New York State Police Troop C scandal

The New York State Police Troop C scandal involved the fabrication of evidence used to convict suspects in New York by the New York State Police.

John Spencer

In April 1993, Craig D. Harvey, a New York State Police trooper was charged with fabricating evidence. Harvey admitted he and another trooper lifted fingerprints from items the suspect, John Spencer, touched while in Troop C headquarters during booking. He attached the fingerprints to evidence cards and later claimed that he had pulled the fingerprints from the scene of the murder. The forged evidence was presented during John Spencer's trial and his subsequent conviction resulted in a term, of 50 years to life in prison, at his sentencing.^[1]

Michael Kinge

One fabrication involved the 1989 murders of the Harris family of Dryden, New York. In their home, Warren and Dolores Harris, their daughter, Shelby, 15, and their son, Marc, 11, were bound and blindfolded, Shelby was raped and sodomized, all four were shot in the head and the house was doused with gasoline and set afire. State police investigators say that evidence led them to Michael Kinge, and that officers killed him when he pointed a shotgun at them during the arrest. His mother, Shirley Kinge, admitted to using a credit card stolen from the Harris home. Officers David L. Harding and Robert M. Lishansky, of Troop C, admitted they took fingerprints of Ms. Kinge from her work place and claimed to have found them on gasoline cans found at the Harris home. She was convicted of burglary and arson and received a sentence of 17 to 44 years in prison. She served two and a half years before it was revealed that the evidence had been fabricated. Her conviction was later overturned.^[2]

"In a February 2008 ruling, Midey found that the 73-year-old Kinge was the victim of malicious prosecution and negligent supervision of a state police investigator who planted phony fingerprint evidence and gave false testimony linking her to the Harris family slayings in 1989." Kinge was awarded $250,000 in compensation for the nearly 2½ years she spent behind bars.

CIA interview

The scandal became known when Trooper David L. Harding was interviewed for a job at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He was asked if he was willing to break the law for his country. He answered "yes", then explained how he worked to convict people he felt sure were guilty by fabricating evidence. He assumed the CIA would be pleased with his answer, but instead they notified the United States Department of Justice, though there was a 14-month delay before this discovery was relayed to New York State Police officials.^[2]

Troopers

• Craig D. Harvey was a lieutenant who headed the identification unit, and was a 16-year veteran of the force. He pleaded guilty on July 29, 1993 to fabricating evidence in three cases, and agreed to serve 2½ to 7 years in prison.^[3]

• David L. Harding was a 7-year veteran of the force, was sentenced on December 16, 1992, to 4 to 12 years in prison and fined $20,000 for fabricating evidence in four documented cases.
• Robert M. Lishansky was an 11-year veteran of the force, was sentenced June 10, 1993 to 6 to 18 years in prison for fabricating evidence in 21 cases.
• David M. Beers was a 15-year veteran, pleaded not guilty on May 5 and on July 29 to fabricating evidence in two cases, was acquitted by a jury on September 28, 1993.
• Patrick O'Hara was a lieutenant and 16-year veteran of the force, was suspended July 29, 1993 pending an investigation into Mr. Harvey's allegations that Lieutenant O'Hara helped fake evidence.^[3] Prosecutors dropped the charge that O'Hara had helped Harvey fake a fingerprint, but O'Hara served one year in prison as part of his plea agreement.

See also

• Falsified evidence
• Police misconduct

References

1. ^ "An Officer's Guilt Casts Shadow on Trials". New York Times. March 4, 1993. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/04/nyregion/an-officer-s-guilt-casts-shadow-on-trials.html. Retrieved 2007-06-21. "The first evidence-tampering scandal in state police history has cast a shadow over criminal trials in central New York State, making prosecutors' jobs more difficult, lawyers and law-enforcement officials say. The scandal broke last fall, when a state police investigator with Troop C, David L. Harding, admitted fabricating fingerprint ..." 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Supervision of Troopers Faulted In Evidence-Tampering Scandal". New York Times. February 4, 1997. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/04/nyregion/supervision-of-troopers-faulted-in-evidence-tampering-scandal.html. Retrieved 2007-06-21. "Concluding a four-year investigation into the worst scandal in state police history, a special prosecutor said today that troopers were able to plant evidence routinely in criminal cases across a broad swath of rural New York because they had no fear of detection by supervisors, who maintained a willful ..." 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Police Investigation Supervisor Admits Faking Fingerprints". New York Times. July 30, 1993. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/30/nyregion/police-investigation-supervisor-admits-faking-fingerprints.html. Retrieved 2007-06-21. "In a widening scandal that has rocked the New York State Police, a lieutenant who supervised criminal investigations in seven upstate counties admitted yesterday that he had faked fingerprint evidence in three cases. The lieutenant, Craig D. Harvey, also said in court in Delhi, N.Y., that he had been assisted in fabricating evidence by another lieutenant, Patrick O'Hara, who works out of state police headquarters in Albany supervising drug and organized-crime investigations."