Pedro Hernandez: New York: Evidence in 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz found in New York police station, while Hernandez is on trial for the killing. (Must Read. HL); Update: February 24, 2015: Trial continues; No mistrial motion yet. L.A. Times.
STORY: "Evidence in 1979 disappearance case found in N.Y. police station," by Associated Press reporter Colleen Long, published by the Toronto Star on February 23, 2015.
SUB-HEADING: "Three boxes of evidence from the
investigation into 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz have turned up while a
suspect is on trial for the killing."
PHOTO CAPTION: "Julie Patz, the mother of Etan Patz, returns to a New York
courthouse after a break in her testimony on Feb. 2. Three boxes of
evidence from the investigation into the boy's 1979 disappearance were
found recently at a Harlem police station."
GIST: "Three boxes of evidence from the
investigation into the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz have
turned up while a suspect is on trial for the killing, and his attorney said Monday that she may have to seek a mistrial or at least recall witnesses who have already testified. The boy’s disappearance in New York City on
May 25, 1979, helped catalyze a national missing-children’s movement.
Etan, whose body was never found, was one of the first vanished children
whose case was publicized in what became a high-profile way: on milk
cartons. Alice Fontier, one of the attorneys representing suspect Pedro Hernandez, said there were more than 1,400 pages of relevant information in one box alone. “Given this massive disclosure at this point,
in the middle of the trial, there may be issues,” she said. “We may need
to recall some of their witnesses, we may need to move for a mistrial,”
she said. Hernandez confessed in 2012
to choking Etan in the basement of the convenience store where he
worked as a stock clerk. He told police he put the boy’s body in a bag,
stuck the bag in a box and walked it down the street where he dumped it
with some curbside trash. His defence says the admissions were the
fictional ravings of a mentally ill man with a low IQ who didn’t
understand his right to silence.......... The boxes of evidence were found recently at a
Harlem police station that covers public housing complexes in the
neighbourhood, prosecutors said late last week. The location is
kilometres from the precinct near where Etan went missing as he walked
to school. They contain police records from the
investigation, notes from assistant district attorneys who worked on the
case and handwritten memos from a detective who investigated Jose
Ramos, a longtime suspect in the case who was never charged."
See related story: Trial to continue: No mistrial application yet: "Documents
recently discovered from the investigation into a missing boy's case
dating back 36 years include notes from a police officer's interviews
with people who claimed to have seen the child, Etan Patz, in the
apartment building of a man other than the defendant on trial in his
murder.Defense
attorney Alice Fontier said the team representing Pedro Hernandez, who
is on trial in Etan Patz's 1979 disappearance, had not yet had time to
go through the more than 3,000 items recently discovered in three boxes
in a Harlem police station. Nobody has been able to explain how the
three boxes containing the material ended up at the police station,
which is in a different precinct and far from the Soho neighborhood
where Etan, who was 6 at the time, disappeared. The defense did
not demand a mistrial and Fontier said she was not accusing prosecutors
of intentionally concealing any of the information. But she said there
were 39 pages of documents in the boxes that were records from a police
officer involved in the investigation, who lived in the same apartment
building where a man once eyed as a possible suspect lived at the time
Etan vanished.According
to the officer's notes, "many residents positively identified Etan Patz
as having been in that building with Jose Ramos," Fontier said. Ramos
never was charged in the boy's murder, but he was convicted in other
child sexual abuse cases and is in prison in Pennsylvania.Ramos
had been a boyfriend of a woman who worked at times as a baby sitter for
the Patz family, and defense attorneys have made clear they see him as a
more likely suspect than Hernandez. Ramos has denied involvement in
Etan's murder. The boxes' discovery was the latest in many twists in one of the nation's most infamous missing child cases."
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case. I
have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses
several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of
the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this
powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and
myself get more out of the site. The
Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible
years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr.
Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of
Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic"
section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It
can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html I look forward to hearing from readers at:
Two Blogs Now: The Charles Smith Blog; The Selfless Warriors Blog: I created the Charles Smith Blog in 2007 after I retired from The Toronto Star to permit me to keep digging into the story of the flawed pathologist and the harm he had done to so many innocent parents and caregivers, and to Ontario’s criminal justice system. Since then it has taken new directions, including examinations of other flawed pathologists, flawed pathology, and flawed science and technology which has marred the quality of justice in courtrooms around the world. The heart of the Blog is my approach to following cases which raise issues in all of these areas - especially those involving the death penalty. I have dedicated 'The Selfless Warrior Blog’ (soon to appear) to those exceptional individuals who have been ripped out of their ordinary lives by their inability to stand by in the face of a glaring miscarriage of justice. They are my ’Selfless Warriors.’ Enjoy!
