2018: THE DA’S SPIN
Opinions expressed on this page are those of website author Elaine A. Murphy, Senior Justice Fellow (retired), Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, Brandeis University
ALISON: LET’S GET A SCREEN GRAB HERE FROM THE FINAL EPISODE (?) WHEN DA PAPPAS GIVES THE PRESS CONFERENCE
Interim D.A. John Pappas’s 12.17.18 statement announcing dropped charges against Sean Ellis
On December 17, 2018, in announcing that the Commonwealth would drop charges against Sean Ellis for the 1993 murder and robbery of Boston Police Detective John Mulligan, Suffolk County D.A. John Pappas and Boston Police Commissioner Gross did not exonerate Sean. Instead, they stated their belief that he had a role in the murder, but that a retrial was unlikely to succeed due to the fading memories of some witnesses and the unwillingness of other witnesses to testify, and also because "... the involvement of three corrupt police detectives to varying degrees in the [Mulligan homicide] investigation has further compromised our ability to put the best possible case before a jury."
A critique: Two untruths in the Commonwealth’s statements on the Sean Ellis case
As a longtime advocate for Sean Ellis, I do not believe he was Det. Mulligan's assassin. or that he assisted the shooter in the robbery and murder. My opinions are based on facts I have learned over 23 years of dedicated research into the Ellis case. Below, I take issue with two outright untruths expressed by the Suffolk County D.A. in his Dec. 17, 2018 press conference and press release.
UNTRUTH # 1:
The Suffolk County D.A. said the extent of [Det. Acerra, Robinson, and Brazil’s] criminal conduct was “unknown to prosecutors or defense counsel in 1995."
THE FACTS:
The three detectives’ criminal scheme of falsifying warrants to rob drug dealers of drugs and money was in full swing at the time of Mulligan's murder (see “1996-98: Corrupt Investigators”). Robinson and Mulligan’s activities were being investigated by the department’s Anti-Corruption Unit in 1993 – specifically, allegations that the two of them, working together, robbed drug dealers at gunpoint in two separate incidents, pocketing large sums of money.
Attorney Scapicchio insists the Anti-Corruption investigation had to be known by the BPD’S top brass. Still, Robinson was put on the “best and brightest” task force convened to investigate Mulligan’s murder.
D.A. Pappas went on to say, "Based on the facts and circumstances known to us, we don't believe Det. Mulligan was involved in [Acerra, Robinson, and Brazil’s] schemes."
THE FACTS:
Attorney Scapicchio brought forward new documentary evidence showing that victim John Mulligan was an active member of the men's perjury-and-robbery enterprise:
· 1996 federal grand jury testimony of Boston drug dealer Robert Martin, who described in detail how Mulligan, Acerra, Robinson, and two other Area E-5 detectives robbed his two apartments of large amounts of drugs and money on September 19, 1993 - seventeen days before Mulligan's murder
· A Boston Police Internal Affairs investigation, ongoing at the time of Mulligan's 1993 death, into credible allegations that Mulligan and Walter Robinson robbed two drug dealers together in separate 1991 incidents.
That Pappas ignores this documentary evidence is a stance I find unconscionable by a top Massachusetts law enforcement official.
The co-mingling in crimes of perjury and robbery by victim John Mulligan and three members of his homicide investigation presented a conflict of interest for the men. Note: Acerra, Robinson, and Brazil marshaled virtually all the key evidence used against Ellis.
UNTRUTH #2
Pappas stated, "The trial prosecutors, Phyllis Broker and Jill Furman, were the model of professionalism at every stage of the proceedings. They hid nothing from the jury or the defense.”
THE FACTS:
Both Suffolk Superior Court Justice Carol Ball (2015) and the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court (2016) found prosecutorial misconduct in Sean Ellis's 1995 trial – specifically, that Chief Prosecutor Phyllis Broker withheld from Ellis's trial lawyers multiple, detailed police hotline tips as well as a tip conveyed by Mulligan task force Det. George Foley that Boston officer Ray Armstead, Sr. (now deceased) killed Mulligan because of a “beef.”
This withholding of discovery materials was a secondary reason the courts overturned Ellis's convictions.
In stating that these prosecutors did NOT withhold the tips police received about third-party suspects, Pappas again willfully ignores the findings of two Massachusetts courts.
UNTRUTH #2
Pappas stated, "The trial prosecutors, Phyllis Broker and Jill Furman, were the model of professionalism at every stage of the proceedings. They hid nothing from the jury or the defense.”
THE FACTS: Both Suffolk Superior Court Justice Carol Ball (2015) and the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court (2016) found prosecutorial misconduct in Sean Ellis's 1995 trial – specifically, that Chief Prosecutor Phyllis Broker withheld from Ellis's trial lawyers multiple, detailed police hotline tips as well as a tip conveyed by Mulligan task force Det. George Foley that Boston officer Ray Armstead, Sr. (now deceased) killed Mulligan because of a “beef.”
This withholding of discovery materials was a secondary reason the courts overturned Ellis's convictions.
In stating that these prosecutors did NOT withhold the tips police received about third-party suspects, Pappas again willfully ignores the findings of two Massachusetts courts.
