Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Old Brooklyn Murder Case Looks Like More Trouble for GOP and Conservative Activists and Leaders who were around a few years ago

“If any one case captures the stinking, spreading mess six-term Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes left in the office of the man who defeated him, Ken Thompson , it’s the ‘grid kid’ slaying [of Mark Fisher].” —   Harry Siegel, Daily News

An attorney familiar with the case observes: “Gershman’s letter puts misconduct at Nicolazzi’s doorstep, and a DA spokesperson says ‘Nicolazzi is outstanding and respected prosecutor with exemplary record’.  That’s what Hynes used to say about Vecchione.” 


For those not familiar with this, the story goes like this. Nineteen-year-old  football star Mark Fisher was supposedly making his first foray into New York City. The Fairfield University student met three male classmates for drinks in Manhattan, where he met another female student and there was some “flirting.” One thing led to another; and, drunk, Fisher went with the girl to a late-night house party in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. Later in the AM,  Fisher’s body was found wrapped in a blanket on another property not far from the party; his face bruised from a beating presumably delivered before being shot five times (See “Cleaning up Joe Hynes’ mess
Forget about it, John. This is Brooklyn” by Harry Siegel, 2/25/14, NY Daily News
[http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/columnists?columnist=2.2577#commentpostform]).

The article in the News by Harry Siegel briefly mentions the case brought against Antonio Russo, which resulted in a guilty verdict against what Siegel described as that “known knucklehead”; however Siegel’s main focus was on the case brought against John Giuca.

The jury convicted both Russo and Guica of murder. John Giuca was sentanced to 25 to life, and will be first eligible for parole in 2029.


THE CASE AGAINST GIUCA COMING APART AT THE SEAMS

The close of the Guica trial left more loose ends than clear answers. One juror was reported  afterward to have admitted that he knew Giuca, lied about that fact in jury selection and pressed others on the jury to find Giuca guilty. A trial witness repeatedly described as uncooperative with the initial investigation; was later more cooperative; and low and behold that witness was later hired straight out of law school as a Brooklyn ADA. Three witnesses against Giuca  have since  recanted their trial testimony, risking perjury charges to do so (the other two now swear they were pressed into delivering false accounts by the DA); on top of that, the lead ADA on the case Michael Vecchione’s reputation has been shredded by recent disclosures about his handling of other cases. All of that material is detailed by Harry Siegel as being contained in a letter  from Giuca’s current lawyer, Mark Bederow, to the new Brooklyn DA Kenneth Thompson asking Thompson to revisit entire the case.


WRONGDOING  BY PROSECUTOR HANDLING GIUCA CASE DETAILED IN LETTER TO THOMPSON BY FORMER ADA AND LAW PROFESSOR BENNETT GERSHMAN


In a second letter from Giuca’s attorney to  DA Thompson, ex-ADA and law professor Bennett Gershman, who wrote the book “Prosecutorial Misconduct,” took specific aim at ADA Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, the trial prosecutor on the Giuca case.  Gershman claims that “in order to win a murder conviction in a high-profile case [she] recklessly disregarded a prosecutor’s overriding responsibility . . . that only reliable and trustworthy evidence be presented,” and instead used “misleading, deceptive and inflammatory tactics.”  Turning to one witness, who has since recanted his testimony, John Avitto, Gershman makes his strongest direct attack on  Nicolazzi’s conduct during this trial.  Avitto was Nicolaazzi’s “surprise final witness,” (for whom the defense was given no opportunity to prepare); not only was his testimony “almost certainly false,” Gershman writes, but “from the record it appears that ADA Nicolazzi knew it was false.” This is the witness whom she personally vouched for with the jury at least three times: “you know you could trust him.”

