New York State Police Troop C scandal
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The New York State Police Troop C scandal involved the fabrication of evidence used to convict suspects in New York by the New York State Police.
In April of 1993, Craig D. Harvey, a New York State Police trooper was charged with fabricating evidence. Harvey admitted he and another trooper lifted fingerprints from items the suspect, John Spencer, touched while in Troop C headquarters during booking. He attached the fingerprints to evidence cards and later claimed that he had pulled the fingerprints from the scene of the murder. The forged evidence was used during trial and John Spencer was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.
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[edit] Michael Kinge
One fabrication involved the 1989 murders of the Harris family of Dryden, New York. In their home, Warren and Dolores Harris, their daughter, Shelby, 15, and their son, Marc, 11, were bound and blindfolded, Shelby was raped and sodomized, all four were shot in the head and the house was doused with gasoline and set afire. State police investigators say that evidence led them to Michael Kinge, and that officers killed him when he pointed a shotgun at them during the arrest. His mother, Shirley Kinge, admitted to using a credit card stolen from the Harris home. Officers David L. Harding and Robert M. Lishansky, of Troop C, admitted they took fingerprints of Ms. Kinge from her work place and claimed to have found them on gasoline cans found at the Harris home. She was convicted of burglary and arson and sentenced to 17 to 44 years in prison. She served two and a half years before it was revealed that she had been framed. Her conviction was later overturned.
[edit] CIA interview
The scandal became known when Trooper David L. Harding, was interviewed for a job at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He was asked if he was willing to break the law for his country. He answered "yes", then explained how he worked to convict people he felt sure were guilty by fabricating evidence. He assumed the CIA would be pleased with his answer, but after a delay, they contacted New York officials.
[edit] Troopers
- Craig D. Harvey was a lieutenant who headed the identification unit, and was a 16-year veteran of the force. He pleaded guilty on July 29, 1993 to fabricating evidence in three cases, and agreed to serve 2 1/2 to 7 years in prison.
- David L. Harding was a 7-year veteran of the force, was sentenced on December 16, 1992, to 4 to 12 years in prison and fined $20,000 for fabricating evidence in four documented cases.
- Robert M. Lishansky was an 11-year veteran of the force, was sentenced June 10, 1993 to 6 to 18 years in prison for fabricating evidence in 21 cases.
- David M. Beers was a 15-year veteran, pleaded not guilty on May 5 and on July 29 to fabricating evidence in two cases.
- Patrick O'Hara was a lieutenant and 16-year veteran of the force. He was suspended July 29, 1993 pending an investigation into Mr. Harvey's allegations that Lieutenant O'Hara helped fake evidence.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- New York Times; March 4, 1993; "An Officer's Guilt Casts Shadow on Trials. The first evidence-tampering scandal in state police history has cast a shadow over criminal trials in central New York State, making prosecutors' jobs more difficult, lawyers and law-enforcement officials say. The scandal broke last fall, when a state police investigator with Troop C, David L. Harding, admitted fabricating fingerprint ..."
- New York Times; July 30, 1993; "Police Investigation Supervisor Admits Faking Fingerprints"
- Gary Spencer; New York Law Journal; February 4, 1997; "New Policies for State Police Handling Evidence"
- New York Times; February 4, 1997; "Supervision of Troopers Faulted In Evidence-Tampering Scandal. Concluding a four-year investigation into the worst scandal in state police history, a special prosecutor said today that troopers were able to plant evidence routinely in criminal cases across a broad swath of rural New York because they had no fear of detection by supervisors, who maintained a willful ..."
