Letters From The Inside -- Justice for Jack

September 2007

WHAT IS SHE HIDING??

In December 1998, one year almost to the day of my first conviction, my accuser attempted suicide.  Before doing so, she wrote a suicide note.  That note was found by her mother, my ex-wife, who turned it over to Samaritan Hospital in Troy when the girl was admitted.  Along with many others, I firmly believe this note holds the key to my exoneration.  So just get the note and clear my name, right?  Not so simple. Why?  Because for the past 7 years, Patricia DeAngelis has done everything in her power to keep that note from my defense team and me.  It certainly leads you to wonder, what is she hiding?

It was not until December of 2000, during a pre-trial hearing for my second trial, that we learned of the suicide attempt and the existence of the note.  At that time, Ms. DeAngelis, who apparently thought we were aware of the situation, asked the Court to issue an order prohibiting us from mentioning the suicide attempt and my accuser’s subsequent hospitalization at Four Winds Hospital. The Court not only denied Ms. DeAngelis’ request, but also ordered that records from both Four Winds and Samaritan hospitals be subpoenaed and sent directly to the Court for inspection.  The judge then stated that he would provide me with anything from those records that might assist in my defense. A judicial order should have been the end of the story but not quite when Patricia DeAngelis is involved.  For whatever reason, she was not going to give up that information, no matter what.  Somehow, Rensselaer County’s notorious DA was able to deceive and mislead the Court to the point that the ordered note was never produced.  Seven years later, I am still fighting to get what the judge ordered that I be given.

A review of the trial transcripts with regard to the suicide note shows just how well Ms. DeAngelis masters deceit. As a result, my second trial began without the ordered evidence that was crucial to my defense.  Anyone who has followed Ms. DeAngelis’ tainted career knows full well that if that suicide note contained anything that could even remotely be interpreted as a sign of my guilt, Ms. DeAngelis would have waved it in front of the jurors like a flag.  The fact that she fights so hard to keep it from me raises red flags to everyone who has followed my case; particularly when considering what Ms. DeAngelis told the Court about that note.

Two years after my second conviction, I filed a motion before Judge Patrick McGrath in Rensselaer County Court again requesting that I be provided with the note that he had already ordered before my second trial began. Ms. DeAngelis again vehemently opposed my motion.  For reasons unknown to me, Judge McGrath denied my motion.  His decision more or less declared the note to be private- a direct contradiction of his initial ruling. 

About six months ago, in preparation for my federal appeal, my attorney, E. Stewart Jones, filed a discovery motion in the Federal District Court.  Our request?  You guessed it, the suicide note.  Once again, Ms. DeAngelis aggressively opposed the request and once again we were denied.  This denial, however, was attributed more to a technicality than the previous unjustified denials.

As I have already said, it is my firm belief that the suicide note is crucial to my exoneration.  Since witnessing Ms. DeAngelis’ relentless efforts to keep that note from me, I have become even more convinced of that.  Why is she so determined to keep that note hidden?  Her statements to the Court make it clear that despite her claims to the contrary, she has read that note.  What is she so afraid of?

Although my recent request to the federal court to give me the note was denied, Ms. DeAngelis’ response unintentionally yielded many answers as to how she managed to deceive the court and thus keep the note from us.  The following is a brief rundown of her actions:

• Ms. DeAngelis indicates at a pre-trial hearing for trial number 2 that she wanted the defense prohibited from mentioning the suicide attempt and anything related to Four Winds or why the accuser was there.  At that time, my defense team and I were unaware of the attempted suicide.  And although she clearly had knowledge of the existence of a suicide note at that time, Ms. DeAngelis withheld that information from the Court and my defense team and did not mention the note until the morning my second trial began and only after being questioned by the Judge.

• At the pre-trial hearing, the Court stated that he would subpoena all the accuser’s medical records from both Four Winds and Samaritan Hospital to come directly to him. Yet, the record reflects that Ms. DeAngelis subpoenaed the Four Winds records only and had them sent directly to her, not to the Court as ordered. 

• The Court ordered the records on December 7, 2000 yet Ms. DeAngelis’ subpoena to Four Winds was dated December 1, 2000- a full week before the judge even ordered the records at the pre-trial hearing. 

• At the start of trial two, when the Court specifically asked Ms. DeAngelis where the Samaritan Hospital records were, she stated that she had subpoenaed them “a while back.”  Yet, she again failed to produce them to the Court.  I have never seen a copy of the subpoena for Samaritan Hospital and I suspect she will do everything in her power to keep that hidden too as it will reveal when she knew about the note.

• Despite persistent claims that she has never seen the suicide note, Ms. DeAngelis revealed her knowledge of the note at that time when she paraphrased the contents to the Court saying the note said something to the effect that the accuser felt guilty for testifying against her sister’s father and for taking him away from her sister. 

• Ms. DeAngelis acknowledged that the note originally went to Samaritan Hospital, yet despite the Court order, only subpoenaed records from Four Winds. 

• When the only note found in the Four Winds file was a clinician’s progress note, Ms. DeAngelis again revealed her knowledge of the suicide note contents by stating that the progress note was essentially the same as the information in the suicide note.

• Once trial two concluded, without the suicide note, Ms. DeAngelis then engaged in perhaps her most egregious behavior.  In her closing, knowing that she had succeeded in keeping the note from my defense team, and knowing that my defense team had finished presenting its case without being able to discuss the suicide or the note, Ms. DeAngelis then presented information about the suicide attempt to the jurors.

This is a very brief list of the lengths Ms. DeAngelis has gone to in an effort to keep that note from me. While it is very confusing, the bottom line is that the note was delivered to Samaritan Hospital when my accuser was admitted.  Ms. DeAngelis has manipulated the Court by refusing to produce the Samaritan records.  Her manipulation is masked by her eagerness to produce the Four Winds records. But the note is not at Four Winds- it is at Samaritan.  Ms. DeAngelis knows that and has done everything in her power to conceal that fact. 

Again I ask, WHAT IS SHE HIDING?????

***As far as the note goes, it is not a dead issue.  Thanks to the evidence Ms. DeAngelis unintentionally provided in her response to my federal discovery motion, the issue is heading back to Court.  Not only do I believe that the note will prove that I did not do anything inappropriate to my former stepdaughter, I believe the note will also prove who is really behind this nightmare- Patricia DeAngelis.