Re: 12/12/00 - NH Register: GRAND JURY REPORT: Murder was covered up
GRAND JURY REPORT: Murder was covered up
Sullivan’s motive mystifies judge
William Kaempffer, Register Staff December 12, 2000
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Sullivan, Kendall
A state grand jury has recommended prosecutors arrest a top New Haven detective on charges he hid evidence from another police department in a murder case.
In a ruling unsealed Monday, Judge Carmen Elisa Espinosa concluded there was probable cause to arrest Police Capt. Brian Sullivan, a 24-year veteran and longtime head of New Haven detectives.
He could face counts of hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence, both felonies. Espinosa said she couldn’t determine Sullivan’s motive for hiding evidence from the North Haven Police Department.
The case now goes to Chief State’s Attorney John Bailey, who will decide whether to draft a warrant for Sullivan’s arrest.
The ruling effectively ends a six-month investigation that was cloaked in secrecy and saw 57 witnesses called to Espinosa’s courtroom in New Britain.
It also ends weeks of speculation inside the police department about who and how many officers would face charges from the grand jury.
Many veteran officers expressed disappointment that Sullivan emerged as the only casualty in the case.
Police Chief Melvin H. Wearing placed Sullivan and Sgt. Edward Kendall on paid leave in May as the one-person grand juror continued her probe. Espinosa cleared Kendall of any criminal wrongdoing, stating Sullivan acted alone.
The grand jury probe revolved around the 1996 murder of Philip Cusick and why New Haven police didn’t tell North Haven police investigating the slaying about potentially crucial evidence.
Police believe Cusick was shot in New Haven and his body left across from his home in North Haven.
The investigation largely stalled when New Haven detectives Stephen Coppola and Edwin Rodriguez took a taped statement in February 1998 from an informant who named a suspect and picked out his photo.
Two years later, North Haven still hadn’t been informed.
Sullivan’s attorney, Hugh Keefe, said Espinosa’s findings came as no surprise and he renewed his assault on the New Haven Police Department.
"Sullivan is one of the finest police officers this city has ever had," Keefe said. Under Sullivan’s leadership, Keefe said, the detective bureau solved more than 90 percent of its murder cases every year, one of the highest rates in the country.
Keefe said now the department "from the top down" is in chaos. Stung by the scandal, police brass and City Hall needed a fall guy, he said.
"Sully is the scapegoat," he said. "It is one thing to charge somebody with a crime. It is yet another thing to convict him."
"This case is one I’m actually looking forward to trying," Keefe said.
Meanwhile, Kendall’s attorney, Joseph M. Wicklow III, called the decision bittersweet, since Sullivan and Kendall are friends.
Wicklow maintained the department owed Kendall an apology.
"He’s been pilloried in the media; he’s been pilloried by his own department that he so faithfully served for so long. They threw him to the wolves. Hopefully someone in that department will — apologize for what they’ve done," he said.
According to the ruling, Sullivan and Kendall met with Coppola and Rodriguez soon after their 1998 interview with the informant and Sullivan told them to end the investigation "per orders of the chief."
The detectives told the grand juror that they had hoped to get a search warrant for the alleged killer’s house, but instead dropped the case. They said they were upset by the decision and "feared reprisals" from Sullivan if they disobeyed, according to her report.
Kendall testified he later approached Sullivan and asked if the order really had come from the chief and Sullivan said it had, the documents state. So Kendall, also, did not pursue the matter, he told Espinosa.
The judge found no probable cause to arrest anyone but Sullivan. She said there was no evidence that anyone "aided and abetted" or "conspired" with Sullivan in commission of the crimes.
"Capt. Sullivan’s subordinates merely acted upon the orders of their superior, that is, Capt. Sullivan," Espinosa said in her report.
The grand juror also stated that police not only withheld evidence from North Haven, but that Sullivan lied to his North Haven counterpart.
Sullivan "intentionally made false statements and misled the North Haven Police Department, for a reason which the present Grand Jury inquiry was unable to ascertain," Espinosa wrote.
