NY: Deskovic sues police, medical examiner, prosecutors in wrong conviction

Peekskill police and a Westchester medical examiner fabricated evidence that led to the wrongful conviction of Jeffrey Deskovic in the 1989 murder of a Peekskill High School classmate, a federal lawsuit alleges.

Deskovic was exonerated one year ago this week in the rape and slaying of Angela Correa when the real killer, Steven Cunningham, was identified, but not before Deskovic served more than 15 years in state prison. The lawsuit excoriates police and prosecutors, particularly because authorities knew from the outset that semen recovered from the victim did not come from Deskovic.

"Mr. Deskovic's wrongful conviction and years of wrongful incarceration, despite the fact that police and prosecutors knew of the DNA evidence and other clearly exculpatory facts, was the direct result of a veritable perfect storm of misconduct by virtually every actor at every stage of his investigation and prosecution," says the lawsuit by the Manhattan firm of Cochran, Neufeld and Scheck. Barry Scheck is executive director of The Innocence Project, which fought for Deskovic's release last year.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court, does not seek specific monetary damages. It names Westchester and Putnam counties; the city of Peekskill; four Peekskill detectives, including the current chief, Eugene Tumolo; the Putnam County sheriff's investigator who conducted a lie-detector test of Deskovic that forced his false confession; Westchester medical examiners Louis Roh and Millard Hyland; and a New York state correction officer alleged to have groped Deskovic and physically abused him while he was imprisoned.

Stuart Kahan, representing Westchester County, said he could not comment on specifics of the lawsuit because he had not seen it. "Obviously we will look at all the documents and defend the interests of the county," Kahan said. "We think it's a case that can be defended." A lawyer for Peekskill and the three retired detectives would only comment generally because the city had not yet been served with the lawsuit. "The city's view is the officers behaved properly (in the case)," said the lawyer, Brian Sokoloff.

Tony Castro, who represents Tumolo, said the blame should lie squarely with Westchester prosecutors because they ignored the DNA evidence and proceeded to trial. He said it was Tumolo, the lieutenant who oversaw the investigation, who got the FBI to test the semen, expecting the results would either clear Deskovic or prove his guilt. "He had concerns when the results came back and he expressed them to the prosecutors," Castro said yesterday. "But at that point it was out of his hands."

Correa's body was found Nov. 17, 1989, in the woods near Griffens Pond behind Hillcrest Elementary School. The 15-year-old sophomore had been raped, strangled and beaten two days earlier after leaving her Main Street home to take pictures for a photography class. Deskovic, who had turned 16 just a few weeks earlier, soon became a suspect after detectives learned he was particularly distraught about Correa's death, even though he had only a passing acquaintance with the girl.

The lawsuit alleges that the lead detectives, Thomas McIntyre and David Levine, coerced Deskovic into a false confession after interviewing him several times and leading him to believe he was helping their investigation. The lawsuit alleges they falsified police reports to hide that they fed Deskovic information about the killing and that the details he gave them had not been concealed from the public. Other police reports also misrepresented what Deskovic's friends were telling detectives to bolster their case against him, according to the lawsuit. They coerced Deskovic into continuing to talk to them after he had invoked his right to a lawyer, the lawsuit alleges.

After weeks of denials, the confession came after a lengthy interrogation on Jan. 25, 1990, when the detectives brought Deskovic to the Brewster office of Daniel Stephens, a Putnam County sheriff's investigator who moonlighted as a polygraph examiner. The session was meant to force a confession by convincing Deskovic that he had failed the lie-detector test, his lawyers contend.

Deskovic considered McIntyre a "father figure." But when the veteran detective confronted him after the test, it is alleged, McIntyre told him he had known for weeks that he was guilty. The lawsuit contends that McIntyre told Deskovic that Levine, Tumolo and Stephens would physically harm him if he didn't confess and then promised he could go home if he confessed and his only punishment would be treatment in a mental hospital. The teenager eventually told McIntyre that he hit Correa in the head with a bottle and smothered her, although he broke into tears and curled up in the fetal position after they pressed him to repeat his confession.

Castro said Tumolo denied that there was any coercion or threat of violence. "It sounds like they are saying (the detectives) railroaded Deskovic. But how can they be railroading him on one hand if it is the police who then had the DNA tested?" Castro said.

The lawsuit alleges that Roh had no scientific basis to suggest at trial that Correa had previously been sexually active. That suggestion to the jury allowed prosecutor George Bolen to imply that another Peekskill teenager, Freddy Claxton, could have had a consensual relationship with Correa, thereby explaining the presence of semen. The police never documented their interviews with Claxton in which he denied any involvement with Correa, the lawsuit contends.

The lawsuit criticizes the police for relying on a New York City police profile that suggested the killer was likely a teenage loner infatuated with the victim. By focusing on Deskovic, the lawsuit contends, police were unable to recognize that the real killer was Steven Cunningham, a 29-year-old crack addict who left cigarette butts and his semen behind at the crime scene. Cunningham went undetected and four years later killed his girlfriend's sister, a mother of three young boys, during an argument at her Peekskill apartment.

Cunningham was identified last year when new testing of the semen recovered from Correa matched his DNA, which the state had because he was imprisoned for the other murder. He confessed to investigators and in an interview with The Journal News and was charged with murder. He pleaded guilty this year and had 20 years added to his life sentence.

To succeed in the federal lawsuit, Deskovic's lawyers must prove his civil rights were violated because of misconduct. A separate lawsuit is planned in the state Court of Claims seeking compensation for Deskovic's wrongful incarceration.

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