By: Joe Strupp A reporter for The Village Voice helped discredit a key witness in a mob-related murder trial on Wednesday after his taped interview with the witness indicated she had changed her story. The move is expected to lead to a dismissal of the case.
The New York Times reported Thursday that prosecutors seeking the murder conviction of former F.B.I. Supervisor Roy Lindley DeVecchio said they would drop the case after the Voice?s Tom Robbins revealed his interview tape.
DeVecchio, 67, was charged with helping a mob informant commit four murders in the 1980s and 1990s, the Times reported.
?The lead prosecutor, Michael F. Vecchione, strongly hinted of his inclination yesterday morning in remarks addressed to Justice Gustin L. Reichbach, who is presiding over the nonjury trial,? the Times reported.
?Well, Judge, if we can?t go forward after listening to these tapes, or we shouldn?t go forward because of what?s on these tapes,? Mr. Vecchione said in open court, ?then we?re prepared to do what would be necessary, and that would be to dismiss this case if that is the situation.?
Later, attorneys for both sides met Robbins in a conference room at the district attorney?s office to make copies of his recordings and listen to them, the Times said: ?By the end of business hours, a law enforcement official confirmed the decision to drop the charges.?
?To stand down now would end a sensational case rife with intrigue, plagued with obstacles and built squarely on the word of Linda Schiro, once a Mafia assassin?s mistress, whose shifting accounts have been increasingly evident since the new investigation nearly two years ago,? the Times wrote. ?Justice Reichbach warned Ms. Schiro in court yesterday that she could face perjury charges and appointed a lawyer, Gary A. Farrell, to represent her.?
Robbins said he had struggled with his decision to come forward.
?I did not know what else to do,? Robbins said, according to the Times, adding "No journalist ever wants to go against a source. It?s against our creed.??
The trial centered on DeVecchio?s relationship with his informer, Gregory Scarpa, a ?notorious capo in the Colombo crime family.? Scarpa, known as the Grim Reaper, died in prison in 1994. In the case on trial, state prosecutors accused DeVecchio of giving Scarpa orders to kill rival informers and tips on pending arrests, The Times wrote.
?Before the new state case came to trial, defense lawyers sought to subpoena several writers who had circulated book proposals based on interviews with Ms. Schiro,? the paper reported. ?Basing his decision on the state shield law protecting journalists, Justice Reichbach quashed a subpoena for testimony by Jerry Capeci, who writes the column ganglandnews.com.
When Schiro took the witness stand this week, defense lawyers noted inconsistencies in her various accounts. In interviews with federal investigators a decade ago, Schiro testified, she had left out DeVecchio?s involvement in the hope that he could protect her family.
Robbins posted an article about his tape recordings on the Voice?s Web site, saying the interviews were conducted in 1997 for a book proposal written with Capeci.
In the interviews, Robbins wrote, Schiro was asked directly whether DeVecchio had been involved in the murders, and ?she insistently, unequivocally said he had not,? the Times reported. Robbins promised to use the information only for a book, avoid attributing it to her and refuse to cooperate with any criminal prosecution arising from publication.
Lawyers for both sides subpoenaed the interviews Tuesday and Robbins brought the tapes to court Wednesday, according to the Times.
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