Janet Difiore.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

The Court Report
By Richard Blassberg

Prosecutor Perry Perrone, Presenting A Case Without A
Scintilla Of Forensic Evidence, Declared,
“The Evidence Will Be Powerful, Compelling, And Overwhelming”
Westchester Supreme Court, White Plains
Judge Lester B. Adler Presiding

Friday, May 23, the trial of George Bubaris, former Mount Kisco Police Officer, charged with Manslaughter In The Second Degree, Unlawful Imprisonment, and Official Misconduct in the April 28, 2007 death of homeless, undocumented alien Rene Javier Perez, got underway. Bubaris is the only individual charged in the death despite the fact that Perez had been involved in an incident in the Town
of Bedford prior to being “borderdumped” by Bedford police back into Mount Kisco, and despite the fact that two other Mount Kisco cops, Lieutenant Dunnigan and Officer Dwyer, had had contact with Perez, who had dialed 911 from a laundromat in Mount Kisco complaining
of stomach pain and asking to be brought to the hospital.

Assistant District Attorney Perry Perrone began his opening statement by describing Byram Lake Road, and specifi-cally the area where Perez was found, near death, as “a place of darkness one would not associate with Westchester County.” He then quickly told the jury of nine men and three women, “The evidence will show one thing and one thing only about Rene Perez. He was a victim of Officer George Bubaris. It will show that George Bubaris recklessly caused the death of Rene Perez.” Perrone went on, “The only person who could have inflicted the bluntforce trauma was George Bubaris, and George Bubaris alone.” Perrone went on to give a very loosely-hung-together, one-hour and-twenty-two-minute account, designed to plant the notion in jurors’ minds, that only George Bubaris, out of more than six billion
people on planet Earth, “could have inflicted the blunt-force trauma.” He then said, “You will not hear any forensic evidence in this case. The Defendant is excluded; but that doesn’t matter.”

Analysis:


For ADA Perrone, a veteran of any number of bad, fictionalized cases over the years, cases such as Richard DiGuglielmo, in which he and ADA Patricia Murphy turned a self-defense, justifiable killing, in which all three eyewitnesses who initially reported the same truthful
account that Charles Campbell was swinging a metal bat at the head of Officer DiGuglielmo’s father the moment he was killed, needed to
be coerced and worn down until they were saying what the District Attorney wanted them to. For such a prosecutor, truth and justice are
totally irrelevant. Obtaining a conviction is all that matters.

Defense Attorney Andrew Quinn, of White Plains, approached the jury, stating, “We will present to you what the evidence will not
prove.” He wanted to focus the triers of fact as early as possible, explaining to them, “They need to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that
George Bubaris was responsible for Rene Perez’ death, and that they cannot do!”

Referring to Perez, he told the jurors matter-of-factly, “He got injured a lot because he got drunk a lot, and fell down.”Then Quinn took the gloves off, declaring, “We’re going to learn that this investigation was not quite what the District Attorney has told you.” Quinn went further, “A cardinal rule of police investigation is Don’t start at the end. And, that is exactly what was done. Even though he is complaining of stomach pain and asking for a hospital at 10:42pm, the Prosecution wants you to believe.”

Quinn then, standing before the jurors, calmly told them, “There’s not a shred of forensic evidence that ties my client to Rene Perez. The
Prosecution says, “We have a ton of evidence. But, none of it has to do with George Bubaris.” Then, getting down to specifics, Attorney Quinn declared, “The DA says the injury occurred after 11pm. at is wrong. You will learn that this was an injury that can be caused by a punch or a kick, or by falling down.”

Changing gears, he alerted the jurors with, “Wait till after you hear me cross-examine Officer Dwyer. He has demons of his own and reasons
to testify as he will.” He then followed up with, “There is absolutely no way that was a police car you will see on the Peltz Tape. They
can bring in all of the evidence they want, but it’s irrelevant.”

Analysis:


What we are witnessing at the Bubaris trial is a classic Janet DiFiore politically-motivated prosecution. A life has been lost. The alleged victim, a homeless, hopelessly alcoholic immigrant, whose reckless daily lifestyle involved many self-inflicted injuries and trips to the hospital over more than 10 years, could have died at any time under similar circumstances.

However, his death was, in fact, preceded by contact with at least five police officers from two different departments, Bedford and Mount Kisco, that we are aware of. In DiFiore’s calculations, someone needs to be sacrificed; the Latino Community will not accept the notion that he merely injured himself. And, therefore, the low man on the totem pole, George Bubaris, must be sacrificed, even though everything we know, the actual facts of the case, suggest whatever abdominal injury Rene Perez died from, occurred before Of-fi-cer George Bubaris was with him.

The presentation of the District Attorney’s fiction requires three Assistant DAs, Jim McCarty and Perry Perrone delivering the presentation, assisted by ADA Michael Delohery handling the computer and television equipment. Delohery, incidentally, is no choir boy. He committed his share of prosecutorial misconduct in the Paul Wicht case, intentionally withholding a critical email and lying to the same judge who presides in this case. Prosecutors lie routinely because even when caught, they pay no penalty, a fact that perpetuates the injustice and cries out for corrective legislation.