2nd witness to 1996 shooting says Dobbs Ferry cops pushed him to change story

By REBECCA BAKER
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original Publication: December 4, 2007)

A witness who saw Richard DiGuglielmo fatally shoot Charles Campbell outside the DiGuglielmo family's Dobbs Ferry deli in 1996 testified yesterday that village police tried to pressure him to change his original story that the shooting was justified.

"They were relentless," witness James White said. "I kept asking to leave, and they'd say, 'Hold on a minute.' "

Lawyers for DiGuglielmo are hoping that White, 55, a teacher now living in Florida, will help overturn the conviction of the former New York City police officer. DiGuglielmo has served 10 years in prison on a 20-to-life sentence.

The hearing in White Plains before Westchester County Judge Rory Bellantoni is on DiGuglielmo's petition for a new trial, based on witness Michael Dillon's recanted testimony.

Dillon said village detectives coerced him into changing his story that DiGuglielmo was protecting his father when he shot the bat-swinging Campbell outside the Venice Deli on Oct. 3, 1996. Dillon testified that he changed his statement four days after the shooting because he felt intimidated by police who took him to headquarters several times to be reinterviewed.

Dobbs Ferry police Lt. James Guarnieri said Dillon voluntarily changed his story the second time he was interviewed.

DiGuglielmo's lawyers say Dillon's statements about what he saw and went through with the police should be enough to overturn the conviction. Prosecutors maintain that the jury used other evidence to convict DiGuglielmo.

White, who testified yesterday under subpoena, never testified at trial because he wasn't considered reliable. He had brothers in law enforcement, one a Dobbs Ferry police sergeant, another a Westchester prosecutor.

White said he refused to talk with DiGuglielmo's lawyers before the trial because he promised his father, a former assistant U.S. attorney, that he wouldn't get involved with the case. "I didn't want to give him a stroke," he said.

White said that he never changed his story that Campbell was "aggressively approaching" DiGuglielmo's father with the bat when he was shot. He said the police accused him of being drunk after he gave that account.

White admitted that in 1996 he was an alcoholic and addicted to prescription drugs, including Valium. But he insisted that he was sober when he saw the shooting and drank only one beer before talking to the police.

White said he wasn't sure how many times police brought him in for more questioning. But he said he was told over and over that his story didn't match the accounts of other witnesses.

"I repeatedly told them I wasn't interested in what other people said," he said. "I couldn't understand why I kept being questioned."

Assistant District Attorney Timothy Ward grilled White about his account of the shooting, including whether he heard racial epithets at the scene. White insisted that he did not, and blamed a typographical error for a conflicting statement in two written descriptions.

White said he did not pay for his plane ticket or hotel room for the trip to testify yesterday and assumed that the DiGuglielmo family picked up the costs.