Amy Crockford / File photo
Ithaca attorney Seth Peacock has filed a request asking that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate Amy Crockford's allegations of abuse against an Ithaca police officer.
Peacock is arguing that District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson has conflicts of interest that prevent her from fairly investigating the case.
Separately, Ithaca's Common Council has chosen not to accept a settlement offer in Crockford's case. The offer would have required the city to pay an undisclosed amount to Crockford in exchange for her dropping a civil suit against the city and Ithaca police officer Stephen Moracco. Crockford alleges that Moracco intentionally injured her while she was in custody in the back of his squad car in May 2009, and that he taunted her because of her sexual orientation.
Wilkinson began investigating Crockford's case in late December and announced last month that she would not bring criminal charges against Moracco. Wilkinson concluded that "the weight of the evidence does not support prosecution and would not result in a conviction."
On Friday, Peacock filed a Request for Judicial Intervention at the Supreme Court in Tompkins County, asking that Judge Robert C. Mulvey disqualify the Tompkins County District Attorney's office from prosecuting Crockford's criminal claim and that Mulvey appoint a special prosecutor.
Wilkinson said Monday she explained to Crockford that the decision not to bring charges was based on evidence that came up while the prosecution was moving forward, and that Crockford had never raised the issue of conflict of interest while the case was being pursued.
Wilkinson said she's supported serious action, including dismissal, against police officers while she has been district attorney.
"This wasn't about me not wanting to prosecute Officer Moracco. I was more than willing to investigate and prosecute him, but there was a body of evidence that we got at the 11th hour, really, that not only was new but undermined the charges we were contemplating," Wilkinson said. "My job is to prosecute, but also my job is not to go forward when there is evidence that prosecution is not in order."
Witnesses came forward at the last minute with information, which Wilkinson said she was able to corroborate and determined was reliable, that would make it hard to take the case to the grand jury, she said.
In his judicial request, Peacock notes that Wilkinson chose to recuse her office from investigating the fatal shooting of Shawn Greenwood in February, in part because of her office's close working relationship with the Ithaca Police Department.
On March 8, Wilkinson wrote in a legal affirmation to Judge Mulvey that "the Tompkins County District Attorney's Office works closely with [the Ithaca Police Department, the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office, the Dryden Police Department, and the New York State Police] in the day-to-day operations of the office, which includes all aspects of prosecution of crime in Tompkins County."
"Due to the conflict of interest set forth above, and the possible appearance of impropriety occasioned by supervision by the Tompkins County District Attorney's office of this investigation," Wilkinson asked that a special prosecutor be appointed. Mulvey agreed and appointed Chemung County District Attorney Weeden Wetmore.
Peacock argued that the same conflict of interest exists in Wilkinson's investigation of Crockford's case.
In his request, Peacock alleges that "during DA Wilkinson's tenure, the Tompkins County District Attorney's Office has not prosecuted anyone connected to local law enforcement."
Peacock cited Wilkinson's decision not to prosecute certain Tompkins County probation officers after an investigation by the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office alleged that some probation officers "abused drugs, shared drugs with probationers, had sexual relations with a probationer and engaged in acts that if true constituted Grand Larceny and Drug Law violations."
Wilkinson also chose not to prosecute Ithaca police officer Chris Miller, who police officials have accused of falsifying traffic stop documents, among other things, Peacock wrote. Miller is separately also suing the police department.
Peacock further alleges that Wilkinson had a personal conflict of interest in investigating Moracco because she was "Facebook friends with Moracco's sister."
Monday, Peacock declined to comment beyond the statements made in his judicial request and in the formal civil lawsuit against Moracco and the Ithaca Police Department. Previously, Peacock had given the city a "Notice of Claim." Friday, he filed the lawsuit.
Crockford said Monday she was the one who discovered that Wilkinson and Moracco's sister were friends on Facebook, and that "I obviously was pretty surprised by that."
"We've filed for this because she herself admitted that there's a conflict of interest in the past and I really strongly believe that there is a conflict of interest in this," Crockford said.
Wilkinson said Monday she doesn't deny she is friends with the sister, but said she also prosecuted a brother of Moracco, who pled guilty and served a one-year jail sentence, something she doesn't believe Crockford knows.
"Why would I prosecute one brother and put him in jail and not the other," she said.
City Attorney Dan Hoffman said he had no comment about Peacock's request for a special criminal prosecutor, but that the city will continue to defend itself against the related civil lawsuit.
"We will have an opportunity to submit our answer and in fact our insurance carrier has provided defense counsel for this case, so we expect that that attorney will file a timely answer and I expect that we will be denying the substantive allegations that indicate fault on the part of the city," Hoffman said.
During the Aug. 4 Common Council meeting, the council went into closed executive session to discuss a "settlement offer" related to a lawsuit. Hoffman confirmed that the settlement offer related to Crockford's case and said the council declined to settle.
In the initial Notice of Claim last year, Peacock requested the city pay $400,000 to settle out of court. Hoffman wouldn't say how much Peacock requested in August, but said it was "something less."
"I think the general statement would be that Common Council did not feel that the settlement was fair to the city or reasonable under the circumstances," he said. "It wouldn't be proper for me to discuss the details of a settlement (offer), but obviously (the new offer was) something less, but something that was not acceptable to the city."
