Filipe Rodriguez - Mistaken Witness ID / False Accusation

Rodriguez, Felipe; murder; NRE: mistaken witness identification, perjury/false accusation, prosecutor misconduct, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, knowingly permitting perjury, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant, perjury by official

[620:966]; 2nd Dept. 12/12/94; earlier denial of motion to vacate conviction affirmed

"[Rodriguez's] contention that his judgment should be vacated because the [prosecution] failed to disclose certain material at trial...is without merit. The record supports the hearing court's determination that the material in question was turned over to the defense."

[And yet, the NRE lists 'withheld exculpatory evidence.' ]

[620:832]; 2nd Dept. 12/12/94; affirmed

"[W]e are satisfied that the verdict of guilt is not against the weight of the evidence..."

from Records and Briefs (civil):

[3] "Detectives engaged in a litany of misconduct that violated Felipe's Fourth Amendment, due process and fair trial rights, directly causing his wrongful conviction and incarceration. Eager to close a homicide investigation that was entering its [4] second year detectives from the [NYPD] and Long Island Railroad Police Department ('LIRRPD') fabricated police reports, withheld exculpatory information from prosecutors and the defense, and coerced [Javier] Ramos into implicating Felipe. In the course of the investigation, detectives drove Mr. Ramos to a cemetery and threatened to kill him if he did not implicate Felipe in the murder. [ADAs] withheld crucial exculpatory information from the defense, including a tape recording in which Mr. Ramos -- unaware that he was being recorded -- admitted to a co-worker that he knew nothing about the murder."

"NYPD Detectives John Beisel, John Califano, John Wilde, Jerry Fennell, NYPD Sgt. George Zaroogian, and LIRRPD Detectives Thomas Sullivan and Charles Wendel are named defendants in this lawsuit."

[6] "Prior to this wrongful conviction, Rodriguez had no criminal record." [That was also true of Nickel. ]

"On the morning of November 26, 1987, which was Thanksgiving Day, the body of 35-year-old Maureen Fernandez...was found in a remote industrial lot in Glendale, Queens...The lot was located behind Dubofsky's wholesale warehouse...Ms. Fernandez's body had 35 stab wounds to the neck, back, and pelvic area...Tire impressions were found in close proximity to Ms. Fernandez's body, leading police to believe that Ms. Fernandez [7] had been transported to the scene in a car driven by her killer...No physical evidence collected from the crime scene proved useful in identifying the vehicle or its driver...No murder weapon was ever found."

"Ms. Fernandez spent much of Thanksgiving Eve...at Wyckoff Heights Hospital...in Brooklyn, where her young daughter was being treated...A witness who was in the hospital that day told police they observed Ms. Fernandez drinking from a liquor bottle...At around 1:00 a.m., Ms. Fernandez used a hospital phone to call her husband, Carney Fernandez...The couple began arguing over the fact that Ms. Fernandez was drinking while watching the baby, and Ms. Fernandez hung up on her husband...Ms. Fernandez left the hospital shortly after that phone call and traveled to the Little Liva Bar...in Brooklyn...No witnesses actually saw Ms. Hernandez leave the hospital, so detectives did not know whether she left on foot or by car...The Little Liva Bar was located approximately one mile from Wyckoff Heights Hospital and approximately two miles from where Ms. Fernandez's body would be found hours later...According to bar patrons, Ms. Fernandez arrived at the Little Liva Bar between 2:00 and 2:30 a.m. in the company of an unknown male...Bar patrons told police that they believed that Ms. Fernandez and the unknown male arrived in a black, late-1970s model Chevrolet Monte Carlo...Detectives believed that Ms. Fernandez and the man likely departed together in the black Monte Carlo. Accordingly, for the next several months, detectives focused on locating the black Monte Carlo and its driver...Carney Fernandez, Ms. Fernandez's husband, was also considered a suspect."

