"That's a strange place for a drug deal."
4:01pm. Deborah Roberts of Clark Mills takes the witness stand.
-On February 27, Roberts testifies that she visited the Commercial Drive Hannaford around 7:45pm with her daughter.
-We see a receipt. She bought Charmin toilet paper (moment of laughter) and left Hannaford at 7:55pm, heading next for the nearby $1 store. She then noticed a blue car and a second car (goldish color) parked next to each other. Two black males in gold car. Blue car? Couldn't tell.
-Her initial thoughts? "That's a strange place for a drug deal." Roberts testifies that she and her daughter then went into the $1 store. Exited store at 8:13pm. Both cars were gone.
-Roberts testifies that she drove toward Clark Mills (Route 5a to Route 5). Noticed nothing unusual at Lennon's. Her daughter wanted her to stop at the Kirkland Byrne Dairy. "No, it's too late."
-4:14pm. Roberts testifies that she heard (on the family police scanner) about a car accident/fire at the Byrne Dairy a few moments later. Called her son and told him to come home.
-We have roughly 229 pieces of evidence.
Roberts is finished at 4:25pm.
-On February 27, Roberts testifies that she visited the Commercial Drive Hannaford around 7:45pm with her daughter.
-We see a receipt. She bought Charmin toilet paper (moment of laughter) and left Hannaford at 7:55pm, heading next for the nearby $1 store. She then noticed a blue car and a second car (goldish color) parked next to each other. Two black males in gold car. Blue car? Couldn't tell.
-Her initial thoughts? "That's a strange place for a drug deal." Roberts testifies that she and her daughter then went into the $1 store. Exited store at 8:13pm. Both cars were gone.
-Roberts testifies that she drove toward Clark Mills (Route 5a to Route 5). Noticed nothing unusual at Lennon's. Her daughter wanted her to stop at the Kirkland Byrne Dairy. "No, it's too late."
-4:14pm. Roberts testifies that she heard (on the family police scanner) about a car accident/fire at the Byrne Dairy a few moments later. Called her son and told him to come home.
-We have roughly 229 pieces of evidence.
Roberts is finished at 4:25pm.
posted by Andy Jenks - WKTV at
4:00 PM
15 Comments:
tyical white person sees black guys in car and thinks ok their drug dealers they have white ones too.
debbie roberts aint white
Yeah pretty stupid to think they were "Drug Dealers" should have known that they were armed robbers that would eventually kill a police officer. I think it was a fantastic observation on her part. More people should go through life w/o blinders on.
thats even more reason she should have not thought drug deal unless she known about drug dealing she knows who they target.
Good for her that she noticed and was honest about it. A woman out alone with their child in the evening notices that type of thing - I don't find anything unusual about it.
Anonymous said...
The New York Times
July 30, 1993
Section B; Page 5
Police Investigation Supervisor Admits Faking Fingerprints
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a widening scandal that has rocked the New York State Police, a lieutenant who supervised criminal investigations in seven upstate counties admitted yesterday that he had faked fingerprint evidence in three cases.
The lieutenant, Craig D. Harvey, also said in court in Delhi, N.Y., that he had been assisted in fabricating evidence by another lieutenant, Patrick O'Hara, who works out of state police headquarters in Albany supervising drug and organized-crime investigations.
Mr. who pleaded guilty yesterday in one case, was immediately dismissed from the force, and Lieutenant O'Hara, who has not been charged, was suspended without pay for 30 days pending an inquiry. Two other troopers had previously pleaded guilty in the scandal.
Taken together, yesterday's events painted a picture of almost routine fabrication of evidence in criminal cases in the identification unit of Troop C, based in Sidney, 65 miles southwest of Syracuse, beginning at least as far back as 1984. In general, officials said, investigators would use fabricated fingerprint evidence to build cases against people who had already been identified as suspects.
Another Arrest Expected
The scandal has already undermined several criminal convictions, and in one case, led to the dismissal of charges of being accessory to murder against a woman who prosecutors now say had been jailed for a crime she did not commit.
Nelson E. Roth, the special prosecutor appointed by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo to investigate the Troop C scandal, said yesterday that he expected "at least one additional arrest," apparently alluding to Lieutenant O'Hara.
"The whole affair is incredibly disheartening and unfortunately creates some unwarranted public scrutiny of the entire state police," added Mr. Roth, who said he believed that the scandal was limited to Troop C.
Just last month, Thomas A. Constantine, the superintendent of the state police, predicted that there would be no additional arrests. He was in New Jersey yesterday and not available for comment, said James V. Atkins, his spokesman.
In March, Mr. Constantine issued a sweeping series of changes in the rules governing evidence handling to prevent a repeat of the scandal.
Whole Identification Unit
Two other investigators from Troop C have admitted faking fingerprint evidence against suspects in various crimes. But Lieutenant Harvey was the highest-ranking officer to admit wrongdoing in the scandal, which now encompasses all five investigators who worked in Troop C's criminal identification unit between 1982 and 1992.
"What you have here is a very serious problem within a particular troop," said Richard Girgenti, the state's criminal justice director. "We're satisfied a complete review has been and is taking place."
But Mr. Girgenti said there was no way to know when the state police would have learned of the scandal if a former investigator, David L. Harding, had not bragged to a C.I.A. official during a job interview that he had faked fingerprint evidence to help win criminal convictions.
