Anthony DiPippo & Andrew Krivak - Perjury / False Confession

DiPippo, Anthony AND Krivak, Andrew [latter not on NRE list]; murder, child sex abuse; NRE: perjury/false accusation, inadequate legal defense, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, perjury by official

Suggestibility issues

[DiPippo] [918:136]; 2nd Dept. 3/1/11; motion to vacate granted, due to defense counsel conflict of interest

"In November 1995, a hunter discovered the remains of 12-year-old Josette Wright in a wooded area. Her family had reported her missing more than a year earlier...after she failed to return home the evening before. In April 1996, [DiPippo] and his codefendant, [Andrew] Krivak, were arrested and indicted for murder...and rape...[DiPippo] and Krivak...[were] both convicted, after jury trials, on both counts.

"[T]he initial police investigation identified [DiPippo's] trial counsel's former client, Howard Gombert, who had a lengthy arrest record and whom counsel had previously represented on a rape charge, as a possible suspect in the murder of Wright. Witness statements and police reports from the initial investigation indicated that [the victim] was last seen in a car driven by Gombert. [DiPippo] contends that his trial counsel's failure to pursue the plausible defense of incriminating Gombert as the actual perpetrator in the rape and murder of [the girl] demonstrated that the conflict affected his representation.

"Trial counsel's failure to disclose his conflict must...be viewed in conjunction with his admission that he did not conduct any investigation into Gombert's possible involvement once he discovered that the car driven by Gombert had been seized and searched. For example, among other things, trial counsel did not conduct even a minimal investigation into Gombert by sending an investigator to ascertain Gombert's possible involvement."

[DiPippo] [986:243]; 2nd Dept. 5/28/14; affirming conviction following second trial

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

[DiPippo] 31 N.Y.S.3d 421; Court of Appeals 3/29/16; reversed , due to evidentiary error

"Upon his retrial, [DiPippo] sought to admit evidence suggesting that Gombert was the perpetrator of the crimes with which [DiPippo] was charged...Foremost among this evidence was the affidavit of Joseph Santoro, who was incarcerated with Gombert in Connecticut [FN1] and claimed that Gombert made incriminating admissions in April 2011 with respect to his involvement in the victim's death."

[from N1:] "Gombert was incarcerated for crimes that included attempted sexual assault of an eight-year-old girl and third-degree sexual assault of one of his girlfriends..."

"According to Santoro's affidavit, Gombert told him that Putnam County authorities were 'trying to get him for the killing of two girls' in the Putnam County area. Gombert named the victim as one of the girls, asserting that, in any event, 'they already convicted some other suckers' in connection with her death. Santoro asked Gombert, '[s]o the other guys didn't do it?' and, according to Santoro, Gombert laughed and responded that '[e]ven if they didn't, they got no evidence against me. It's been a long time since then.' Thereafter, Gombert made a derogatory sexual comment about the victim, prompting Santoro to ask whether Gombert had sexual relations with her. Gombert explained to Santoro that he had met with the victim at his former girlfriend's house, and was attracted to her. Gombert claimed that the victim 'flirted with him a lot' and offered to babysit for Gombert's child...Gombert then stated that '[t]he only way he could get [the victim] into his car was to tell her he wanted her to babysit for his daughter and that, after she did so, he had sex with the victim in a red car with a black hood. Santoro elicited from Gombert that this occurred at 'the time Wright disappeared.' When Santoro told Gombert that he would be better off keeping quiet, Gombert told him that '"[i]t don't matter now. They already got those other guys/suckers so I'm in the clear."' Santoro also described sexual comments made by Gombert about the victim on a separate occasion, at which point Gombert told Santoro that the victim did not want to have sex with him, but he 'had to persuade her.' In addition, Gombert made statements regarding a second missing girl, identified by first name, who had indeed gone missing, and whose body he claimed would never be found by the police. Santoro interpreted Gombert's statements to him as boasts that Gombert had killed both girls, and that [DiPippo] and Krivak were wrongly prosecuted for killing the victim.

"Gombert's then-girlfriend and another witness...confirmed that Gombert had regular access to and routinely drove the girlfriend's car, which was red with a black hood and had Connecticut license plates.