[8] "In the days following the murder, detectives interviewed witnesses who interacted with Ms. Fernandez and the unknown man at the Little Liva Bar shortly before she was murdered...Detectives obtained detailed descriptions of the unknown man from bartender Joseph Castillo and bar patrons Robert Thompson and William Perry...All three witnesses described the unknown man as approximately 30-years-old, between 5'7" and 5'9", with no mustache and no eyeglasses...Thompson added that the man had 'reddish brown' hair, was 'bow-legged,' and was wearing a 'multicolored sweater,' 'beige pants,' and a gold ring...In a second interview in February, 1988, bar patron William Perry told Det. [Charles] Wendel and Det. [Thomas] Sullivan that the man with Ms. Fernandez on Thanksgiving morning 1987 was Italian or Irish, 'not Hispanic,' and had 'hazel or green' eyes...The February interview... was not documented... The February interview was not disclosed in any way to Mr. Rodriguez or his attorneys prior to his trial."

"More than four months after the murder, on March 17, 1988, Dets. Sullivan and Wendel conducted a videotape-recorded interview of Robert Thompson...Thompson added several details to his earlier description...Thompson said the man called himself a 'plumber's helper'...Thompson said that the man did not speak with an accent...Thompson said that the man looked Italian, not Hispanic ...Thompson added one further detail to his description of the man seen with Ms. Fernandez at the bar: he claimed that the man had a tatoo between his palm and index finger and four letters tatooed across his fingers, which appeared to read, 'LOVE'... The descriptions did not resemble Felipe Rodriguez, who had a thick mustache, wore eyeglasses, was 22 years old, stood approximately 6'1" tall, never had any tattoos, and never wrote the word 'LOVE' on his hands. ...Felipe never drove or had access to a Monte Carlo, the car driven by the suspected killer...Felipe is Hispanic and has brown eyes...In November 1987, Felipe was a mechanic. Felipe never identified himself as a 'plumber's helper'...[and] spoke with a Puerto-Rican-inflected Spanish accent."

"From the beginning, detectives working on the Maureen Fernandez homicide had information pointing to a number of potential suspects other than Felipe...One suspect was Ms. Fernandez's husband, Carney Fernandez... [9] Carney had no alibi for the time of his wife's murder*...Ms. Fernandez's friends and family told detectives that Carney physically abused Ms. Fernandez, had threatened to kill her, had a violent temper when drinking, was jealous of her, and that she wanted to leave him...Ms. Fernandez's friend Liz Velez told police that Ms. Fernandez was so afraid of Carney that she asked Liz for a gun to defend herself."

[* According to the NRE synopsis below, Carney actually did have an alibi.]

"Police also had information pointing to a suspect named Jose Perez Rivera...Less than a month after the murder, detectives received an anonymous call that the male in the [police] sketch. . .lives across the street from the Emergency Room of Wyckoff Hospital. . . [and] has an older model Monte Carlo in good condition.'...Detectives learned that this man was Rivera, who lived across from Wyckoff Hospital and owned a black 1978 Monte Carlo, just like the one bar patrons said Ms. Fernandez arrived and departed in on Thanksgiving morning...Records showed that Rivera was 5'7" tall, within the 5'7 to 5'9 range of the man seen with Ms. Fernandez at the Little Liva Bar...In August 1988, police characterized Rivera as 'a person of interest,' but appear to have abandoned their investigation [10] of Rivera after encountering difficulty locating him."

"Detectives identified another man, Eddie Ruiz, as a suspect who fit the description of the man seen at the bar: 5'7 or 5'8, thin build, wore gold jewelry, and drove a black car...According to police reports, Eddie Ruiz was believed to have known Ms. Hernandez, and on one occasion he assaulted Ms. Fernandez's female relative...In February 1988, bartender Joseph Castillo identified Ruiz out of a photo array as the person who was with Ms. Fernandez the morning she was murdered... Castillo's identification of an alternative suspect was not documented...Castillo's identification of an alternative suspect was not disclosed to the defense before the trial.