Motive throughout had been the unanswered question for many in the department.
Both hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence are class-D felonies that each carry one to five years in prison.
"It just doesn’t make sense," said Sgt. Louis Cavalier, union president. "There’s still not a reason if it did happen, why it happened. That’s the mystery."
Espinosa’s job was to gather evidence to determine, in her opinion, if a crime had been committed. Bailey must now use the higher standard of proof required in a criminal prosecution to decide whether to obtain an arrest warrant.
©New Haven Register 2000
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Brother of slain man gains hope
Ann DeMatteo, North Bureau Chief December 12, 2000
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M. Cusick
NEW HAVEN — The brother of the late Philip Cusick returned to the city’s Fair Haven section Monday, no closer to knowing who killed his brother, but hopeful that after four anguish-filled years, an end may be in sight.
"It’s a step in the right direction. I’ll wait for the final outcome," Matthew Cusick said after learning that a grand jury ruled a high-ranking New Haven detective, Capt. Brian Sullivan, withheld information from the North Haven Police Department that could have helped solve his brother’s murder.
A lawyer for the Cusick family, Dave Vatti, late Monday said the results of the grand jury investigation are "shocking" to the Cusick family, and they will "strongly consider" civil action against the city of New Haven, the New Haven Police Department and Sullivan.
Meanwhile, North Haven Deputy Police Chief Thomas Habib said he hopes his department will be provided with the information necessary to move ahead with the hampered investigation they’ve never stopped working on.
"The focus is now, and always has been, to solve this case," said Habib.
New Haven Police Chief Melvin Wearing is expected today to meet with North Haven Police Chief James DiCarlo to offer "all assistance necessary" to the case’s resolution, according to a press release issued by the office of New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr.
On Monday, the grand jury seated in Superior Court at New Britain concluded Sullivan "intentionally made false statements and misled" North Haven during its investigation of the death of Philip Cusick, 23.
Police believe Cusick was shot in the area of English Street while on the passenger side of a car driven by an acquaintance known to rip off drug dealers. That man, William Clark, left Cusick’s body in front of his mother’s home on Pool Road in North Haven. Illuminated by a street light, the body was discovered by a neighbor, who immediately called police.
Matthew Cusick, speaking Monday on behalf of himself and his parents, Joann and Francis Cusick, said he hopes that justice will be served.
"I still have lots of unanswered questions like: Who shot my brother? Why hasn’t the murderer or murderers been brought to justice? It’s been way too long. I’m in agony every second of every day. The hurt my family has gone through is just overwhelming," he said.
Joann and Francis Cusick didn’t want to talk to reporters, but Matthew Cusick said his parents are in "agony every day, not to know who shot your son, when other people supposedly do. Justice should be done."
The others Cusick was referring to are a New Haven police informant and New Haven detectives who took a statement from an alleged witness in Febuary 1998, who said the killing took place in New Haven.
The information was never passed onto North Haven investigators.
The grand jury report further stated that on at least three separate occasions, Sullivan "made false statements to an officer of the North Haven Police Department about the Cusick matter" and also that Sullivan didn’t mention the statement his detectives took from the witness.
Retired North Haven Police Chief Kevin Connolly Monday termed the chain of events "unfortunate" and said they "absolutely" hindered the Cusick investigation. "It set us back a great deal. Hopefully now we’ll proceed and the grand jury has the information so we can pursue the case."
Habib said that it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the grand jury’s findings, as the matter could become a criminal case. The grand juror, Judge Carmen Elisa Espinosa, reported that Chief State’s Attorney John Bailey has copies of the transcripts of the evidence she heard, and it is up to him to decide whether to prepare an arrest warrant application against Sullivan.
In the eyes of Bob Mazurek, a friend who has seen the pain that Matthew, Joann and Francis Cusick have endured, that’s the only way to go.
"I think he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It’s sickening. Phil’s family and friends have suffered enough," Mazurek said.
©New Haven Register 2000
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