Re: 12/12/00 - Hartford Courant: Grand Jury Finds Against Detective
Grand Jury Finds Against Detective
By DAVE ALTIMARI
The Hartford Courant
December 12, 2000
A grand jury is recommending that a New Haven police captain be prosecuted on charges that he ordered detectives not to pursue a potential eyewitness in a homicide case and lied to another police department about the existence of that witness.
The 11-page report released Monday by Judge Carmen Espinosa lays the blame for the botched investigation into the 1996 killing of Philip Cusick squarely on Capt. Brian Sullivan, a 24-year veteran of the department who was head of the detective division at the time. The report, however, does not suggest a motive for Sullivan's alleged actions.
Cusick was shot in November 1996 during an alleged drug deal in New Haven near Atwater Street. Although police believe that he was killed in New Haven, the case became North Haven's because Cusick's body was dumped in front of his family's home there.
Two years later, a witness came forward and gave a taped statement to New Haven police in which he identified the possible shooter, although he admits he didn't see the shots fired.
That taped statement and why it never got to North Haven police was at the center of the grand jury probe.
Investigators who presented 57 witnesses before Espinosa would not comment Monday on whether they will take criminal action against Sullivan, following the judge's finding of probable cause. But sources said the investigators expect to apply for an arrest warrant charging Sullivan with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.
Hugh Keefe, Sullivan's attorney, said he expects his client to be arrested.
"It's a very interesting report and it will be a very interesting trial followed by an acquittal," Keefe said. "Brian has had an unblemished record for 25 years. When he was head of homicide, they had a 92 percent solvability rate and now he's being made the scapegoat.''
The report apparently exonerates Sgt. Edward Kendall, who kept a transcript of the witness statement in his desk for more than a year without turning it over to North Haven police. Kendall, like Sullivan, has been suspended with pay since an internal affairs investigation of the incident started a few months ago.
Kendall gave conflicting statements during the internal affairs investigation, first telling investigators that he simply forgot to turn the report over to North Haven police as Sullivan had ordered and then saying Sullivan never told him to give the report to North Haven police.
Sullivan did not testify in front of the grand jury, choosing to take the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. Sources said that Kendall testified for several hours and apparently impressed the judge as being a credible witness.
But Kendall's problems are not over.
At a meeting of the board of police commissioners tonight, Police Chief Melvin Wearing is expected to bring charges against both Kendall and Sullivan as a result of the internal affairs investigation, a source said.
The source said the commission is likely to revoke their paychecks and begin proceedings to fire both Sullivan and Kendall.
"It is never acceptable for a police officer to be charged, just as it is never acceptable for a case to be handled improperly,'' Wearing said in a prepared statement.
Wearing said he will meet today with North Haven Police Chief James DiCarlo to offer his department's full assistance in solving the Cusick homicide.
For Cusick's family members, the grand jury report brought some optimism after years of frustration. They hope it will reignite the long-stalled investigation.
Cusick's older brother, Matthew, said family members were less concerned about the specific police accusations in the report than about new information that emerged during testimony.
"I hope it brought out some information that will bring my brother's murderers to justice,'' he said. "It's not about the cops. It's about my brother's murder.''
Mayor John DeStefano Jr. noted that the report "appears to indicate that any actions of a criminal nature were limited to one person.''
"Nonetheless, I am certain that the leadership of the New Haven Police Department understands the need to assure the citizens of New Haven that their conduct at all times meets the highest standards," he said.
Espinosa's report traces the muddled history of the taped statement taken from Reynaldo Martinez on Feb. 27, 1998.
In that statement, Martinez said he heard the shots fired at the car in which Cusick was a passenger and saw the suspect running up the street yelling, "I got him. I got him.''
It is unclear where Cusick actually died. William Clark, the man driving the car Cusick was in, drove to a trailer home in Wallingford with the bleeding Cusick in the car. He then dumped the body in front of Cusick's mother's home in North Haven.
Clark was one of several witnesses involved in the murder investigation called to testify before the grand jury. Their testimony is not mentioned in the report, but sources said some of it could eventually be turned over to North Haven police to use as evidence.
In her report, Espinosa said the detectives took the witness statement to Kendall and Sullivan. Because the witness said the shooting had occurred in New Haven, the detectives wanted to take over the case and get a search warrant for the suspect's house to see if they could find the gun.
Sullivan told them to stop the investigation "per order of the chief.''
Wearing, Deputy Police Chief Douglas McDonald and former Police Chief Nicholas Pastore all testified before Espinosa that they did not order Sullivan to stop the investigation.
Kendall kept the taped statement and the original transcript. The tape has been lost, but Kendall found the statement in his desk in March of this year.
Espinosa also found that, on three occasions, Sullivan lied to North Haven police about the investigation.
In March of 1998, Sullivan went to the North Haven Police Department to look at the case files and told then-Capt. Thomas Habib he would get back to him and never did.
In October of 1998, Habib asked Sullivan about the information he was going to get back to him about and Sullivan told him it hadn't worked out because one of the potential suspects was in jail at the time of the Cusick killing.
Last February, Habib tried once again to ask Sullivan about the Cusick case. Habib said that Cusick's mother was ill and he wanted to solve the homicide before she died. Sullivan again said there was nothing new and didn't mention the Martinez statement.
Espinosa acknowledges in her report that there's no explanation for why Sullivan would have closed down a murder investigation.
Keefe said the lack of a motive is the biggest problem with any theory that Sullivan did something criminally wrong.
"Not even the judge can explain any reason why this supposedly happened,'' Keefe said. "Arresting Brian will not solve the root of the problem in that department, which is there's a total lack of leadership.''
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