"Additionally, in April of 1988, detectives received a tip that a person named Edward Denning fit the composite sketch of the man seen with Ms. Fernandez the morning she was murdered...The tipster stated that Denning 'has a very violent temper and is known to frequent bars.'...Denning, a 28-year-old white man, was a police officer with the NYPD's 60th Precinct...All three bar witnesses -- Joseph Castillo, William Perry, and Robert Thompson -- described the man with Ms. Fernandez as being white, between ages 28 and 32...In May 1988, detectives interviewed the tipster, who described Denning as a 'crazy whacko' who used drugs, 'beat up his sister' and 'was not very stable.'...In July 1988, detectives contacted the NYPD's Internal Affairs Division and learned that Denning was 'on sick report' from November 23 to November 25, 1987 (Thanksgiving Eve), and that Denning also did not work on November 26 (when the murder took place) or November 27, 1987...Despite this information, detectives failed to pursue Denning as a suspect in Ms. Fernandez's murder."*

[* Perhaps because he was a cop? ]

"In April 1988, Det. [John] Beisel was assigned by the NYPD to lead the investigation into Ms. Fernandez's murder...Struggling to track down the black Monte Carlo or its owner, Det. Beisel shifted the investigaton's focus to the white Cadillac that watchman Robert Solonay had seen leaving the lot where Ms. Fernandez's body was found...Detectives learned about a white car owned by Pete Sierra, a security guard at Wyckoff Heights Hospital, where Ms. Hernandez spent time on Thanksgiving Eve 1987 before going to the Little Liva Bar...In August 1988, detectives located Sierra's car near Wyckoff Heights Hospital. Sierra's car was different from the car Solonay described as leaving the lot on Thanksgiving morning of 1987...First, Sierra's car was an Oldsmobile, but Solonay described a Cadillac. Second, Sierra's Oldsmobile had a red roof, but Solonay described an all-white car...Despite these differences, Det. Beisel obtained permisson from Sierra to voucher the red-and-white Oldsmobile as evidence...Sierra had purchased the Oldsmobile in early 1988 from a fellow Wyckoff Heights security guard named Javier Ramos...Ramos, not Sierra, owned the car at the time of the murder in November 1987...On or about September 9, 1988, Ramos visited the 104th Precinct to inquire why his former car, the white-and-red Oldsmobile, had been taken by the police...When Ramos entered the precinct, he was unaware that detectives were trying to connect his former car to a homicide."

"At the 104th Precinct, Det. Beisel took Ramos into an interrogation room...Led by Detective Beisel, detectives interrogated Ramos for approximately 13 hours ...Detectives used coercive tactics to get Ramos to either confess to the murder or lead them to another suspect...Det. Beisel was assisted in the interrogation by NYPD Sergeant [George] Zaroogian, NYPD Detective John Califano, John Wilde, and Jerry Fennell, and LIRRPD detectives Thomas Sullivan and Charles Wendel. ...The detectives told Ramos, falsely, that they 'knew' his former car was used in a murder, and that either he committed the murder or knew who did it...Detectives threatened to prosecute Ramos for the murder... Det. Beisel pushed Ramos, threatened to maim or kill him, called him a 'spic' and a 'Hispanic prick,' denied him food, water, and the use of a bathroom, and refused his request to leave...Ramos told the detectives that, in the past, he had loaned his car to two friends, Richard Pereira and Felipe Rodriguez, but did not indicate that he had done so at the time of the murder...Det. Beisel demanded that Ramos take him to Felipe's residence...Det. Beisel, Det. John Califano, and Det. John Wilde put Ramos in an unmarked police car and directed Ramos to lead them to Felipe's residence...On the way, the detectives stopped at Cypress Hill Cemetery in Brooklyn and threatened to kill Ramos if he did not either admit to the murder or implicate Felipe. Ramos gave the detectives what they demanded: he told them that he loaned the car to both Felipe and Pereira at the time of the murder... [12] This information was false...The detectives proceeded to [Pereira's address] with Ramos, but [he] was not home...[13] [D]etectives [subsequently] arrested Richard Pereira...At the precinct, Det. Beisel handcuffed Pereira to a chair and interrogated him in an effort to force him to confess...During this interrogation, Beisel smacked Pereira so hard that Pereira and the chair fell to the [floor] ...However, three witnesses then failed to identify Pereira at a lineup...Detectives then were compelled to void Pereira's arrest and let him go home."

