Homicide District
Attorney Whistle Blows on National and International Radio
John Scarpa, former
homicide Assistant District Attorney in the Queens County District Attorney's
office, who worked there for about twenty years, said on the National and
International radio program, the Michael Dresser talk show, on March 8,2004 [www.themichaeldressershow.com],
the following about the Medical Examiner in charge of Christopher O’Connor’s
case, Doctor Josette Montas: "What Doctor
Montas overlooked was critical and
that was this: This young man had called the police, and had reported that he
had been assaulted, reported that property had been taken from him, reported
that he was bleeding from the eye but he was lucid enough at the time he was
making these calls to give detailed information about where he was and what had
happened to him. Repeating to the 911 operator, over and over again, where he
was and how to get there, but most tellingly, expressing to the 911 operator
that he was concerned that the police wouldn't even respond to this location,
that this is a location which subsequent information proves, showed that it was
really owned [not on paper] but in reality, by a mafia connection and that there
was something going on over here that prevented the police from actually
responding correctly. The police rather than responding to a call of a male
caller, the cop gets there and he says, I do not see any females. Which is
absolutely, totally ridiculous and leaves without having recovered any
information at all about what happened to this young man. Now, when doctor
Montas examines the body, she finds that he certainly was intoxicated but she
completely ignores the ligature marks on the neck, which show up on the autopsy kodachromes, which are photographs and x-rays, which are taken at the time of
the examination of the body and are preserved. Subsequent Medical Examiners look
at this and say that this is an absolute butcher job that she did. The question
is why. To be honest with you, Michael [talking to host, Michael Dresser], I
like to give everybody, the benefit of the doubt, so I would like to believe, I
would hope that doctor Montas was just incompetent, but it really stretches
credulity beyond belief to believe that the one person who's going to make the
determination as to whether or not this person was a victim of an unnatural
death or just an accidental intoxicated situation, would be deprived of the
information from the police as to the 911 call. Who made that decision? Who made
the decision to deny doctor Montas that information? Had she heard that and then
decided not to find it a homicide, that would be one thing, so I don't really
think that it was doctor Montas who consciously made the decision, not to
classify this as a homicide, in the first instance but somebody decided not to
give her that information which would have been critical. Any competent coroner
would have asked for that kind of information. She was denied that, and the
question now is why. You know, at the time, you might not have been suspicious,
but as events have unfolded over the years and as things that I have personally
become involved with and learned about this case, it lead me to the inescapable
conclusion that there is a major cover-up of a homicide. In my opinion, this is
more political than it is mob oriented [answering Michael Dresser's question on
mob involvement]. And I will tell you why I came to that conclusion. We have, in
Queens County, just as there is in every part of the United States, some
organized crime but organized crime is limited in its power projection to that
which it can obtain from political connections and so what happened in this
particular case is that it became relatively clear early on, that there was some
political interference with the full performance of an investigation and,
subsequent events, which I think, Michael Salem, may able to give you some
really good insights into as to the early experiences that he had on a civil
suit and how evidence became suppressed in that particular situation. You have
here, an organized crime run establishment [referring to the L'Amour East night
club]. Something happens very bad at that establishment. They have a lawyer who
happens to have very, very, very powerful and very, very, heavy political
connections. He uses those powerful connections that he has to the betterment of
his client, these mafia people, to make sure that there is no investigation
inside of the District Attorney's office or in the police department to uncover
or reveal the way this young man died and, therefore, the major portion the
corruption is political. That's my opinion of about what happened here."
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