"In addition, [DiPippo] proffered notes from a police officer indicating that a witness, Anita Albano, had seen the victim, on the last day that she was seen alive, getting into a compact red vehicle with Connecticut license plates, driven by a young man with whom the victim appeared to be familiar. When Albano viewed a photograph array, she stated that the person in picture number two, if anybody, looked like the driver; photograph number two depicted Gombert.

"According to the prosecution's main witness [at trial], the victim, [DiPippo], Krivak, the witness, and two other male friends were driving home from the gas station in Krivak's van when Krivak pulled off to the side of 'Marijuana Road.' The witness testified that two of the men were consuming drugs in the front seat, and that she and others were drinking alcohol and smoking marihuana in the back when Krivak threw the victim to the floor of the van, pulled off her clothing, tied her hands with rope, shoved her underwear in her mouth, tied her bra around her face, and raped her. A few minutes later, the witness asserted, [DiPippo] also raped the victim who, by the end, appeared 'lifeless.' The witness testified that Krivak and [DiPippo] wrapped the victim in her clothes, picked her up, and left her somewhere outside the van.

"The witness admitted, however, that she did not disclose any of this information to the police the first two times she spoke to them, and it was not until two years after the alleged murder, when she received warnings from the police that she could be charged, that she implicated [DiPippo] and Krivak. Further, the witnesses's credibility was impeached by questions concerning her drug use that night and, more generally, around the time of the victim's disappearance, as well as her admission that she continued to associate with [DiPippo] after the alleged crimes were committed."

[DiPippo] 2019 WL 1004152; S.D.N.Y. 2/28/19; civil suit

"A jury acquitted [DiPippo] after his third trial in 2016. [He] served nearly 20 years in prison before his acquittal.

"[T]he Putnam County Sheriffs' Department ('PCSD')...has employed certain policies, practices, and customs that were the subject of numerous civil complaints...[I]n 2000, Governor...Pataki called for a state investigation and the New York State Legislature voted unanimously to authorize an independent state investigation of the PCSD due to the growing number of allegations that the department had abused its power and violated civil rights.

"[Patrick] Castaldo was an officer with the PCSD...Castaldo was a lead investigator on [DiPippo and Krivak's] case, and it was allegedly his practice to coerce confessions from supposed witnesses, threaten and manipulate supposed witnesses, fabricate inculpatory evidence, and conceal exculpatory information to secure a conviction." [Same allegations against Bill Quick, also with PCSD.]

"[Victor] Nestor was...a PCSD correction officer...He allegedly conspired with Castaldo and Quick to give false evidence regarding an admission DiPippo purportedly made during DiPippo's pretrial detention.

"Previously, [Howard] Gombert had lured and raped at least three other young girls using the same brutal methods: binding their hands behind their backs and gagging them with underwear or other clothing...He also caused the disappearance of another young girl and, although he was never prosecuted for it, police later found her underwear in a suitcase in his apartment...Shortly after [the murder DiPippo and Krivak were accused/convicted of], Gombert was convicted of another rape -- he had isolated another young girl in the woods, held her hands behind her back, shoved underwear in her mouth, and raped her.

"The discovery of Wright's body dominated Putnam [County] news...Consequently, then-Sheriff [Robert] Thoubburon, who was supposedly concerned about his re-election prospects, placed [Dan] Staphans in charge of the investigation, knowing that he would do whatever it took to close the case quickly...Thoubburon also knew that, in the past, Staphans had used sham polygraph examinations and physical, psychologial, and emotional pressure to coerce confessions regardless of their truth...Indeed, Staphans had a reputation in Putnam for being able to coax a confession out of anybody...He...knew the physical, psychological, and emotional pressure points that would cause suspects to confess regardless of their guilt.

"Three days after Wright's remains were discovered, police arrested 18-year-old DiPippo, and his two teenaged friends, Andy Krivak...and Dominick Neglia...after finding drugs in their car...At the time, police knew DiPippo as a local teenage troublemaker...Upon the police's questioning, Neglia, who was scared and wanted to go home, gave a general statement indicating that DiPippo and Krivak knew something about Wright's murder...In exchange for a false tip, Neglia was released from jail that evening despite pending charges. DiPippo and Krivak were not.

