|
MARTY KEEPS THE FAITH
Figuring out how to win his freedom became Marty's vocation, and he immediately became a fixture in the prison library. Throughout his ordeal, beyond the inevitable ups and downs, he has maintained a remarkably even and positive attitude that has provided inspiration for his supporters. Over the years, Marty has also helped many fellow inmates with their own appeals.
Marty's state and federal appeals -- based on the question of exactly when Marty was "in custody" and whether his Miranda rights were violated -- got him tantalizingly close to a new trial but ultimately proved unsuccessful. A state appeals court split two-two over whether his Miranda rights were violated; a fifth judge was added, who sided against Marty. The dissenting opinion stated the only evidence against Marty -- his confession -- should be suppressed and the case dismissed. Next a federal court ruled that Marty's state Miranda rights were indeed violated, but had no jurisdiction to overturn a state ruling.
Marty's team continued the search to uncover the kind of evidence that could reopen the case, evidence that, had it been available at trial, would have likely altered the outcome.
In 2001, Marty convinced a private investigator on Long Island named Jay Salpeter to join his team. A former New York City homicide detective, Salpeter read through everything on the case, and all roads led him to Steuerman. But all the Steuerman leads were ignored by police, who had already "solved" the case to their satisfaction. Salpter brought himself up to speed on what was never really a secret: At the time the Tankleffs were attacked, Jerry Steuerman owed Seymour Tankleff hundreds of thousands of dollars. He had been paying his debt through weekly cash payments, brought to the weekly poker games, but at the time of the murders he was experiencing serious financial difficulties that were affecting his ability to pay this debt. Throughout the months preceding the attacks, Steuerman's relationship with Seymour had deteriorated and they had numerous arguments over their respective business ventures. For example, Jerry Steuerman had wanted to enter into a new business with his son, but Seymour insisted that he could only do so with Seymour's participation. As Jerry Steuerman testified, Seymour seemed to think that he not only owned half of the partnership, but half of Steuerman.
Salpeter learned that in 1995, a woman named Karlene Kovacs signed an affidavit that a man named Joseph Creedon, whom she had met at a dinner party, told her that he and a "Steuerman" had been involved in the Tankleff murders. Kovacs says Creedon told her they hid in the bushes by the Tankleff home and that the murders were quite bloody, and that afterward "they were full of blood and had to get rid of their clothes," "how they had to make a quick dash to avoid being caught" that night, and how subsequently "he was afraid about being caught and therefore had to get out of town." Kovacs related this account to Gottlieb, Marty's attorney, who provided it to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and urged it to conduct a thorough investigation. Nothing came of it, despite the fact that, as Salpeter saw, this was the same Joseph Creedon who had signed an affidavit claiming that Todd Steuerman had told him that Todd's father, Jerry Steuerman, wanted to hire Creedon to cut out Marty Tankleff's tongue because Marty continued to implicate Jerry Steuerman in his parents' murders. According to Creedon, after he turned down this assignment to silence Marty, Todd Steuerman shot Creedon in the arm. Todd Steuerman was never prosecuted for shooting Creedon, although he was busted for possessing two kilos of cocaine, receiving a sentence of seven years to life, a relatively light sentence under the Rockefeller drug laws.
Poring over the arrest records of these individuals in a search for more leads, Salpeter learned that in 1989, Creedon was arrested for attempted burglary of one of Jerry Steuerman and Seymour Tankleff's bagel stores. Creedon's accomplice on the burglary attempt was a man named Glenn Harris. Salpeter began corresponding with Harris, who was in jail on another matter. The investigator had the growing sense that Harris wanted to unburden himself of something, and arranged to visit Harris in prison.
Harris told Salpeter that something had been bothering him for years. On September 7, 1988, he was the getaway driver for what he thought at the time was a burglary of a home in Belle Terre on Long Island. He said he drove a man named Joseph Creedon and another named Peter Kent to the home and watched them go around to the back of the house. Harris sat in the car. Between 10 and 30 minutes later, they "came running to the car" and were "nervous" and "winded" and demanded Harris drive off at once. Creedon had gloves in his jacket pocket. Harris dropped Creedon and Kent off at one of their homes in Long Island at approximately 5:00 a.m. After resting in his car, Harris observed Kent burning his jeans and sweatshirt and began to suspect that something more serious than a burglary had occurred. Harris later heard on the radio the initial reports of the attacks at the Tankleff home in Belle Terre.
As Salpeter listened to Harris, he realized the story interlocked perfectly with what Karlene Kovacs says Creedon told her: Kovacs quotes Creedon as saying that he and his accomplice hid in the bushes at the Tankleff home that night, while Harris reports observing Creedon and his accomplice go into the backyard at the Tankleff home. Similarly, Kovacs quotes Creedon as saying that they were full of blood and had to get rid of their clothes after the murders, while Harris reports seeing Creedon's accomplice burning the clothes he had on that night.
