Re: 12/9/02 - New Haven Register: Police asked to turn over Jovin probe
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Police asked to turn over Jovin probe
William Kaempffer, Register Staff December 09, 2002
NEW HAVEN — A Yale University professor has undertaken a campaign urging city police to turn over the 1998 murder of a Yale student to state investigators.
David R. Cameron, a professor of political science and former colleague of the only named suspect, says police have committed repeated gaffes in the probe into the slaying of Suzanne Jovin. For more than a year, he has called on the cold case squad in the Chief State's Attorney's office to take it over.
The squad could take "a fresh look at all the evidence — badly needed in a case that went astray by the fourth day of the investigation," Cameron wrote in an open letter to the New Haven Register.
In letters and in person, the professor asserts police have targeted an innocent man, despite a lack of evidence linking him to the crime.
But it appears the cold case investigators won't get a crack at the case, at least any time soon.
Both New Haven State's Attorney Michael Dearington and police Chief Melvin H. Wearing said last week they oppose handing off the case.
And Acting Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano said he's not certain what purpose it would serve.
"Its just a very difficult case no matter who investigates," Morano said. "He (Dearington) and his office are the appropriate people to be looking into the matter."
"We have the utmost confidence in how his office has handled the matter and there is nothing that we can do that would be any different."
Jovin, 21, a Yale senior, was stabbed to death the night of Dec. 4, 1998 near a street corner in the upscale East Rock neighborhood. She was a popular co-ed and daughter of American scientists working in Germany. The slaying made international headlines for months afterward, piqued all the more when one of Jovin's teachers emerged as a suspect.
No one has ever been arrested in the case. The teacher, former lecturer James Van de Velde a colleague of Cameron, consistently has denied any involvement in the murder.
Van de Velde, too, has called on the cold case squad to take over the investigation, accusing police of letting the real killer or killers slip away while they focus exclusively on him.
Nearly three years ago, Van de Velde sent a letter to then-Chief State's Attorney John Bailey asking him to assign the investigation to the cold case unit.
"I know that Mr. Bailey and Mr. Dearington spoke at length on the issue," Morano said, and they opted not to enlist the cold case squad. "That was the decision then, and I don't see any reason why that decision should be changed now."
In Cameron's view, however, the case is too important to leave at that.
"The case is certainly a difficult one. No one would dispute that," Cameron replied. "But it's a sad commentary on the investigative capabilities of the cold case unit if there is nothing that unit could do that would be different."
Last week, the four-year anniversary of the killing passed quietly. In years past, police, prosecutors and Yale officials held scripted press conferences attended by media outlets from throughout the region. This year, the anniversary passed with barely a mention on the local news.
Van de Velde, who relocated to the Washington area for a job at the Pentagon, did not respond to a request for comment.
Wearing, who became chief in 1997, dismisses suggestions that his detective bureau mishandled the investigation. The case still was being actively — and competently — investigated, he said last week.
"I have a detective in Washington D.C. as we speak," Wearing said. Detective Michael Quinn is assigned to the case. "Detective Quinn is in Washington talking with colleagues down there, talking with different law enforcement agencies."
He would not elaborate further on the visit.
On the prospect of assistance from the cold case squad, Wearing said "I don't know what they're going to add to what's already there."
Asked if there had been any developments in the investigations, Dearington replied "none substantial enough to lead to an arrest."
Cameron, who worked with Van de Velde in Yale's political science department and who serves on the city's civilian review board, most recently wrote open letters to the local media criticizing police handling of the case.
In them, he asserted Van de Velde's innocence and ticked off a litany of police missteps and missed opportunities during the early stages of the probe.
He asserted that detectives set their sights on Van de Velde at the expense of other potential leads.
"They fixated on one particular person very quickly and never got off that person," Cameron said.
He said local authorities do not want to acknowledge they failed.
Wearing said, however, that the case is not stalled and added, "We are on the right track."
"If we can't solve the case in the next year, if someone else wants to look at it, that's fine," Wearing said.
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William Kaempffer can be reached at wkaempffer@nhregister.com , or at 789-5727.
©New Haven Register 2002
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