Greenwich Roundup: 03/29/08 - The Worcester Police Department Really Had Nothing To Do With These Arrests

Sunday, March 30, 2008

03/29/08 - The Worcester Police Department Really Had Nothing To Do With These Arrests

What about all the help from...

New York Police Department, the Connecticut and Massachusetts Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the federal Department of Homeland Security, military police from Fort Jackson, S.C., and police departments from as far away as Philadelphia, Pa. and Miramar, Fla. As well as, dozens of other law enforcement agencies.

This case is far from a slam dunk, there are going to be many twists and turns and Greenwich Police Chief Ridberg had better start giving credit where credit is due, or he just might screw up this continuing investigation.

QUOTE:

"In the end it's not about our reputation but about justice," Ridberg said. "But it's always easy to take pot shots at a failure especially by the New York papers."

HEADLINE:

Arrests in slaying boost police morale
Greenwich Time - Greenwich,CT

STORY:

The arrests of two men in the 2006 slaying of Andrew Kissel has given police the type of infusion of energy and confidence that comes with a difficult job done well, Chief David Ridberg said.

One dividend of the arrests of Kissel's personal assistant and his relative for the real estate developer's death is halting repeated black eyes from pundits and writers who've derided Greenwich police over Kissel and other cases....

...Ridberg was referring to the 1975 bludgeoning of Martha Moxley in Belle Haven, which remained unsolved until the arrest of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel in 2000 and his conviction two years later, and the still-unsolved 1984 murder of 12-year-old Pemberwick boy Matthew Margolies.

Both cases received national, and in the case of Skakel, international, media coverage...

...The warrants in the case remain sealed...

...Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles police detective whose 1998 book slammed Greenwich investigators for failing to investigate Moxley's murder in Belle ...

...Lindy Urso, the attorney for Carlos Trujillo, said that some of what he views as pressure tactics by police may have steered them away from the real killer.

From the outset, Urso said, police have pushed Carlos Trujillo's South American-born relatives to give them information, using the threat of deportation and other legal problems as leverage...

...Ridberg said two books last year that questioned the department's competence and desire to solve the Kissel murder typified what he considers the unfair impression among media that Greenwich police are not adept investigators.

Brewster, N.Y., true crime authors Kevin McMurray and Joe McGinniss both published Kissel books last year that implied Greenwich detectives would bungle the case, Ridberg said.

"The Andrew Kissel case is currently in the hands of the Greenwich Police Department, a fact that doesn't bode well for a timely resolution for this murder mystery," McMurray wrote.

In his book, "Andrew and Robert Kissel: A Family Cursed" McMurray cited the still unsolved Margolies killing as an indication that police would not crack the Kissel murder.

In the book McMurray urged police to abandon their focus on Carlos Trujillo and investigate other possible killers, especially the possibility the killer was associated with an olive oil importing business Kissel was a partner in based in Sicily.

McMurray remains unconvinced with the premise that Trujillo is involved, he said.

"Unless they have some earth shattering evidence that leaves no doubt he is the one," McMurray said this week. "Until I see that evidence I think he's innocent."...

...Last year in his book "Never Enough," McGinniss wrote that the department was spinning its wheels in the case, which he speculated investigators considered a low priority.

"While Greenwich police were quick to pounce on anyone found water skiing after sunset, the town was a great place to get away with murder," McGinniss wrote...

PLEASE READ:

03/29/08 - "It's ridiculous to think this type of guy would have the backbone to kill himself for his children or that he would do so in such a ......

03/27/08 - "I think what really put it over the edge was some of the knowledge that Leonard had of this case," Worcester Capt. Edward McGinn said

``He had intimate knowledge of the facts of the case which hadn't been released to the public,'' McGinn said. ``He knew things about the crime and the crime scene that a non-participant would not know.''