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.