"Staphans ordered Castaldo and Quick to squeeze more out of Neglia...For weeks, Castaldo ad Quick pressured, threatened, and cajoled Neglia to develop evidence against DiPippo -- visiting him night and day at high school, his home, and his work...Castaldo and Quick pulled Neglia out of classes for interrogation so often that Neglia's high school principal asked them to stop...They showed up so often at Neglia's job that Neglia was fired...Eventually, Neglia succumbed and told Castaldo and Quick what they wanted to hear: that DiPippo had confessed to raping and murdering Wright.

"Neglia soon had misgivings and returned to the police station and represented that he no longer wanted to be involved in the investigation, but Castaldo struck Neglia in the back of the head with a pair of handcuffs and told him that he 'didn't have any other choice' but to back up his statement... Quick joined in, telling Neglia that he and...Castaldo had both just witnessed Neglia fall out of his chair and hit his head ...Terrified of further violence, Neglia agreed to help elicit a false confession from DiPippo...As part of this plan, Quick gave Neglia money and instructions to buy DiPippo drugs, get him high, and get him talking.

"Neglia plied DiPippo with drugs, but DiPippo never gave the confession [the investigators] wanted. Approximately two weeks later, Neglia falsely asserted that DiPippo, Krivak, their friends Adam Wilson...Bill MacGregor...and a woman named 'Patty' were driving Wright home from a party when DiPippo or Krivak...raped and murdered Wright...Neglia eventually soured on the plan. In a 1997 sworn recantation, he told Castaldo, Quick and other PCSD officers that his statements implicating DiPippo had been coerced and false.

"[PCSD] investigators misrepresented Neglia's statements in writing and failed to document or disclose his recantations. [from FN2:] Among other unreliable details in Neglia's fabricated story, he had told police that Wright was abducted in DiPippo's Bronco. But DiPippo did not own a Bronco in1994, and did not even have a driver's license. So, [PCSD] determined that if the crime occurred in a car, it would have to be a different car. [They] settled on a brown van driven by DiPippo's purported accomplice Krivak, which was already in police custody, impounded following Krivak's drug arrest. Police conducted a thorough inventory search at the time the van was impounded and collected numerous items, including paper, food, garbage, and two women's rings between the front seats. Approximately two months after Wright's remains were found, Detective John Rees conducted a 'second inventory search' of Krivak's van at Castaldo's direction. Rees reported finding a lizard earring and cat's eye ring that had somehow been missed during the first inventory search. Wright's mother said that the lizard earring and the cat's eye ring belonged to Josette. These two pieces of jewelry became key evidence supposedly linking DiPippo to Wright's murder... Either [PCSD] planted [the] jewelry in Krivak's van, or the jewelry never belonged to Wright at all, but Staphans, Castaldo, and Quick manipulated witnesses into reporting that it had."

"Using the same or similar methods, Staphans, Castaldo, and Quick coerced DiPippo's close friend Denise Rose... -- a 19-year-old with substance abuse problems -- into falsely claiming to have witnessed DiPippo and Krivak rape and murder Wright...Castaldo and Quick threatened to prosecute Rose for Wright's murder and send her to jail for 25 years to life, unless she implicated DiPippo and Krivak and their crimes...Under Staphans' direction, after other [PCSD personnel] fed her non-public details about the crime...and showed her Krivak's van that Castaldo and Quick had decided was the vehicle used in the crime after learning that DiPippo did not own a Bronco in 1994, she falsely stated that she had been in Krivak's van with DiPippo, Krivak, Wilson, MacGregor, and Wright, but that she had not witnessed Wright's murder." [Latter emphasis original.]

"This statement was still not close enough for Castaldo and Quick, who knew that they needed an eyewitness to the actual rape and murder to close their case...Days later, when Rose had not yet so testified, she was arrested and charged with felony criminal mischief and a DWI -- charges carrying seven and a half years in prison...To avoid that fate, she changed her story and told police that she had witnessed Krivak and DiPippo rape Wright in Krivak's van, bind her hands in front of her body with a rope, stuff a bra in her mouth, and leave her body in the woods near Fields' Lane.

"The details of her story originated with Castaldo and Quick, and turned out to be false -- as forensic testing later showed that Wright had been hogtied with her hands behind her back, not in front, as Rose had claimed...Her testimony was the only eyewitness account of his purported crimes, and her coerced statements helped lead to his conviction twice.