"In late September 1988, Det. Beisel, Det. Fennell, and Det. Wendel placed a Nagra recording device on Richard Pereira and sent him to confront Javier Ramos at Wyckoff Heights Hospital, where they both worked...During the recorded conversation, Pereira asked Ramos where his car was on Thanksgiving 1987...Ramos responded: 'My car was parked in front of my mother-in-law's house, because my battery [] was dead. . .I told them all of this. And yet they didn't, they didn't want to hear that. . .They wanted me to confess to something.'...During the taped conversation both men discussed the abusive interrogation tactics used against them...Pereira described being 'smacked' by police 'all night long.'"

[14] "For approximately six months following the interviews and lineups in September 1988, Det. Beisel visited Javier Ramos multiple times each week at Wyckoff Heights Hospital...[15] During these visits, Det. Beisel threatened and pressured Ramos to implicate Felipe in the murder...On March 27, 1989, having failed to solve the Fernandez murder for 16 months, Det. Beisel and Detective Sullivan picked up Javier Ramos and drove him to the 104th Precinct...Det. Beisel and Det. Sullivan brought Ramos into an interrogation room, where Sgt. Zaroogian, Det. Fennell and Det. Wendel were also present...Ramos was facing the same detectives who, six months earlier, coerced his statement falsely accusing Pereira of the murder...This time, Ramos was interrogated for approximately seven hours...To induce Ramos to accuse Felipe, Det. Beisel falsely told Ramos that Felipe had accused Ramos of the murder...Beisel then falsely stated that Felipe's DNA had been found in Ramos's Oldsmobile and that Felipe's clothing matched the eyewitness description of the apparent murderer...When Ramos succumbed to the coercive tactics and agreed to provide a statement implicating Felipe, the detectives called ADA David Dinkman in order to prepare an affidavit for Ramos falsely accusing Felipe of committing the murder."

[So, to recap, the detectives quickly give up pursuing one promising suspect because he proves too difficult to locate. Another who fits witness descriptions is a cop, and they drop him like a hot potato. A third suspect who fits witness descriptions also is not pursued. A fourth guy shows up at the precinct wanting to know why his former car (even though it did not match witness descriptions) was impounded, and he's coerced into naming others who borrowed it lest he be charged with murder himself. One of the two guys he names is arrested for murder (based on essentially nothing), but then has to be let go when no witnesses pick him out of lineups. That just leaves the second guy whose name the former-car-owner coughs up under police coercion: Felipe Rodriguez, who does not match any witness descriptions, and has never owned or even had access to any of the cars described by witnesses. Great job, 'detectives.']

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"Police determined that Fernandez [the murder victim] spent the earlier part of the previous evening in the pediatric ward at Wyckoff Hospital, visiting her two-year-old daughter, who was a patient there. Late that evening, she went to a bar on Gates Avenue known variously as Little Liva, Live a Little, and La Fiesta. Witnesses who knew her said she was accompanied by an unidentified man whom she seemed to know. Another customer at the bar, Robert Thompson, told police that he tried to sell them a watch. Thompson and other witnesses would later describe the man she was with as 'white,' 'Italian,' or 'Hispanic,' clean-shaven or clean cut, stocky -- weighing between 175 and 200 pounds -- and about 5 feet 8 inches tall.

"Thompson, who was intoxicated on both drugs and alcohol that night, decribed the man as having reddish-brown hair."

"The pediatric ward at Wyckoff Hospital was rumored to be a place where male staff and visitors tried to pick up mothers of young patients. Detectives therefore began looking at the staff. Eventually, police determined that hospital security guard Javier Ramos had owned a white Oldsmobile and had worked from 4 p.m. until midnight at the hospital on the night Fernandez was last seen. They learned that Ramos had thereafter sold the car to another employee, Pedro Sierra, in February or March of 1988."

"[O]n September 25, 1988, police asked 23-year-old Felipe Rodriguez, who was a friend of Ramos, to come in for a voluntary interview with Detective Beisel. Rodriguez said he had on several occasions borrowed Ramos's car and sometimes visited Ramos while he was working at the hospital. Rodriguez also mentioned that he worked part-time as an auxiliary police officer. After the interview, Rodriguez went home.

"On March 27, 1989, Ramos was again taken into custody. This time, he was released after he signed a new affidavit claiming he 'wanted to put an end to this and just tell the truth.' In this account, he said it was Rodriguez -- not Pereira -- who borrowed his car on November 25, 1987. Ramos added a few additional inflammatory details. Now, he also quoted Rodriguez as saying he 'had to stab her to show that she was dealing with a man, not some boy.'

