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YPD to retrace evidence trail
If Youngstown police made a mistake, it was unintentional, the chief says.
YOUNGSTOWN — The city police department will investigate allegations that it may have compromised a key piece of evidence in a murder case.
Because of the allegations, the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office filed a motion to dismiss an indictment against Arian S. O’Connor of Youngstown, a request honored Monday by a judge.
That county prosecutor’s office says Youngstown police mixed up two shell casings.
One casing was found near Javan Rogers of Akron found dead Aug. 26, 2002, off Steel Street in Youngstown.
O’Connor was charged with the murder and kidnapping of Rogers.
The other casing was found in the Salt Springs Road home of Rosalyn Turner, who said O’Connor shot at her Sept. 8, 2002.
Initially, the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office questioned if Youngstown police purposely switched the bullets, accusations that Youngstown Police Chief Jimmy Hughes said were outrageous and inappropriate.
Brad Gessner, head of Summit County prosecutor’s criminal division, said Tuesday he believes Youngstown police made the mistake but didn’t do anything sinister.
Gessner met Tuesday with two police officers and city Prosecutor Jay Macejko to discuss the matter.
“We don’t know what happened, but I don’t believe anyone did anything on purpose,” Gessner said. “Mistakes happen.”
Hughes and Mayor Jay Williams, who weren’t in their current positions in 2002, said they aren’t convinced that a mistake was made by its police department. But if it happened, the error was completely unintentional, they insist.
“It’s not inconceivable that they got mixed up,” Hughes said. “It could have [been caused] by a number of people outside the Youngstown Police Department as well. What evidence is there to say we did this purposely?”
Sometimes accidents happen and the system isn’t “foolproof,” he said. If an error was made, it doesn’t mean the case should be dismissed, he added.
In the motion to dismiss, Summit County assistant prosecutors wrote matching the casing in the Rogers’ case to a 9mm gun found on O’Connor when he was arrested in Hermitage, Pa., was so crucial that the office couldn’t proceed with the case.
“The remaining evidence would not be sufficient to sustain a conviction,” assistant prosecutors wrote.
Hughes said he, along with police detectives and the department’s internal affairs division, will investigate what happened with the evidence.
Williams said he may ask Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, who oversees the state’s Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, to get involved.
Youngstown police sent the shell casings from the Rogers murder and the Turner shooting to BCI for testing.
Jonathan Gardner, a BCI forensic scientist, determined Oct. 30, 2002, that the bullet in the Rogers murder matched test fires from the gun police found when they arrested O’Connor. But neither that bullet nor O’Connor’s gun matched the shell recovered at Turner’s house.
Summit assistant prosecutors say Youngstown Detective John Kelty called Gardner on Nov. 25, 2002, telling him the shell casings from the two cases may have been switched. Kelty called Gardner a day later to say he was mistaken, according to assistant prosecutors.
Kelty doesn’t remember those conversations, Hughes said.
During trial preparation, Gardner advised an assistant prosecutor about the conversations, which led to a review of the evidence, Gessner said.
Gessner said the casings appear to have been switched at the Youngstown Police Department, leading to the motion to dismiss.
“Youngstown police suggest it happened at the lab, but I still believe it happened there,” Gessner said. “But I’m satisfied nothing sinister was done.”
Also, on Aug. 12, 2005, then-city Prosecutor Dionne Almasy had the felonious-assault charge filed against O’Connor for the Turner shooting dismissed.
skolnick@vindy.com