’t face any charges.

Dow­den also does not face charges, but he is still under inves­ti­ga­tion by State Police and Zionsville officials.

James Voyles, Dowden’s attor­ney, declined to com­ment on the case.

State Police began inves­ti­gat­ing Dow­den late last year, after an unnamed depart­ment employee claimed to have seen Dow­den and a Zionsville police detec­tive take a 50-inch Toshiba plasma TV from police head­quar­ters and load it into Dowden’s city-owned SUV. A search was con­ducted at Dowden’s home in December.

In a probable-cause affi­davit, Dow­den is accused of hav­ing drawn and waved a cocked and loaded .45-caliber semi­au­to­matic pis­tol at a meet­ing with about 12 offi­cers at head­quar­ters last year.

Dow­den, who has served as police chief since 2007, went on leave shortly after State Police began their investigation.

Con­tact Star reporter Robert Annis at (317) 444‑6031. Fol­low him at twitter.com/RobertAnnis.

- — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — -
Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org

The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jer­sey), MONMOUTH/OCEAN EDITION, NEWS; Pg. 001, Newark Morn­ing Ledger Co.
BYLINE: James Queally, Star-Ledger Staff

Newark, NJ

A dec­o­rated police sergeant lost his job ear­lier this month after he was accused of fail­ing to log eight con­cert tick­ets into evi­dence that were being scalped out­side a high-priced Miley Cyrus per­for­mance in 2007, author­i­ties said.

Michael DiFabio — awarded the Newark Police Department’s high­est honor in 2005 and who entered into a pro­ba­tion­ary pro­gram on Jan. 11 — will be barred from gov­ern­men­tal employ­ment and has resigned from the depart­ment, accord­ing to Kather­ine Carter, a spokes­woman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. 

DiFabio was indicted on charges of offi­cial mis­con­duct and evi­dence tam­per­ing in 2009, Carter said. As part of his agree­ment, DiFabio did not admit to those charges and must pay $175 in fines and enter into the court’s pre-trial inter­ven­tion pro­gram, known as PTI.

“The case is over. He did not admit to any wrong­do­ing,” said his attor­ney, Anthony Fusco Jr. “There’s a PTI period. After that the case will be dis­missed and he will get an expungement.”

DiFabio, 45, of Brick, declined to comment.

The now ex-sergeant was over­see­ing police offi­cers assigned to the teen starlet’s “Best of Both Worlds Tour” at the Pru­den­tial Cen­ter on Dec. 30, 2007, when an offi­cer seized eight tick­ets from a scalper, Carter said. The offi­cer turned them over to DiFabio, who allegedly gave two tick­ets to a friend and failed to log the other six into evi­dence, accord­ing to Carter.

Tick­ets to the per­for­mance were being scalped and resold at up to five times their value. It is unclear if DiFabio received money for any of the tick­ets, Carter said.

His alleged actions went unno­ticed until the accused scalper, Joseph Truch, faced charges in Newark munic­i­pal court in 2008. Carter said charges against Truch were dropped when the munic­i­pal pros­e­cu­tor dis­cov­ered the tick­ets were miss­ing from evidence.

But Tick­et­mas­ter reported that all eight tick­ets had been used at the con­cert, said Carter, spark­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion. The van­ished tick­ets were traced back to DiFabio when Newark attempted to sus­pend the offi­cer who seized them from Truch, she said.

“It was brought up that the sus­pen­sion could last for months and even result in ter­mi­na­tion,” said Carter. The offi­cer soon told inves­ti­ga­tors he gave the tick­ets to DiFabio.

DiFabio was a Newark offi­cer for 17 years and last served as an offi­cer at Newark’s Green Street jail, accord­ing to a police spokesman. Records show he earned $101,289 per year.

Teenagers flocked to the “Best of Both Worlds Tour,” which also fea­tured the Jonas Broth­ers and sold out the Pru­den­tial Cen­ter for two nights, caus­ing large-scale infla­tion of ticket prices on the resale mar­ket. One ticket to a tour stop in Char­lotte, N.C., report­edly went for $2,565.

Before his indict­ment, DiFabio was regarded as a hero and was a recip­i­ent of the Medal of Valor after sav­ing a detective’s life dur­ing a furi­ous shootout in 2005. DiFabio was a super­vi­sor with the “Safe City” ini­tia­tive when he wit­nessed a gun­man open fire on Detec­tive Patrick Gonnella in the city’s West Ward, strik­ing him five times, said Capt. John Chrys­tal, pres­i­dent of Newark’s Supe­rior Offi­cers Association.

The sus­pect exchanged gun­fire with DiFabio and then fled on foot, Chrys­tal said. The fire­fight lasted sev­eral min­utes and spanned three blocks, said Chrys­tal, before DeFabio even­tu­ally shot and killed Gonnella’s attacker.

“Mike was a dec­o­rated offi­cer who received our high­est honor,” Chrys­tal said. “We wish him the best of luck.”

DiFabio’s heroic response to the shoot­ing left a “last­ing impres­sion” on the depart­ment, accord­ing to Chrys­tal, who said DiFabio “showed that he was a brave and ded­i­cated police officer.”

Staff writer Jay Lustig and the Asso­ci­ated Press con­tributed to this report. James Queally: (973) 392‑1790 or jqueally@starledger.com

- — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — -
Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org