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Court rejects Munchinski's petition in Fayette murder case
The state Supreme Court has denied a petition to allow a convicted killer to appeal a lower court's
decision to uphold his conviction for a double murder in Fayette County three decades ago.
The court issued a one-line denial Thursday of a petition filed by David Munchinski to appeal the state Superior Court's
decision to overturn a 2004 ruling by a Common Pleas Court judge who said Munchinski was wrongly convicted...
In January, a federal judge denied a request from Munchinski to take a deposition from a gravely ill, former state trooper
whose statements may have overturned his convictions.
Munchinski's attorney, Noah Geary, of Washington County, said Montgomery Goodwin claimed that Fayette County judges Gerald
Solomon and Ralph Warman, who were prosecutors at the time, tampered with a police report and withheld evidence.
Goodwin has been in prison in Somerset County since 1989 for killing a man who was dancing with his wife.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_492615.html
Court denies Munchinski appeal
By Jennifer Harr, Herald-Standard
02/10/2007
In a one-sentence ruling, the state Supreme Court denied an appeal of David J. Munchinski's reinstated
conviction.
"And now, this 8th day of February, 2007, the Petition for Allowance of Appeal and the Application for Relief
are hereby DENIED," read the ruling, handed down Friday.
Munchinski, 53, of Latrobe was one of two men convicted in the Dec. 2, 1977, murders of James P. Alford and
Raymond Gierke. Alford and Gierke were sodomized and fatally shot at a chalet in Bear Rocks, Bullskin Township...
...Over the years, Munchinski appealed his dual first-degree murder convictions. But in October 2004, Northumberland
Senior Judge Barry F. Feudale ruled three former Fayette County prosecutors withheld so much evidence against Munchinski during
three separate court appearances that the only remedy was to overturn his convictions.
The overturned convictions were
appealed to the state Superior Court, which reversed Feudale's ruling in 2005. The Superior Court panel ruled that the appeal
was untimely filed and portions of Munchinski's claim were previously decided.
The appeal to the Supreme Court was
a last-ditch effort to get the convictions tossed out again, but on Friday, that hope was dashed, and potentially with it
a federal lawsuit filed against the county, former prosecutors and police.
The lawsuit has already been dismissed,
but its dismissal is also on appeal.
Munchinski's lawyer, Noah Geary, could not be reached for comment. ...
DNA Will Prove or Disprove the case against Munchinski
A former assistant prosecutor in the Munchinski case turned judge admits he deleted a paragraph
from a police report. But no big deal here in Fayette County, or Pennsylvania.
D.A.files motion to remove her office from hearings
THE DAILY COURIER
Saturday, July 27, 2002
UNIONTOWN - Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon Thursday filed a motion to remove her office from upcoming post-conviction
hearings for David Munchinski, who was convicted of first degree murders in the 1977 deaths of two men in Bear Rocks...
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/truthonline/munchinskirecuse.html
Attorney: Free Munchinski
By David Hunt
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Arguing that David Munchinski's imprisonment rewards prosecutors for intentional, gross misconduct, the
former Latrobe man's lawyer is asking for his client to remain free during a state appeal seeking a new trial on 1977 homicide
charges.
Noah Geary's petition for bond also cites health issues and previous behavior as reasons Munchinski should be allowed out
of prison... ...No physical evidence linking Munchinski to the killings exists, records show.
The existence of a statement recorded 22 years ago with key witness Richard Bowen that would have exonerated Munchinski
surfaced during appeal hearings in 1992.
Bowen said he drove Munchinski and codefendant Leon Scaglione to Bear Rocks on the night of the murders, but a police investigation
revealed that Bowen was in Oklahoma that night. He later recanted his testimony and said police and prosecutors coached him
on what to say during the trial.
Bowen killed himself in an Oklahoma prison in 1997.
Former state trooper Montgomery Goodwin testified that he mentioned Bowen's statement in his official report, but Warman
testified that he cut out the paragraph because it was an error. Warman also said he altered five police reports in connection
with the prosecution and withheld evidence.
Scaglione once said another man, the late Homer Stewart, was his accomplice, but he refused to say it during Munchinski's
second trial. Scaglione later died in prison...
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_261278.html
Links updated here
Lawyer claims judge obstructed justice
By Matthew Junker
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, March 20, 2003
Convicted killer David Munchinski sat stoically through a hearing Wednesday while his attorney argued
that a sitting Fayette County judge may have obstructed justice by altering a document.
Munchinski case
WMBS 590 radio station's report this morning August 14, 2003 reported quite differently than the Herald-Standard and
Tribune-Review online editions for this same date.
I searched Post Gazette online, and their report appears to coincide with the WMBS 590 radio station report.
WMBS noted the date of the tape recording of Bowman's statement (which reference to was included in a police report but
removed by Warman) was a lot earlier than was thought.
Earlier is the key part of the report. Coupled with P-G report, far different information.