The News’ Harry Siegel sums it up this way: “It is complicated, and guilt and innocence may be lost behind the haze of the trial. But even giving Nicolazzi — who has had a sterling reputation in a sometimes troubled office, and is now leading the probe of 50 convictions tied to former Detective Louis Scarcella, like Vecchione a provider of suspiciously miraculous witnesses that led to bad convictions — every benefit of the doubt, [Professor] Gershman’s claims warrant a substantial response. ***  Thompson has his work cut out cleaning up after Hynes. He could start with Giuca.”

PROBLEMS FOR SOME OLD BROOKLYN GOP AND CONSERVATIVE PARTY HANDS

The connection of the Brooklyn DA’s overzealous prosecution in the John Giuca case and the then-goings-on in the Brooklyn GOP was related in a prior recent post on this blog (See “Brooklyn GOP Wilson-Pakula to Hynes in 2005 at Center of Appeal of MURDER CONVICTION in 2003 killing” by Galewyn Massey, 1/31/14, The Brooklyn GOP Independent Fountainhead [http://galewynmassey.blogspot.com/2014/01/brooklyn-gop-wilson-pakula-to-hynes-in.html]).
There is an additional connection that had not previously been mentioned, this one with those at or near the top of the Brooklyn Conservative Party, which also negotiated its Wilson-Pakula to Hynes in 2005.  

The News article by Harry Siegel discussed above contains this  rather innocuous line: “The partying teens quickly lawyered up, leaving investigators frustrated and unable to press charges ....”  There is a lot more behind that than meets the eye — and it directly tied-in to then-active Brooklyn GOP and Conservative Party operators.

Shortly after the killing of Mark Fisher, the Fairfield University football player, whose body was found on the property of Susan Cleary, a Brooklyn GOP Executive Member; both Cleary’s son, Al Cleary, AND John Giuca met with Philip J. Smallman, an attorney well-known to Susan Cleary. Smallman conducted at least one interview with Guica during which he discussed many details of the Fisher murder case. Soon afterward, Smallman told Giuca that he couldn’t be his attorney; instead Smallman picked Cleary as his client and made a deal with the DA for Al Cleary, which required Cleary to testify against Giuca.

In addition to his relationship with Brooklyn GOP Executive Member Cleary, Phil Smallman had a very close working relationship with leaders of the Brooklyn Conservative Party, most notably Gerry Kassar. Kassar and other Conservatives had worked very hard over the years to obtain a judgeship for Mr. Smallman, at least sometime in consultation with the DA’s office of Charles Hynes. Several times over the years Smallman ran as a judicial candidate on the GOP and Conservative lines. Whether Smallman was in any way involved in the deal for the Wilson-Pakulas to Hynes in 2005 is yet to be shown.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just think- if Marty Golden and RFC win the lawsuit the Brooklyn GOP can go back to the good ole days of murder coverups and selling wilson-pekulas...

Anonymous said...

Just exactly how "well known" was Susan Cleary to Phil Smallman?

Galewyn Massey said...

Some people might as well sign their comments....

Galewyn Massey said...

This isn't one of the 100% anti-Golden blogs.....

There are some posts that really have nothing to do with him.... I think this is one of them.

Anonymous said...

One of Al's friends said in her police report that she helped Susan and Al campaign for Smallman when he ran for Judgeship... plus he's described in the trial as a "close family friend".

Galewyn Massey said...

Interestingly, Philip J. Smallman did run for Supreme Court Justice in 2005 on both the Republican and Conservative lines. It's odd that both those parties gave their lines to somebody that was not registered as either a Republican or a Conservative and who wasn't a judge up for re-election.

Galewyn Massey said...

BACKFILL: THE “UNDER COVER” EDITION

An interesting take on some of this material appeared recently in a Will Bredderman report in The Brooklyn Paper (See “Mother of John Giuca hopes District Attorney Ken Thompson will review murder conviction” by Will Bredderman, 2/21/14, The Brooklyn Paper [http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/37/8/all-noth-hynes-movie-2014-02-21-bk_37_8.html]).
According to Bredderman’s reporting, “... Giuliano [Giuca’s mother] believes her son never got a fair trial — due to both a biased jury and a biased prosecution. According to Giuliano, an overheard comment led her to doubt the credibility of one of the jurors. And, in a move straight from a Hollywood screenplay, Giuliano decided to disguise herself and use a false name to court the juror and catch him admitting to misconduct....” She succeeded and was able to record it all and get some interesting photos, as well.

