Juror's criminal history will not help overturn cop's murder conviction

By JONATHAN BANDLER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: October 16, 2007)

A juror's failure to reveal his criminal history will not help overturn the decade-old murder conviction of former New York City Police Officer Richard DiGuglielmo, a judge has ruled.

But the ex-officer's supporters are still relying on their main attack: that a key witness was pressured by Dobbs Ferry police to change his account about whether DiGuglielmo was defending his father when he fatally shot Charles Campbell on Oct. 3, 1996.

Last week, Westchester County Judge Rory Bellantoni delayed a hearing on that issue until mid-November and assigned a lawyer to represent the witness, Michael Dillon.

The judge also said he would not allow a hearing into the alleged juror misconduct, agreeing with prosecutors that DiGuglielmo's lawyers were unable to prove the omission by juror Daniel Thompson was intentional.

Campbell was killed in the parking lot of the family deli on Ashford Avenue after he struck the elder DiGuglielmo with a bat during a confrontation over his parking there while shopping elsewhere. The jury rejected the officer's claim that he was defending his father, relying on witnesses who suggested Campbell was no longer swinging the bat when he was shot.

DiGuglielmo was acquitted of intentional murder but convicted of depraved indifference murder. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison and has served just less than 10 years.

Dillon was a cable-company technician who told police and a news reporter on the night of the shooting that he thought the younger DiGuglielmo was defending his father and suggested the shooting was justified. He recanted that statement a few days later and testified at the trial that he did not believe the elder DiGuglielmo was in jeopardy when Campbell was shot. Affidavits he signed this year indicate he felt pressured by police to change his account and that they interviewed him several times between his two official statements. DiGuglielmo's lawyers contend that police and prosecutors never revealed those intervening discussions and that jurors could have acquitted DiGuglielmo if they knew of the pressure put on Dillon.

The juror issue was less likely to succeed.

Thompson, a New Rochelle firefighter, did not reveal during jury selection that he was arrested in February 1993 and later that year pleaded guilty to third-degree attempted criminal possession of a forged instrument, a misdemeanor. Andrew Schapiro, DiGuglielmo's lead appellate lawyer, said the information was only obtained by his investigators this year. He argued that Thompson might have deliberately omitted those details so that he could get on the jury because he "may have harbored bias" against police officers and wanted to convict DiGuglielmo.

Thompson indicated during jury selection that he had dealings with police officers, but that they involved his work as a firefighter. After the verdict, Thompson told The Journal News that DiGuglielmo sealed his own fate when he testified because of the way he described where he, his father and Campbell were standing "there was no one in imminent danger." He could not be reachedyesterday for comment.

Bellantoni suggested that the questions were ambiguous - the lawyers or judge should have simply asked whether prospective jurors were ever arrested, he said. He ruled that there was "no clear dishonesty" by Thompson that would warrant a hearing to determine if the verdict should be overturned.