Thursday, August 14, 2003
Former prosecutors testify in Munchinski hearing
Thursday, August 14, 2003
By Bill Moushey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Excerpt
Three former Fayette County prosecutors admitted yesterday that potentially exculpatory
evidence should have been turned over to defense lawyers for David Munchinski before he was convicted of a double murder 18
years ago.
But all of them also testified during a post-conviction hearing in the 1977 drug-related
murder case that they did not turn the evidence over to the defense because they did not know it existed.
Senior Judge Barry Feudale of Northumberland County, who was appointed to the case
when Fayette County judges removed themselves from it, will decide whether Munchinski should be granted a new trial.
Yesterday's testimony featured Fayette County Common Pleas Judges Gerald Solomon
and Ralph Warman, who served as district attorney and first assistant district attorney during Munchinski's trials in 1983
and 1986. Also testifying was First Assistant District Attorney John Kopas, who handled part of Munchinski's appeal in 1992.
Defense lawyer Noah Geary asked the current and former prosecutors about reports
and deals related to Richard Bowen, the state's star witness. Bowen had testified that he was the getaway driver who watched
Munchinski and a partner sodomize and kill James Peter Alford, 24, and Raymond Gierke, 28, in the Laurel Mountain area known
as Bear Rocks in 1977.
After he was convicted, Munchinski secured a report from Pennsylvania State Police
suggesting Bowen may have been in Oklahoma on the day of the killings.
In the years after the trials, Bowen twice recanted his testimony, saying state
police had coached him in what to say, but then later stuck by his original story. Bowen hanged himself in an Oklahoma jail
after Munchinski's trial.
Another report found after Munchinski's conviction in 1986 contained a statement
from a young woman who said her boyfriend had confessed to the murders. In addition, fingernail scrapings and hair samples
taken from the crime scene were never made available to defense lawyers for testing.
When he was asked about the state police reports, including the one stating Bowen
fled Pennsylvania for Oklahoma a day before the murders, Solomon said, "I don't recall ever seeing this report." He also denied
knowing about any of the other evidence.
When Geary pointed out that in 1983 Solomon stated in court that the report was
unrelated to the Munchinski case and declined to turn it over, Solomon, who said he now believes the report should have been
produced for the defense, again insisted he did not have any recollection of it.
Warman, who was testifying in his own courtroom, said when he prosecuted the case
he did not know of the existence of any of the documents showed to him yesterday either. While he agreed many of the documents
should have been handed over, he argued he could not turn over what he did not have.
Warman also admitted yesterday he had cut a paragraph out of a state police report
that said Bowen's initial confession in the crimes was taped. While the state police trooper who authored the report has testified
that Bowen's statement was taped and transcribed, Warman, Solomon and another state trooper insisted that did not happen.
Warman said it would have been wrong to "alter" the original report, but that he
wasn't required to give Munchinski's trial attorneys a copy of the full report as part of discovery -- the pretrial phase
in which prosecutors have to disclose information that could help a defendant's case.
"I didn't alter his report," Warman said. "What I did was left a paragraph out
of his report."
Geary said the paragraph was important because it said Bowen gave police a tape-recorded
statement in September 1982. That was more than a month before authorities say they first recorded Bowen's version
of the crime, and other documents suggest the first statement had far fewer details than his trial testimony, Geary
said.
http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030813munch0813p5.asp
Herald-Standard:
Fayette judges testify on discovery process in 1977
slaying case
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| By Amy Karpinsky , Herald-Standard |
08/14/2003 |
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Fayette
County Judge Ralph C. Warman testified Wednesday that he deleted a paragraph in a state police report relating to a 1977 Bear
Rocks murder case because it was incorrect and would only "confuse issues in the case."
Warman said he deleted the paragraph
before the 1983 homicide trial of David J. Munchinski. At the time, Warman was the first assistant district attorney under
District Attorney Gerald Solomon.
A jury couldn't arrive at a verdict at the trial but Munchinski was later convicted
in 1986 of the homicides and sentenced to consecutive life sentences. Killed were Raymond Gierke and James Alford. Leon Scaglione,
who was also charged in the homicides, has since died.
Munchinski is appealing the convictions, claiming the prosecution
withheld important evidence from his attorneys at both trials.
The paragraph in question was in a report written by
former state police Trooper Montgomery C. Goodwin relating to a Sept. 9, 1982, interview of commonwealth murder witness Richard
Bowen.
The paragraph states that during an interview at the office of the Fayette County District Attorney, Bowen's
statement was tape-recorded and scheduled to be transcribed by the district attorney's office.
However, Warman said
there was no tape recording made of Bowen's statement that day. Warman repeatedly disputed Munchinski attorney Noah Geary's
assessment that he used the "cut and paste" method in altering the police report.
"I did not use any paste," Warman
said. "I folded it over and copied it."
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http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10005951&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6
I have to give WMBS credit for going with what they did. If it hadn't been for that morning report, who would know
from our local newspapers what went on actually at the local hearing held in the Fayette County Courthouse?
