Re: 12/21/03 - Hartford Courant OpEd: Chief State's Attorney Should Enter Jovin Case
OPED
Chief State's Attorney Should Enter Jovin Case
December 21, 2003
David R. Cameron
Five years have passed since Suzanne Jovin, a Yale senior, was murdered shortly before 10 p.m. on Dec. 4, 1998, in a residential area of New Haven, two miles from the campus and only a half-hour after dropping off some keys at a police substation on campus.
Within days, the local media reported that the police regarded James Van de Velde, a lecturer in political science and the adviser on her senior research paper on Osama bin Laden, as the prime suspect. Five years of investigation have produced no evidence linking Van de Velde to the murder.
As the investigation enters its sixth year, it remains stymied largely because of mistakes and lapses in the first hours, days and weeks.
For example, Henry Lee, the world-renowned forensic scientist who at the time was commissioner of public safety and head of the state's forensic lab, called the New Haven police that evening and offered his assistance. His offer was rejected. The police later refused to cooperate with him when he tried to reconstruct the crime.
Several witnesses heard a man and a woman arguing in the area shortly before the attack, and several others heard Jovin's screams as she was being attacked. Not all of them were interviewed immediately. Some potential witnesses living in the area were never interviewed.
A full-sized tan or light brown van was seen parked immediately adjacent to where she was attacked, in a place where vehicles are seldom parked. The police did not seek the assistance of the public in finding the van for more than two years. They still have not found it.
A plastic soda bottle with Jovin's fingerprints on it was found at the scene. The police did not immediately track down where and when she obtained the soda - especially important because one of the last people to see her on the campus has said she did not have a soda bottle when he spoke with her.
And the police never solved the initial mystery in the case: Why, after walking from her apartment through the campus to the police substation, did she leave the campus in the opposite direction from her apartment rather than retracing her steps back through the campus? Where was she going when last seen on College Street in New Haven?
In May 1998, a cold-case unit was created in the office of the chief state's attorney. The purpose of the unit is "to focus special investigative efforts on crimes that have gone `cold' - that is, unsolved - for a prolonged period of time," according to its website. More than three years ago, Lee said the Jovin murder was a cold case. The fact that a New Haven detective continues to investigate it does not alter the fact that it is a cold case.
When asked last year why the cold-case unit was not involved in the investigation, Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano said his predecessor, John Bailey, and New Haven State's Attorney Michael Dearington had discussed the matter and decided not to call in the unit. "That was the decision then, and I don't see any reason why that decision should be changed now," he said. "It's just a very difficult case no matter who investigates. [Dearington] and his office are the appropriate people to be looking into the matter."
When asked recently, Dearington said he would not ask for the assistance of the unit because he continues to have confidence in the people working on the case.
No one would deny it is a very difficult case. Given the mistakes in the first days of the investigation, it is by no means certain that, five years later, the unit could solve the case. Nevertheless, the fact remains that it is the chief state's attorney who is ultimately responsible for the investigation of all criminal matters in the state and that one of the resources available to him is the cold-case unit.
It is not surprising, of course, that local law enforcement authorities continue to refuse to ask for the assistance of the unit. But does anyone really believe that, in a state that has a cold-case unit as well as an array of state-level investigative and forensic agencies, the best possible way to solve a case that has remained unsolved for five years is to leave it in the hands of a single New Haven detective?
When Melvin Wearing, the chief of the New Haven police at the time, was asked last year whether the cold-case unit should be called in, he said the investigation was not stalled and that it was "on the right track." He went on to say, "If we can't solve the case in the next year, if someone else wants to look at it, that's fine."
Wearing is now retired, a year has gone by, and the police haven't solved the case. There's no reason to think they ever will. The chief state's attorney should do what should have been done two or three years ago - create a multilevel state-local task force that includes the cold-case unit to pursue the investigation.
David R. Cameron is a professor and director of undergraduate studies in political science at Yale. For the past two years, he served as a member of the New Haven Civilian Review Board.
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