Anonymous said...

A prosecutor under hynes pops up with a surprise jailhouse witness and now everybody realizes there was a secret deal.
Well gollly !!!

Galewyn Massey said...

PS: FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS !

Perhaps, what is being missed in my post above is that ADA Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi is one of the few carryovers into DA Kenneth Thompson's office from DA Hynes' stable of senior ADAs. Furthermore, she is known to have been given several key assignments by Thompson.

This might be a huge blunder by Thompson; and he needs to be directly confronted on this hire of Nicolazzi.

ADA Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi was broken-in under and given personal training by Michael Vecchione; and her "perfect record" in trials suggests many possibilities apart from courtroom excellence. If nothing else, a complete review of the Giuca Case might reveal some of the methods that she used to obtain her "perfect record".

Right now, it looks like Thompson's broom might not have swept the DA's office as clean as originally thought. In the instance of ADA Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi one wonders --- WHY ?

Anonymous said...

I remember hearing Nicolazzi on Howard Sterns radio show during the race for DA.
It seemed odd that a prosecutor would be clowning around with a shock jock.
It seems odd that Thompson would keep her on.

Galewyn Massey said...

FORMAL REPLY: "THE MEDIA-MAID" EDITION

I don't know about what she's been on or not been on --- but it's been a lot of shows, from FOX News to shock jocks.

If you do a quick GOOGLE search, Nicolazzi almost seems like a media-tramp -- and at the front end, Don Imus comes up over and over.

Oddly, I wouldn't think a new DA ,like Thompson, would want to hire anybody, who would be so able to drop pigeon-bombs all over his car or even his head. OR maybe, that was Thompson's way of trying to avoid that possibility.

As I wrote in my comment above, Thompson specifically needs to be confronted about his hiring of Nicolazzi; and she needs to be looked at closely, warts and all.


Anonymous said...

Phil Smallman is tighter than a drum about this case. A while back he wondered if he might have "a problem" with this case; and recently, Smallman even denied that he represented anybody in the case. So, when you have a drum and want to make noise, beat on the drum.

Anonymous said...

Theres a new sheriff in town.
Smallman, Quirk, Hynes, Vecchione, the unabomber, all have a problem.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't Jonathan Judge one of Susan Cleary's and Smallman's young volunteers when all of this went down? He was good friends with Al Cleary too. What does he know about this case?

Anonymous said...

Dare I say, the question begs? Come Back, AAA!

Anonymous said...

Oh boy....

God help us...

Anonymous said...

Where is Susan Cleary now?

Anonymous said...

I don't know anything about her but I do know about a year a go I saw her screaming at some guy, chasing after him and then beating him him on the back. I was shocked later when I saw her on Imus and discovered she was a prosecutor. I am absolutely positive it was her as the guy kept saying "Stop it Anna Sigga" and I thought what a strange name.

Anonymous said...

The interesting thing is that I've been hearing for a while now that Nicolazzi was upset with Hynes because she was expecting him to retire and set her up to be the next DA. I've also been hearing that she's planning on running against Thompson for DA in 2017. I know for a fact that she moved her office up to his floor... which begs the question, is she doing that to stock pile her intel for a DA run? I wouldn't put it past anyone who took notes right from Vecchione's playbook.

She's been stepping on people's heads for years and years, getting promotions she wasn't qualified for


Anonymous said...

She also got a $43,000 salary increase in 2007, which, incidentally, was the next fiscal year immediately following the Giuca case. (the trial ended at the end of 2005, at which point the fiscal year for 2006 had already started.) Check it out, it's public information...that really happened.