But this is interesting, if accurately reported:
Excerpt
Herald-Standard: Fayette judges testify on discovery process in 1977
slaying case 08/14/2003
Former state trooper George R. Fayock also testified that there was no tape
recording made the day of the Sept. 9, 1982, interview. He acknowledged that he approved Goodwin's report with the inaccurate
information and said it was a mistake to do so. Fayock also said that testimony he gave in 1992 that Bowen's statement was
taped that day was inaccurate.
When Geary suggested the statement was a significant misstatement of fact, Fayock
said Goodwin was either mistaken or not truthful. He said it was a mistake to approve the inaccurate report.
http://www.newsdirectory.com/news/press/na/us/pa/
http://www.post-gazette.com/default.asp
http://www.post-gazette.com/search/query.idq?CiMaxRecordsPerPage=10&CiScope=%2F&TemplateName=%2Fsearch%2Fquery.htx&CiSort=write%5Bd%5D&HTMLQueryForm=%2Fsearch%2FDefault.asp&SearchString=munchinski&image1.x=31&image1.y=2
Current Fayette County judges had to recuse themselves from the case, naturally, since two among them had been formerly
involved as an assistant prosecutor and a prosecutor.
For an overwhelmingly cohesive report of recent developments, please read the Post-Gazette online articles by Bill Moushey.
According to the credits on the site, Bill Moushey also is executive director of the Innocence Institute of Western Pennsylvania
at Point Park College
Search archives using Munchinski produces:
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http://www.post-gazette.com/search/query.idq?CiMaxRecordsPerPage=10&CiScope=%2F&TemplateName=%2Fsearch%2Fquery.htx&CiSort=write%5Bd%5D&HTMLQueryForm=%2Fsearch%2FDefault.asp&SearchString=munchinski&image1.x=31&image1.y=2
Excellent article:
A Question of Innocence: Daughter's questions could help free dad
David Munchinski has been jailed 15 1/2 years for killings he says he didn't do
Sunday, June 23, 2002
By Bill Moushey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
First of two articles
http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20020623munch2.asp
A Question of Innocence: Star witness's story full of inconsistencies
Monday, June 24, 2002
By Bill Moushey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Second of two articles
http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20020624munch0624p1.asp
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Judges admit Muchinski was denied papers
By Matthew Junker
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday,
August 14, 2003
Two sitting Fayette County judges testified Wednesday that convicted
killer David Munchinski should have received documents that call his guilt into doubt.
After a 1986 retrial, Munchinski was convicted of the 1977 rape and double murder
of James P. Alford and Raymond P. Gierke at Gierke's Bear Rocks home.
Both judges Gerald R. Solomon, who was district attorney at the time, and Ralph
Warman, his first assistant, who tried the case in 1986, could not explain why the documents were not turned over.
"If we had them in our possession they should have been provided to the defendant,"
Solomon said. Both Solomon and Warman said they did not recall seeing the documents before.
After the hearing, Munchinski said he didn't believe the judges' testimony.
"I think that there was more lies told today than truth. Don't drink the water
in Fayette County. You'll get amnesia," Munchinski said.
Together, the documents call into question the whereabouts and truthfulness of
the prosecution's main witness in the case, Richard Bowen, a convicted thief who hanged himself in prison.
The 11 documents also contain information that others may have committed the crime
and refer to physical evidence that may exclude Munchinski as a suspect.
The various reports did not come to the attention of the defense until the state
police turned them over in response to a federal judge's order in 1998.
DNA tests are still being conducted in Maryland to determine whether Munchinski's
DNA matches biological material obtained from the victims.
While a defense attorney said the case would have ended in acquittal in the 1983
trial, Deputy Attorney General Jonelle L. Harter said she will argue that the 11 documents would not have changed the outcome
and eventual conviction.
She also said the law at the time the case went to trial indicates that prosecutors
did not have to provide documents to the defense that they are not aware of. The law has since changed, she said, making it
the responsibility of prosecutors to go looking for documents that the defense should get.
But at the time, the prosecutors' job was "to turn over what we are aware of and
what we have control over," she said.
Munchinski's lawyer, Noah Geary, of Washington, said the argument that prosecutors
didn't know about the documents does not hold water.
"The law, of course, is that if the reports are in the possession of various officials
for the commonwealth, then they are in the possession and control of the prosecutors," he said.
Warman testified again yesterday, as he did in 1992, that he altered a police report
to avoid "confusion" about whether Bowen's initial statement to authorities was tape-recorded. Bowen later admitted he lied
to police in his initial statement in 1982.
At trial, Bowen told jurors he drove a getaway car, then entered Gierke's home
and watched the rapes and drug-related killings.
Warman said he routinely altered reports to exclude information that the defense
was not entitled to. Solomon said he assumed that he gave Warman his approval to make the change.
Visiting Judge Barry F. Feudale, of Northumberland County, will rule whether Munchinski
should get a new trial after the DNA tests are concluded and attorneys submit additional written arguments.
Matthew Junker can be reached at mjunker@tribweb.com or (724) 425-2338.
 
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