"According to the police report of Ramos's statement, he 'did not tell the complete truth about what had happened because I didn't want to tell on Felipe,' and that he falsely named Pereira because he 'was the only other person I ever loaned [the car] to at the time.' Ramos allegedly insisted that 'what I did say in my other statement was true if you substitute Felipe' for Pereira."

"Later that day, police arrested Rodriguez and placed him in a lineup. La Fiesta bartender Castillo as well as bar customer William Perry and bartender Ceznaukas did not identify Rodriguez. Only one witness, Thompson, selected Rodriguez, although his initial description from nearly a year earlier was of a clean-shaven man of Italian descent, about 5 feet 8 inches tall with reddish-brown hair. Rodriguez had a large moustache, jet-black hair, and was 5 feet 11 inches tall.

"Based on the second Ramos statement and Thompson's lineup identification, Rodriguez was indicted for the murder. After he took a police-administered polygraph examination and his denials of involvement in the crime showed no deception, Rodriguez was released on bail pending trial.

"In April 1990, Rodriguez went on trial in Queens..."

"Ramos claimed that he had failed to come forward for months and then falsely accused Pereira because Rodriguez was 'like a brother' to him. During cross-examination, Ramos denied that his true motivation in naming first Pereira and then Rodriguez was to protect himself from suspicion. He asserted that the only lie he told the police was to use Pereira's name in his initial statement. He said, 'I didn't want to give up my friend.'

"Thompson testified and identified Rodriguez as the man with Fernandez in La Fiesta. Thompson testified that he shook the man's hand at the bar, and observed that they were 'large hands' with 'no calluses.' He also testified that the man had letters written on the 'outside of the four knuckles' of his left hand, spelling 'L-O-V-E.' Rodriguez had no tatoos or birthmarks and the police had not noticed any markings when he was interviewed. Thompson admitted that he did not mention the marking on the suspect's hands until the last of his half-dozen police interviews and more than five months into the investigation, even though his earlier statements had described rings on the man's hands. He also admitted that he did not actually remember seeing the word 'L-O-V-E,' but only 'figured' that was what the writing spelled out, adding that he 'was pretty intoxicated' and 'it's 20 months later.'

"Thompson admitted that during the eight hours prior to his arrival at La Fiesta, he smoked five marijuana joints and consumed a half of a fifth of rum. At La Fiesta, he said he had at least three 'double-rum' and cola drinks. He said that when he left the bar at 4:30 a.m., Fernandez and the man were still there.

"Castillo, the bartender at La Fiesta, did not see any such markings on the suspect's hands nor did any other witness from either bar.

"Thompson's testimony was further contradicted by Castillo, who said he closed at 4 a.m., and by the warehouse security guard, Solonay, who said he saw the white car leaving the warehouse between 3 and 4 a.m. Solonay testified and did not identify Rodriguez as the man he saw in the white car."

"On May 2, 1990, the jury convicted Rodriguez..."

"In reviewing the record, Rodriguez's appellate lawyer, Martin Lucente from the Legal Aid Society, noticed in Rodriguez's pre-sentence report a reference to a taped conversation between Ramos and Pereira. There was no reference to the tape in the trial and Rodriguez's trial defense attorney, Jennifer Maiolo, had not noted it either.

"Lucente requested a copy of the tape from the Queens County [DA's] office. By that time, the trial prosecutor, Alan Safran, had left the office for private practice. Safran said he had disclosed the tape to Maiolo, but had not made a transcript of it because it was largely 'unintelligible' and in Spanish.

