Friday, January 31, 2014

Brooklyn GOP Wilson-Pakula to Hynes in 2005 at Center of Appeal of MURDER CONVICTION in 2003 killing

Member of GOP Executive Committee in the middle of it all  —  Body found at her house, while two key suspects/witnesses were “asleep” inside

Hynes thanked GOP Executive for her help in 2005 election  —  Didn’t prosecute her son for 2003 killing  —  Even though body was found on her property, her son was on probation for a similar beating of someone else, and her son had started out with same attorney and planning a common defense with one of those convicted of the killing 


In an article in today’s NY Times, reporter Vivian Yee writes that more than eight years after two young men were convicted of killing a Fairfield University student named Mark Fisher, a lawyer for one of the convicted men, John Giuca, is preparing to ask the new Brooklyn District Attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, to move to overturn his client’s conviction. Mr. Giuca’s lawyer, Mark Bederow, said in an interview that he planned to cite what he called serious flaws in the trial and misconduct by prosecutors (See “Citing Misconduct, Lawyer Seeks Review of Conviction in ’03 Brooklyn Killing” by Vivian Yee, 1/30-1/31/14, NY Times/ Region [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/nyregion/citing-misconduct-lawyer-seeks-review-of-conviction-in-03-brooklyn-killing.html?ref=nyregion&_r=1]).

According to the Times piece, “Mr. Bederow also pointed to conflicts of interest involving the district attorney at the time, Charles J. Hynes, who last year lost a re-election bid to Mr. Thompson amid reports he had presided over a series of wrongful murder convictions and a pattern of prosecutorial misconduct in his office....  Mr. Bederow said there was “the appearance of a conflict of interest” in Mr. Hynes’s relationship with Mr. Cleary [originally a suspect in the case, who became a key witness for the prosecution] who was on probation in 2003 after assaulting a man and who had waived the customary immunity that witnesses receive before testifying before the grand jury in the Fisher case, leaving himself open to prosecution. ***  Facing a challenging Democratic primary in 2005, Mr. Hynes received help in the form of an endorsement from the Brooklyn Republican Party’s executive committee, of which Mr. Cleary’s mother, Susan Cleary, was a member, allowing him to run as a Republican in the general election if he lost the primary. His statement at the time thanked Ms. Cleary for her support.”

Another suspicious person turned key witness in the case was Angel Di Pietro, a classmate of the victim, who was alleged to have been “asleep” in the Cleary house when Fisher’s body was found outside on Cleary’s property. According to Times reporter Yee, “Even after the arrests [of the two men convicted of the crime], Mr. Fisher’s parents said publicly that they believed others in the group of young people...were involved in the murder. They later sued Ms. DiPietro, saying she had failed to keep [the victim, Mark] Fisher safe. The [parents’] lawsuit was dismissed in 2007. ***  In 2012, Mr. Hynes hired Ms. DiPietro as an assistant district attorney. Her father, James DiPietro, a prominent defense lawyer, has donated to Mr. Hynes several times, including $3,000 in 2012. When political opponents criticized Mr. Hynes for Ms. DiPietro’s hiring last year, he said through a spokesman that it was unrelated to the Fisher case.”

In addition to the above information, I have been informed by someone close to Mrs. Giuca, the mother of one of those convicted and appealing this decision, that her son had started out with the same attorney as, and was planning a common defense with, Mr. Cleary. At the time, Cleary was one of the early suspects in the investigation, only later did he became a key witness for DA Hynes.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I heard the assistant prosecutor on this case Ana Nicollazzi goofing around about this case on Imus radio show last summer while she was campaigning for Hynes.
Did Thompson fire her?

Anonymous said...

I remember there was a wild blog that covered this extensively back in the day. Can't find it anymore.

Anonymous said...

Is this the deal Hynes lawyer Phil Smallman put together?

Galewyn Massey said...

I believe that something called The Jig is Up Atlas might have done something on this....

Galewyn Massey said...

I was told that Lawyer Smallman was first introduced to Giuca as his lawyer that was also representing Cleary ... then some kind of cooperation deal was made for Cleary to testify against Giuca. Smallman wasn't a Hynes lawyer in this case, but he was a lawyer under Hynes at the OSP before Hynes became the Brooklyn DA.

Anonymous said...

This is the case with a prosecutor in Hynes office named Angel Dipietro.

She testified for Hynes and than he hired her.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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Galewyn Massey said...

ADA Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi is one of the few very senior people that were carried over from DA Hynes’ team over to DA Kenneth Thompson’s crew.

Nicolazzi has been the Homicide Bureau Chief, and she was reputed to have been one of the top trial thoroughbreds in Hynes’ stable of prosecuting attorneys. She prosecuted cop killers and other high-profile cases during her years with Hynes.

A week ago Thursday, Ms. Nicolazzi joined the prosecution of Baruch Lebovits, who is facing retrial for the sexual abuse of children. The Lebovits case is a protracted and politicized sex abuse case against a Jewish cantor from the Hasidic community in Brooklyn. The earlier proceedings against Lebovits were turned upside down as a result of the 2011 indictment of Samuel Kellner for extortion and bribing witnesses against Lebovits. Further complicating progress in both the Lebovits and Kellner cases is an Internal Affairs Division investigation into an NYPD detective, Steven Litwin, who worked with Kellner to bring forth accusations against Lebovits and who has been accused of coaching a witness. If the case against Lebovits proceeds as planned, it could pit Nicolazzi against a team headlined by Alan Dershowitz, the famed attorney who helped clear OJ Simpson of murder.

Even though Nicolazzi is regarded by many as a meticulous prosecutor, who has successfully tried the killers of NYPD cops Russell Timoshenko, tortured student Ramona Moore and most recently took part in a review of some 50 old homicide convictions tied to a tainted retired detective, she also was the ADA that handled the prosecution of the murdered college football player Mark Fisher. As a result of her handling of the Mark Fisher murder case, a large part of defendant John Giuca’s case of prosecutorial misconduct is specifically aimed at her personally and what she did as the ADA who tried that case.
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Most of the information above about ADA Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi was mostly taken from the recent Daily New article, “Brooklyn DA’s Office Top Prosecutor Joins Controversial Sex Abuse Case” by Oren Yaniv, 1/23/14, NY Daily News [http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/bklyn-da-top-prosecutor-joins-sex-abuse-case-article-1.1589129].

Anonymous said...

The stench on this deal sounds bad.

Anonymous said...

Just to be clear, this happened while Hy Singer was still the Chairman, isnt that correct? I believe he was Chair until 2007.....

Anonymous said...

This all went down in 2005.

Anonymous said...

It's a shame. I liked that blog. Turns out it was ahead of its time.