Private detective gets prison term for lying

The man's lies meant investigators couldn't search the missing woman's car.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MERCER, Pa. -- A Beaver County private detective received the maximum sentence Friday for telling lies that have jeopardized prosecution in a Delaware Township woman's disappearance and presumed murder.
Judge Thomas Dobson of Mercer County Common Pleas Court sentenced Clifford Aley, 48, formerly of Fourth Street, Ambridge, to 18 to 48 months in prison for three felony counts of hindering prosecution or apprehension. Aley was given credit for 242 days already served while awaiting trial.
Beaver County Assistant District Attorney Timothy Bonner said after the hearing that additional charges are pending against Aley in Mercer and another county. He would not elaborate.
Aley could have been sentenced to a minimum of probation to three months on the three counts, but Judge Dobson agreed with Bonner's request to sentence Aley in the maximum range because of the circumstances. Bonner said Aley's lies may mean that Baker's killer is never brought to justice.
Conviction
Aley was convicted by a jury Jan. 12 for lying to a Pennsylvania State Police officer on three occasions during a June 18, 2000, interview about the May 25, 2000, disappearance of Sandra Kay Baker, 46.
The lies resulted in the loss to investigators of Baker's car, a crucial piece of evidence. Years later, Aley admitted that Baker's housemate and fianc & eacute;e, William Crea Jr., asked him to arrange for the car to be repossessed by creditors.
By the time Aley told the truth, the car had been destroyed.
Aley also failed to tell police that Crea hired him to do a background check on Baker and that two weeks before Baker's disappearance Aley informed Crea that Baker was still married to a Florida man.
This report, Bonner said, may have provided a motive for her murder. Aley also lied about when he had last spoken with Crea. Baker's body has not been found, though Aley testified during his trial that Crea admitted to him that he strangled her and hid the body. Crea is not charged in the case.
Bonner said at Friday's hearing that although Crea answered questions from police shortly after Baker's disappearance, he has now retained legal counsel and will not talk to police.
Ted Isoldi of the Mercer County Public Defender's Office represented Aley and said his client does not know where Baker's body is located and would tell the court if he could. Aley spoke briefly, stating, "I kept quiet because Crea threatened to have my children killed. ... That's the only reason I did it," he said.
Judge's answer
Judge Dobson responded, however, that if Aley feared for his children, he should have refused to talk to police rather than misleading them. He said he would impose a sentence in the maximum sentencing range because Aley decided to tell the truth only when he wanted to make a deal in another case.
Linda Henry, Baker's longtime friend who has worked to keep the case before the public, spoke at the hearing on behalf of about a dozen of Baker's friends who attended.
She asked that Aley be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law because his actions were "a direct link to slow progress in this case."
Afterward, she said she will not rest until Baker's body is found. "If not Mr. Crea, someone knows where she is buried," she said. "I know that justice will be served eventually."