"Lucente had the tape translated and transcribed. On the tape, Pereira was heard confronting Ramos about why he falsely told police that Pereira had borrowed Ramos's car the night before Thanksgiving. At Rodriguez's trial, he testified that he had named Pereira because he was covering for Rodriguez, and Pereira's was the first name that came to mind since he was 'the only other person' to whom he had loaned his car. On the tape, however, Ramos told Pereira something different. Ramos said his false accusation was in direct response to the police's claim that Pereira had falsely accused Ramos of the crime first. Ramos was heard saying, 'I'm under the impression you pointed the finger at me.' Ramos said he sought to protect himself by pointing the finger back at Pereira, whom he thought was his accuser. Additionally, Ramos assured Pereira that not only did he know nothing about the crime, but that he had not loaned his car to anyone that night and lied to the police when he said he had. In fact, Ramos said, he did not even use the car to drive himself to his relatives in New Jersey on Thanksgiving Day because it was on the street with a dead battery. On the tape, Ramos was heard telling Pereira he told police 'all of this. And yet they didn't want to hear that.'"

"In October 1992, Lucente filed a motion to set aside Rodriguez's convictions on the ground that the tape had not been disclosed to Rodriguez's trial defense attorney.

"At a hearing in March 1993, the prosecution disclosed two police reports that referenced the tape. Maiolo claimed she had never seen them. Maiolo said that had she received the tape, she would have had it transcribed and translated, and then used it to cross-examine Ramos.

"Attorney Kenneth Litwack represented Rodriguez from April to November 1989, before Maiolo replaced him. Litwack testified that he knew something about the existence of an audio recording of a conversation between Pereira and Ramos, but was confident that he had never heard the tape or been given a copy. He did not specifically recall discussing the tape's existence with Maiolo, but he said it would have been his practice to relate 'every detail of the case' that he thought was important when transferring his file.

"Safran, the trial prosecutor, contended he had turned the tape over to Maiolo at the beginning of the trial. He also maintained that the recording was 'completely uninteresting,' 'gibberish,' and 'nonbelievable.'* He said he already knew that Ramos was a liar** after Ramos falsely implicated Pereira. Safran admitted that he had not asked for the recording to be translated or transcribed. He said that since he knew a little Spanish, he had listened to it with the aid of a paralegal. He admitted he had never played the tape for Ramos or asked Ramos about its contents before Ramos testified at the trial."

[* Recall that Safran had also claimed the tape was 'largely unintelligible.' But, how can 'gibberish' be 'nonbelievable'? If it were indeed the case that what was said was 'unintelligible,' then it could be neither believable nor nonbelievable, because, one would not be able to discern what was actually said. But as we now know, that tape was crystal clear -- and immensely exculpatory.] [** If that is so, why did Safran call him as a prosecution witness?]

"On July 30, 1993, the trial judge denied the motion to vacate the convictions. Although the judge indicated that the tape directly impeached Ramos and was favorable to the defense, he held that the defense had failed to show that the tape was not turned over."*

[* As a matter of logic, it's essentially impossible to 'prove a negative.' Thus, this judge was holding the defense to a standard no one could have met.]

"In 2001, after his appeal had been rejected, Rodriguez wrote to the Innocence Project requesting help. In 2007, his case was accepted. Unfortunately, most of the physical evidence from the victim's body and clothing had been destroyed pursuant to the medical examiner's protocols at the time. Ultimately, extracts from the car fabric cuttings were found, as were hairs from the victim's clothing. However, the extracts yielded no DNA and the hairs revealed only female DNA.

"After the search for biological evidence was exhausted, the Innocence Project recruited private attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma to assist with non-DNA aspects of the case. In November 2016, Nina Morrison, senior staff attorney at the Innocence Project, and Margulis-Ohnuma filed a petition asking New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to grant clemency. The petition said that Rodriguez was not only 'innocent of the crime of conviction, but, more importantly, is an exceptionally worthy candidate for clemency because of his remarkable record of redemption, responsibility and generosity in prison.'

"In addition to citing Rodriguez's exemplary record while in prison, the petition noted that it was 'difficult to imagine' that if Safran had given the tape to the defense, 'he would not have made sure to prepare his own chief witness for the all-but-inevitable cross-examination that any defense attorney who listened to the tape would likely raise, by sitting down with Ramos to review the tape in detail and asking him to explain the contradictions, and obtaining a full transcription and translation of the tape, so he himself could at least be prepared to anticipate any questions the tape might raise in the jurors' minds.'"

"In December 2016, Gov. Cuomo granted the petition, commuting Rodriguez's sentence to time served. On January 26, 2017, Rodriguez was released. Subsequently, at the request of Rodriguez's lawyers, Queens County...[ADA] Robert Masters commenced a re-investigation of the case.

