NINE YEARS LATER

December 27, 2000.  My girlfriend and I now have had a son who was born in 1996.  Her son and daughter were also living with us.

My sister was visiting from Pennsylvania at the time and had gone with me that morning to Fultonville, NY, to pick up my son from a previous marriage, who was coming to visit from Massachusetts.

While we were gone, my girlfriend stayed at the house with the children.  The older two had had friends come to visit. 

At 10:30 am, Investigators Mary Clark and George Briggs came to the door and told her that they would like to speak to her about the accident that happened nine years ago.  They told her they would like to take her to the police station in Pamelia, NY, for more questioning. She was reluctant to go and leave a house full of teenagers with a 4 year old, but they told her that it wouldn't take very long.  Ten minutes after they left, three state troopers; Investigators Lyle Baxter, John Fallon and Ed Marecek; and social service employee, Maureen Gilligan, were at the door and started asking the children questions.  This left our 4-year-old son with five teenage children.

I called at noon to check on things at home.  Her 12-year-old daughter answered the phone and informed me that the police had come and taken her mother away. When I asked her why,  she said it was because of the baby's death nine years ago. I then asked where the four year old was.  She said that he was here at the house with the other children.

The children's mother still was not home when I called at 1:30, and again at 2:30.  At 3:30 she still was not home so I called the State Police Barracks.  I asked if they were done with her yet, and I was told that they were.  I told them that I would be there in about 45 minutes to pick her up as I was in Lowville, NY at the time.

I arrived around 4:00 and told the person at the desk who I was and why I was there.  I was told that someone wanted to talk to me.  Two investigators, Paul Lazarus and Kenneth Dence, came out and took me to another room. On our way, I asked if I needed an attorney and I was told "no, they were just going to ask a few questions to try to clear this all up."

After being left in a room,  Paul Lazarus went out and told my sister and son, who were out in the car waiting for me, that I was going to be kept for a while for questioning and that they should go on home. My sister asked how I was to get home and Detective Lazarus said they would bring him home.  My sister then informed Detective Lazarus that, "You have a severe diabetic in there and he will need food soon."

Detective Lazarus responded as he walked away, "Yes, we know.  We informed him" (meaning me, we still can't figure out what he meant).

It appears that the events that led up to this was due to a revised death certificate by Onondaga County medical examiner, Dr. Mary I. Jumbelic, that listed the death of the child from an accident to homicide. She and Dr. William Hannan belong to a group called Onondaga County's Child Review Team that was started in 1998. Dr. Hannan worked on the 14-month old child in 1991 and was never convinced that it was an accident.

Dr. Jumbelic claims that Dr. Hannan's involvement was critical to bringing the child's case back to life. That they (the Child Review Team) acted on Dr. Hannan's specific request. But Dr. Hannan claims his concern for the child didn't drive the group's reconsideration of the causes of her death. 

It was at this point that Dr. Mary I. Jumbelic came up with the theory of "shaking impact injury."  She said that it is consistent with a car accident or falling off a 2nd story building head first.  Dr. Hannan said the exact same thing, as if it were rehearsed.

Since my arrest, I have heard the same exact comparison made with every SBS or "Shaking Baby Syndrome" case. Car accident or falling off a 2nd story building.

From this point on, the DA, Cindy Intschert, the New York State Police, Jefferson County DSS and CPS, and the doctors had one focus. That the baby was shaken violently. 

Please read on:   

  INTERROGATION