Mary Han: New Mexico; More than four years after her death questions linger about the Albuquerque Police Department’s probe of the death of this noted defense and civil rights attorney. The Charles Smith Blog will be following developments.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Disturbing questions have been raised about the integrity of the investigation of the Albuquerque Police Department investigation into the death of high profile defence and civil rights attorney Mary Han in 2010 - and the conclusion of the New Mexico Office of Medical Investigation that the death was a "suicide" by carbon monoxide investigation. As the following commentary shows, the questions are not going away - and may become more intense in the light of litigation now under way in the civil courts. This Blog will be keeping an eye on developments
COMMENTARY: "How APD botched the Mary Han death probe," by David Correia, published by ABQ Free Press on February 10, 2015; (David Correia is a freelance writer and a professor at the University of New Mexico.)
SUB-HEADING: "Four Years Later, lingering questions remain in the Albuquerque
Police Department’s probe of the death of noted defense and civil rights
attorneyMary Han."
GIST: "At 3:26 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010, prominent Albuquerque
attorney Mary Han emailed her banker at Wells Fargo. “I’m about to pay
off the remainder of the balance on my line of credit,” she wrote. “I
would like to know whether I will be able to borrow another $120,000
next year and at what interest rate. Thanks. Mary.” Less than 24 hours later she would be dead. According to at least one
Albuquerque Police official, she killed herself because she was
depressed. The New Mexico Office of Medical Investigation called it a
suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. But the events of the last few days of her life – days spent making
short- and long-term plans for the future – and the strange
circumstances surrounding what her family calls a “botched”
investigation of her death, have led her family, friends and even some
former Albuquerque police officers to doubt the claim by APD officials
that she killed herself.........Han was prominent among civil rights and criminal defense attorneys,
but was especially prominent for her success in bringing lawsuits
against the Albuquerque Police Department, against which she had won
judgments. News of Han’s death began to spread via texts and phone calls
among APD officers and officials. Within an hour of Kennedy’s 911 call,
every one of APD’s deputy chiefs was on the scene.........APD Commander Paul Feist walked into the garage with crime lab
director Mark Adams while Muniz and a medical examiner were taking
photographs of the body and the car. Feist had 20 years experience in
the criminalistics unit. McCutcheon described Feist as someone who
“literally wrote the book on crime scene investigation,” telling me, “If
you were at a crime scene you wanted Feist there. He did things by the
book. He always took the extra step. And yet on this case he violated
every standard operating procedure,” McCutcheon said......... A year after Han’s death, Rosario Vega Lynn, an Albuquerque attorney
representing Mary Han’s estate, arranged to have the BMW 330i tested to
find out why it had turned off. On two separate occasions in the fall of
2011, McCutcheon, by then retired from APD, and another technician
placed the car in an enclosed trailer with a tank full of gas and a
carbon monoxide monitor. With cameras running, they sat around a video
display and a bucket of chicken and waited. They were long nights. The
car never shut off. On both occasions it ran until it was out of gas. In
both tests, in a trailer three-times smaller than Han’s garage, it took
nearly four hours to achieve fatal levels of carbon monoxide. Han’s family sued the City of Albuquerque claiming that APD
“hindered, obstructed, and defeated the due course of justice with the
intent to deny Plaintiffs equal protection under the law.” A judge
dismissed their claim. In a move that has generated controversy in the
city’s legal community, the City is now suing Mary Han’s family to
recoup its legal costs in the lawsuit. That case, and an appeal of the
dismissal, is pending. Regardless of the outcome of the legal cases, it would be difficult
now to investigate Han’s death as a possible homicide, or even prove a
suicide. Evidence is missing. The scene was unsecured. Many of the
people at the scene were not interviewed. “When I realized what happened at that house,” McCutcheon told me,
“the hair stood up on the back of my neck. One of two things happened
that day. Either it was an absolute case of total incompetence by
everyone involved, or it was cover-up. Those are the only two
possibilities.”
See Justice for Mary Han petition: "High ranking personnel of the Albuquerque Police Department who were on
opposite sides of the courtroom from Mary Han for years entered her home
uninvited on November 18, 2010. They trespassed on her property, viewed
her body and declared the scene a suicide within minutes. APD violated
every single standard operating procedure and law enforcement and code
of conduct."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 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
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Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible
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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!