"As a result, additional reports and notes from the detectives' files were discovered that had never been disclosed to Rodriguez's defense. According to a report in the New York Daily News, these included a report saying that Perry, one of the witnesses at La Fiesta, affirmatively said that Fernandez and the man with her arrived at the bar in the black Monte Carlo. Such a report could have been used to discredit the theory that the white car seen by the security guard belonged to the killer. Perry's statement and other reports in the police file also directly contradicted testimony from the detectives and arguments by the prosecutor that the investigation had yielded no evidence indicating that the black car was connected to the victim or her murder.

"Also undisclosed were reports that Fernandez's husband, Carney Fernandez, was a suspect because of numerous witness accounts that he had a violent temper and was known to assault female companions. In addition, witnesses said that Fernandez wanted to leave him and that Carney did not like her going out without him. At the time, Carney had presented an alibi* and was found to be truthful when he denied involvement during a police-administered polygraph examination."

[* According to the Records and Briefs above, Carney did not have an alibi.]

"Most critically and 'decisive' in the [DA's] agreement to grant relief was the discovery of handwritten notes by a Long Island Railroad detective. The notes indicated that Ramos described Rodriguez as showing up at his house with a black man he had never mentioned before. The notes were dated March 27, 1989 -- the same day Ramos gave a sworn affidavit implicating Rodriguez, which made no mention of such a companion.

"And according to other reports, eight days before Ramos accused Rodriguez, Beisel obtained approval to arrest Rodriguez and put him in a lineup, while also trying to compel Ramos to testify as a material witness. The newspaper said this 'account differed sharply from (Detective) Beisel's memo closing the investigation. There, he wrote that, in a period of hours on March 29, 1989, Ramos implicated Rodriguez; detectives summoned an [ADA] who formalized the statement; detectives placed Rodriguez in the lineup and the (prosecutor) drew up an affidavit starting the prosecution.'

"In addition, in 2017, after being contacted by an Innocence Project Investigator, Ramos recanted his accusation against Rodriguez and said his statements to the police were false and the result of police pressure. He stood by his recantation in a lengthy, voluntary interview with Masters in December 2019, although the prosecution ultimately did not credit his recantation.

"On December 30, 2019, at a hearing in Queens...Masters said that the notes from the Long Island Railroad detective that were not turned over could have 'impeached the entire investigation.'

"Queens County...Justice Joseph Zayas granted a motion filed by the defense lawyers Morrison and Margulis-Ohnuma to vacate the convictions. The [DA's] Office joined the motion, agreeing that evidence favorable to Rodriguez had not been disclosed to the defense. Masters then dismissed the indictment.

"Justice Zayas said the case was a miscarriage of justice that 'took too long to correct.' He added, 'Mr. Rodriguez, you deserve better than that, but you never lost faith.'

"In March 2020, Rodriguez filed a compensation claim in the New York Court of Claims. In March 2021, Rodiguez filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. In April 2022, Rodriguez settled the compensation claim for $5 million. A year later, Rodriguez settled his lawsuit against the City of New York for $10 million."

[Due to the complexity of this case, some 'summing up' on key points would seem to be in order: 1) Cars. The white Cadillac or Oldsmobile seen by Solonay would appear to be a red herring -- albeit one which, via a circuitous and tortuous route, was integral to this wrongful conviction. But it does not appear to have had anything to do with the actual crime here. On the other hand, the black Chevy Monte Carlo may well have. One suspect, Rivera, was said to own such a car. (Ruiz also had a black car, though the make and model was not stated.)

2) Perpetrator Description. None of the witnesses said the perpetrator was Hispanic; and two specifically said he was not Hispanic. (Not only is Felipe Rodriguez Hispanic, but he also has a thick, Puerto-Rican Spanish accent.) Neither did any of the witnesses say the perpetrator wore eyeglasses; four specifically said he did not wear eyeglasses. (But Rodriguez did.)

3) Lineup Selection. Two of the three bar witnesses did not select Rodriguez. The only one who did -- Thompson -- was high on marijuana and drunk. Moreover, Rodriguez did not match the description Thompson originally provided.]

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]