Reviewing the trial transcripts, Salpeter learned that police had discovered bloody glove prints on the light switch in Marty's bedroom. According to Harris, Creedon had gloves on him the night of the crime. Why would the killers check Marty's room but spare him? "Imagine the investigation that would take place if the whole family was murdered," says Saltpeter. "But with the kid alive, he's there as a suspect to take the fall."
Salpeter tracked down yet another witness with information supporting Marty's innocence, this one by a fellow inmate of Todd Steuerman's named Bruce Demps. Demps signed an affadavit stating that Todd told him that he knew for a fact that Marty Tankleff did not murder his parents, and that associates of his father did it.
Finally, Salpeter noticed from trial records a piece of physical evidence that was never pursued by police but which takes on extraordinary significance in light of both the Kovacs and Harris statements: a crime scene diagram identifying mud stains inside the Tankleff home by an unlocked door that leads from the backyard into the home. If Marty Tankleff committed these murders from inside his home as the prosecution alleged, then there would be no occasion for mud stains near an unlocked door from the backyard. But if Creedon and his accomplice committed these murders after hiding in the bushes in the backyard and entering the home through that door, that would explain the mud stains. In this scenario, they would have encountered and attempted to kill Seymour Tankleff first in the study, and then moved through the house -- or around the outside of the house -- to the bedroom to kill Arlene Tankleff. This sequence would be consistent with the finding of Seymour Tankleff's blood in the bedroom, suggesting that - contrary to Marty's "confession" -- Seymour Tankleff was attacked before Arlene. As Salpeter says, it makes more sense for the man of the house, the protector, to be killed first.
Again, none of the forensic evidence pointed to Marty. In addition to the gloves, the mud and the rootless hair, a police forensics expert who examined the dried blood on the bodies determined the attacks must have taken place hours before Marty said he awoke that morning.
By late summer of 2003, Salpeter and the lawyers believed they had all they needed: compelling new evidence, none of which was available at the time of the trial of Marty Tankleff, and which could have altered the outcome. The evidence supported the theory of the defense all along, that Jerry Steuerman was inside the Tankleff's home at 3:00 a.m. with a significant financial motive to murder the Tankleffs. Marty's lawyers provided this new evidence to the Suffolk Count Distric Attorney's office, which gave no indication it intended to act on it.
On the morning of October 2, 2003, Marty's attorneys filed a motion in Suffolk County Court, requesting that Marty's conviction be vacated or that an evidentiary hearing be held. That afternoon, Salpeter and the lawyers held a press conference announcing the new evidence. Prominent coverage appeared on local TV and in the major newspapers. With the new evidence now public, the District Attorney's office issued a statement that it would investigate the new evidence and prepare a response as to whether it agreed to vacate, oppose or hold an evidentiary hearing.
In early November, Glen Harris -- the alleged unwitting getaway driver -- was brought from Sing Sing to the Suffolk County jail to be interviewed by the District Attorney's office regarding his statement to Salpeter. It happens that the current Sheriff of Suffolk County is Alfred Tisch, the judge who presided over the trial and sentenced Marty. John Collins, who prosecuted Marty, is still a Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney. The current district attorney is Thomas Spota, who, subsequent to Marty's trial, defended Detective McCready on an assault charge. Harris says he was roughed up by Suffolk County jail guards in an effort to intimidate him, a charge denied by the authorities.
On December 12, the DA's office issued a response opposing the motion for a hearing. In the report, prosecutors say they uncovered evidence that helps Marty along with evidence that hurts him. Prosecutors concede Joey Creedon did tell multiple people that he was involved in the Tankleff murders; but as opposed to Marty's "confession", which the prosecutors find credible based on motives such as not wanting to drive the "crummy Lincoln," they find Creedon not credible because they believe he was only boasting to enhance his reputation. Joey "Guns" Creedon, prosecutors say, used guns not knives or blunt weapons, and only committed violence against drug dealers, and had no history of committing crimes in Belle Terre. Of course, Marty had no history of using weapons of any kind, nor had he committed crimes in Belle Terre or anywhere else.
On April 16, Marty's lawyers submitted a rebuttal to the District Attorney's report, leaving it to Suffolk County Court Judge Stephen Braslow to rule on whether there should be a hearing and, ultimately, whether Marty's convictions should be vacated and he be granted a new trial where all of the evidence can be considered.
In the meantime, Marty continues his routine in prison, waking early and getting to work on his case. He continues to correspond with his supporters and with anyone he thinks can help him. At the bottom of every letter Marty writes, on his home-made stationery, is a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Injustice found anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
On May 12, Marty got his first legal break in 14 years. In a stunning turnaround, Suffolk County prosecutors agreed to the defense's motion for a hearing on the new evidence of Marty's innocence. Prosecutors dropped their opposition to a hearing based on assurances that Glenn Harris would testify without immunity.
On May 21, Suffolk County Court Judge Stephen Braslow ordered that Martys hearing begin on Monday, July 19. It is estimated that the hearing will take at least one week.
|
|
|