"Staphans, Castaldo, and Quick employed similarly gruesome and unethical tactics upon DiPippo's friends, Wilson and Moynihan, and MacGregor, a teenaged drug user whom Neglia and Rose had named as a bystander...Each of these witnesses were fed false and non-public facts about the investigation and/or was threatened to be the subject of additional prosecutions if they did not cooperate with the officers.

"Additionally, Staphans, Castaldo, and Quick coerced Krivak into giving a false confession. They arrested seventeen-year-old Krivak on July 1, 1996...That night, Staphans administered a sham polygraph examination...Staphans used a mix of psychological and emotional coercion, physical intimidation, physical coercion, and suggestions to elicit a false confession from Krivak...After concluding the examination, Staphans told Krivak that he 'didn't do well'...After hours of interrogation and physical coercion, Krivak falsely confessed that he and DiPippo raped Wright and that DiPippo killed her...As with the other witnesses, [PCSD] fed Krivak non-public details about the crime scene and tried to make sure his testimony aligned with the other coerced statements...Ultimately, after hours of coercive interrogation including physical assault, Krivak signed a false statement consistent with Denise Rose's fabricated statement...That statement contained several of the same non-public details [PCSD] had provided to Rose, including that Wright's hands were tied with rope and her underpants were stuffed in her mouth...Later, Krivak stated that the confession was coerced and that he and DiPippo were innocent...He refused to testify against DiPippo even when offered a reduced sentence...Krivak was convicted for raping and murdering Wright, and [as of 2/18/19, when this federal decision was published] he remains in prison.

"Staphans, Castaldo, and Quick knew that the statements they obtained from Rose, Wilson, MacGregor, and Krivak were entirely false...They also knew that those statements were contradicted by evidence of Howard Gombert's guilt.

"Castaldo and Quick also worked with [Victor] Nestor, a corrections officer with the PCSD, to fabricate a false inculpatory statement attributed to DiPippo. Nestor falsely claimed, in a written report prepared in Quick's presence, that DiPippo had admitted he was present at the time of Wright's murder but that he had been high and could not remember anything.

"After DiPippo returned to prison [after being convicted for a second time], new evidence of his innocence energed...DNA testing of Krivak's van failed to detect any trace of Wright's DNA...even though she had supposedly been brutally raped and murdered there by two men twice her size...After video footage came to light of Castaldo beating and possibly kicking a subdued, shackled prisoner, [Putnam County DA] Adam Levy began reinvestigating DiPippo's conviction."

[Krivak] [696:480]; 2nd Dept. 10/4/99; affirmed

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

[Krivak] 92 N.Y.S.3d 110; 2nd Dept. 1/23/19; reversed, due to denial of motion to vacate without a hearing

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"DiPippo and Krivak were...convicted in separate trials...[and were both] sentenced to 25 years to life in prison." "[DiPippo's trial] attorney had been provided reports prior to [his] trial showing that a witness reported seeing Wright get into a car, driven by Gombert, at 4 p.m. on the day she was last seen. Police had dismantled the car, which belonged to Gombert's girlfriend, but found no evidence that linked Gombert to the crime."

"[At DiPippo's third trial, Gennaro DeSimone, a mechanic who had performed work on cars owned by Krivak's father, testified that at the time of the crime, the van that Rose [at the prompting of 'detectives'] said was at the scene of the crime was in fact parked at Krivak's house with flat tires, no license plates, and was not operable.

"Allyson Clokey testified that she saw Wright at the Danbury Mall on October 7, 1994 -- four days after Rose said the crime occurred. Lorraine McLoughlin, who had been one of Wright's teachers, testified that she saw Wright on the Poughkeepsie mall on October 8 -- five days after Rose said the crime occurred."

"[Jeffrey] Deskovic had been coerced to falsely confess by Daniel Stephens,* a Putnam County Sheriff's investigator who was also involved in the investigation of DiPippo."

[* The above cases cited all spell this detective's last name as Staphans. (It's not clear which is correct.)]

"In October 2017, DiPippo filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking compensation. Separately, he received $2.9 million in compensation from the New York Court of Claims in 2018. In August 2020, Putnam County agreed to settle the federal lawsuit for $12 million.

"In May 2019, Krivak was granted a new trial."

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]