In the first of two court appearances yesterday, Lieutenant Harvey pleaded guilty in Delhi, in Delaware County, to faking fingerprints in a 1986 double murder, and admitted faking fingerprints in two burglaries dating from 1984. He agreed in a plea bargain to serve 2 1/2 to 7 1/2 years in prison.
Implicated by Friend
He also implicated Lieutenant O'Hara, a close friend. Both men are 17-year veterans of the force and joined Troop C in 1982. When they were promioted to lieutenant in 1989, Lieutenant Harvey was made a supervisor of criminal investigations in Troop C, and Lieutenant O'Hara was assigned to Albany.
In a separate proceeding yesterday afternoon in Tioga County Court in Owego, Investigator David M. Beers, who pleaded not guilty in May to evidence-tampering charges, pleaded not guilty to new charges that he faked a fingerprint on a machine gun during a 1991 narcotics investigation.
As second in command of Troop C's bureau of criminal investigation, Lieutenant Harvey directly supervised 40 investigators, including Mr. Beers, Mr. Harding and Robert M. Lishansky. Mr. Harding and Mr. Lishansky have pleaded guilty to evidence tampering in two dozen criminal cases and are serving prison terms.
The 4,000-member state police force handles most serious crimes in rural upstate New York, giving critical forensic and laboratory aid to local police and sheriff's departments.
Problem With Confession
The department plays a much less visible role in New York City and on Long Island, but it recently drew attention with the June arrest of Joel Rifkin, an unemployed landscaper who the authorities say has admitted killing 17 women. He was picked up after troopers discovered a body in the back of his pickup truck during a routine traffic stop.
Even in that case, though, the state police has drawn criticism for failing to make either video or audio recordings of Mr. Rifkin's confessions or to have him sign a written confession.
The state police learned from Federal officials last summer that Mr. Harding had bragged in a 1991 job interview with the C.I.A. about faking fingerprints. Mr. Harding pleaded guilty last December to fabricating fingerprint evidence in four cases, and his partner, Mr. Lishansky, pleaded guilty in April to evidence tampering in 21 cases.
Also in April, Mr. Harvey became the third trooper charged in the scandal when prosecutors accused him of lying when he claimed to have discovered a murder suspect's fingerprint at a crime scene. In court yesterday, Lieutenant Harvey said he and Lieutenant O'Hara lifted the suspect's fingerprint from equipment in Troop C headquarters after the suspect was booked, and later claimed they had found the fingerprint at the scene of an execution-style double murder.
The suspect, John Spencer, was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison, but has asked the judge to void his conviction because the faked fingerprint was part of the case against him.
"The terrible thing is that the fingerprint wasn't crucial to the case," said Malcolm C. Hughes, the former Delaware County District Attorney who prosecuted the double murder.
Troopers Under a Cloud
All five investigators in the identification unit of Troop C in Sidney, N.Y., from 1982 to 1992 have been implicated in an evidence-tampering scandal.
DAVID L. HARDING A former investigator and 7-year veteran of the force, was sentenced Dec. 16, 1992, to 4 to 12 years in prison and fined $20,000 for fabricating evidence in four cases.
ROBERT M. LISHANSKY A former investigator and 11-year veteran, was sentenced June 10 to 6 to 18 years in prison for faking evidence in 21 cases.
CRAIG D. HARVEY A lieutenant who once headed the identification unit and was a 16-year veteran, admitted on July 29 that he had fabricated evidence in three cases, and agreed to serve 2 1/2 to 7 years in prison.
DAVID M. BEERS An investigator and 15-year veteran, pleaded not guilty on May 5 and on July 29 to fabricating evidence in two cases.
PATRICK O'HARA A lieutenant and 16-year veteran, was suspended July 29 pending an investigation into Mr. Harvey's allegations that Lieutenant O'Hara helped fake evidence.
Good job Auntie - proud of you.
CB
To the person who published the article...
1. there is a time and a place for everything
2. maybe you should be a defense attorney
3. 1993? We live in 2007.
Who is the nut that keeps publishing that article about the State Police? - That is an old story with no relevance here
Get a life you looser
obviously its someone who is either related to aka the fake healy or 1 of the arrested scumbags in new jersey that are still locked up over robbery charges or its someone who has been arrested before and thinks they are innocent and got charged with something they did. like the previous post said get a life that has nothing to do with this case and your buddy is GOING TO GET HIS ASS FRIED BEFORE IT DONE.so keep throwing up about fake finger prints cause thats not the case here idiot.
Keeping in mind there are a few thousand NYS Troopers. .........so a couple of Troopers in one out of a couple thousand NYS Troopers were involved in faking evidence 13 years ago so we should consider this as a defense to let this idiot who was obviously involved with this crime go free? What moron would post that here. What a jackass. But I guess we know the jackass that did post this won't be able to delete this from his computer hard drive..... Right!!!
Ok there are several of the lennon employees that are traumatized for the rest fo there lives from this event. There are the Corr's who will never see there son, husband daddy brother family member again There is a brotherhood of police officers and a community that is missing a wonderful officer and people have the nerve to come on this website and post ridiculous things such as a thirteen year old police scandal. Why? Where is the sympathy for all people involved where is your compassion and heart?
Andy keep up the good work. Officers keep up the good work and god bless all of the families involved!
Becky, come on 1993?
Copy & Paste http://69.169.173.116:5030 into the url location. of windows media player to listen to oneida county sheriffs live from your computer
roger.east tn
Great Job Debbie Roberts! I think we live in a time when people "dont want to get involved" So its nice to know that there are still people out there willing to help out and tell the courts what they saw.
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