Chapter 6: I was sold down the river for greed.
From my first visit with my P.D.s, they assured me their office had the funds and their own private investigators to fully investigate my claims of innocence and to prepare my case for trial! They promised to be my innocence defense mediator to my friends and the public, since day one telling me not to talk to the Press (the case was too political, they would quote me out of context). I was stopped in the middle of an unrelated 8-18-05 civil law suit deposition and told to save ALL testimony for the trial! So not to show the ASAs all of our cards pretrial, we did a vague scripted interview with the arrest expert, Richard Offshe, but then my P.D.s didn't call him or me to testify at the 8-31-07, 9-20-07 or 10-5-07 Quash-Arrest motion promising to prove the Detectives were lying in front of my Jurors, and to save all of my testimony for the trial!
While waiting for trial, and every time I heard another incriminating accusation against me in trial, I let my P.D.s know the truth and who or what could prove it for me. The list was long: T. Gravilos, Anne's Psychiatrists, M. Benz, R. Beecham, C. Walsh, R. Bilik, J. Howard, D. Maro, A. and R. Kroll, K. Cadwell, J. Peterson, J. Peters, a P.D. that asked for a bug/wire and his client, M. Mogilinski, T. Lane, D. Gieblewicz, T. Baker, M. Blake, B. Anderson, C. Walker, C. Collins, J. Noble, B. Sanchez, G. Luna, B. Tyska, J. Blazek, C. Pillote, K. Lennstrom, K. Abel, T. Sharkey, W. Harger, I. Linton, R. Piersanti, R. Haas, L. Mann, M. and D. Smith, T. Hetzepetres, and many more! But they weren't called to testify as promised! Unfortunately, the ones that were called (only at sentencing) weren't allowed to defend my innocence by discrediting the ASA's witnesses.
Witnesses were promised; like David Pisano. Standing in front of the Judge on 9-15-0. I saw David's name as an eyewitness on 3rd Party Scapegoating paperwork that Juan's lawyers were filing. Excited and figuring that I was going home soon, I said, "Hey! I know Dave!" Neither Juan nor I fit David's description! Juan was 5 ft. 5 inches tall and weighed a round, plump 195 lbs. I haven't had bangs since 1987, and all I wear (own) all winter are faded blue jeans and a jean jacket with a light grey hoodie sweatshirt underneath! By 1993, I had a very stylish mullet, cut by T. Baker, whose shop is across the street from Brown's. I already had a very distinguished receding widow's peak exposing my huge, pale forehead as seen in my 1992 and 1993 photos that I attached to David's Police Report along with his sketch. See (EXHIBIT D). David saw ONE of the two robbers!!! Evidence supports that the fleeing robbers came closer to David when bloody buckets and lids were left in the fresh snow by the garage dumpster, they passed under bright overhead parking lot lights to the awaiting get away car. David knew Juan's rare car very well; along with the silver Pinto, white Regal, and blue Cutlass 442 that I drove. David is the only reliable type of eyewitness because prior to his observation he knew Juan and I personally since we were friends with his brother Joe in 1992/93!
This type of identification, or lack of identification, is supported by Dr. Geoffrey Loftus, Shari R. Berkowitz, Mark Green, Ph.D., Dr. Solomon Fulero, and many other eyewitness experts like them. The other thing that makes David a great eyewitness is that he knew details never released to the public - things only the police, murderer, or a genuine eyewitness would know. Fortunately, he had a rock solid alibi, too! Police knew two sets of shoe prints entered one of the front doors and left out of the back door - David knew which of the four doors the murderers left out of! The robbery was loosely documented by the four-piece meal receipt at 9:08 pm, and a wall clock stopped at 9:48 pm - David saw one of the robbers strangely come out of the back door and stand there for 5 seconds looking around between 9:45-10:00 pm as David and his coworker were collecting carts that accumulate in the corner by Brown's. They were preparing to close the grocery store for the night, and David saw a white male! Also never released to the public, there is evidence that the second DNA found with Juan's on the eaten pieces of chicken bones was that of an unidentified "white male"! But again, my DNA didn't match because I didn't commit the crime!
Experts would agree that what makes David's observation more reliable is that he wasn't stressing or panicking while collecting the carts. David was used to looking at Brown's for his friends and family that worked there. David, being a white Italian identifying a white person, is more reliable than the less accurate cross - racial identifications. David was not simply guessing on the rest of the murderer's features in the composite sketch, which proves he wanted to be accurate and wasn't influenced by the typical police suggestive memory contamination. And finally, there was a massive $240,00 financial incentive for David to turn in family or name anyone that even resembled the guy he saw! Neither Juan nor I was the guy that David saw standing there for 5 seconds!!!
In trial, I was told I would be the last witness testifying, and was instructed to just sit there paying attention (daauuuh!), but NO note taking, No body language; DON'T even shake my head in agreement or disagreement of any testimony as the Jurors and the Press would misinterpret any show of emotion. Next thing I knew, I heard "Defense RESTS tomorrow" - days early, without calling many of the promised witnesses. Then my P.D.s tell me that I'm not testifying - "there is no need to, the case is good", assuring me that they are going to burn my accusers using the long list of rebuttal witnesses, and since their perjury legally opened the door for witnesses that weren't on the pretrial approved list, they promised me that Anne, Eileen, Detective Sergeant King, Chief Koziol, Asa McHale, etc. would be back on the witness stand before my Jurors go back to deliberate. This rebuttal never happened!!! The only one that came back on the stand was my hard to understand, super smart hydrologist witness to say the exact same thing again; all so that my Jurors would not be stuck in deliberation during Rosh Hashanah. Too late to do anything except sit there stunned, and hoping the P.D.s knew what they were doing, my jurors went in back to deliberate! My P.D.s didn't Constitutionally investigate or confront my accuser's lies for my Jurors, or for the record to use in appeals! If they had, I would have been home in 2002 shortly after my arrest. It's next to impossible to defend ourselves in Court. The United States' Supreme Court Rule requires ALL case reports and evidence to stay in the exclusive custody of the ASA and lawyers. My P.D.s never allowed me to have a copy, or review that file even to this day! Many times since my wrongful conviction I have personally written the Palatine Police (etc.) requesting seized property from my home and some evidence. One thing specifically I asked for is their canvassing eyewitness reports; to finally see for myself if there were other eyewitnesses that knew me and Juan and our cars like David did. But they never responded to a single F.O.I.A. request!