wetibbe
09-10-2007, 06:51 PM
Officr George Bubaris, LEO for Mount Kisco, Westchester County, NY, Police. It's long and involvd but he is another law enforcement officer who may be railroaded like Ramos, Compean and Gilmer Hernandez.
Another victim of a failed government that will not do it's job.
This is a printer friendly version of an article from the The Journal News.
To print this article open the file menu and choose Print.
http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070908/NEWS02/709080369
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mount Kisco cop just a fall guy, lawyer says
By JONATHAN BANDLER AND JORGE FITZ-GIBBON
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: September 8, 2007)
WHITE PLAINS - The lawyer for a Mount Kisco police officer charged in the death of a homeless immigrant says his client is just a convenient fall guy in the highly charged case.
Edward Hayes, the attorney representing Officer George Bubaris, also said a village police lieutenant - not Bubaris - should have been responsible for determining if homicide victim Rene Javier Perez required medical care.
"If Perez gave any indication he needed to be taken to a hospital, then that's the lieutenant's job," Hayes said yesterday.
Bubaris, 30, posted $100,000 bail yesterday, one day after his arraignment on a grand jury indictment charging him with second-degree manslaughter, official misconduct and unlawful imprisonment in Perez's death.
The 42-year-old Guatemalan immigrant was found dying on Byram Lake Road in Bedford on April 28, less than one hour after making a drunken 911 call to police from a Mount Kisco laundry.
Bubaris and two other Mount Kisco officers - Lt. Edward Dunnigan and Officer Edward Dwyer - responded to that call.
Kevin Gilleece, Dunnigan's attorney, did not return numerous calls seeking comment.
Dwyer's attorney, John Grant, said yesterday that his client testified before the grand jury that was convened two weeks ago and voted an indictment on Tuesday.
"He was subpoenaed as a witness and did so truthfully before the grand jury," Grant said.
"He's had no involvement (in Perez's death). His employer should be satisfied at this point that he had no involvement."
Grant would not discuss Dwyer's testimony, but said the officer had received immunity.
Mount Kisco Mayor Michael Cindrich said that Dwyer and Dunnigan would remain on modified duty pending an internal investigation that would begin within 10 days.
He said Bubaris had been suspended without pay. The officer is due to return to court Nov. 29.
Bubaris was allowed to remain free to make bail arrangements after his arraignment Thursday. He used his South Salem home as collateral and spent just a few minutes yesterday before state Supreme Court Justice Lester Adler.
Bubaris is accused of recklessly causing Perez's death after he and the other Mount Kisco officers responded to Perez's drunken call at 10:47 p.m. April 28.
Bubaris radioed headquarters at 10:55 p.m. that it was not a police matter. Dunnigan and Dwyer were sent on another call five minutes later, police records show.
Bubaris did not have another call for more than 40 minutes. At 11:35 p.m., Perez was found unconscious four miles away on a remote stretch of Byram Lake Road.
He died early the next morning at Westchester Medical Center. The medical examiner determined Perez died from internal bleeding and ruled it a homicide.
Hayes suggested Mount Kisco would welcome a criminal conviction because it would help the village in the federal civil rights suit brought by Perez's brother.
"If I'm an employee of a locality and I commit a crime and (the plaintiff) can't show that you should have supervised me better, you have a lot less liability," Hayes said yesterday.
"So it's very much in Mount Kisco's interest and it's very much in Dwyer's and Dunnigan's interest to put the weight on somebody else to ease their financial liability. If there was something wrong with Perez, then they should have said something when they first saw him."
But Hayes acknowledged that he did not know what the two officers testified and conceded that it could have simply been that they left to answer another call and didn't know what happened to Perez.
Mount Kisco Village Attorney Whitney Singleton said he "was taken back" by Hayes' comments, and said the village would probe the incident fairly and thoroughly.
"It will be very broad and it will not be one person or three people," Singleton said. "It'll look at the entire conduct of the Mount Kisco Police Department and whether it adhered to proper policy, general order and the like in conducting itself."
"It is not a witch hunt," he said. "It is not done with a predetermined outcome or anything else."
Singleton said the District Attorney's Office had asked the village to delay its internal investigation while the state probe was under way. The village has now been told it can begin, he said.
"I'm concerned with the truth," said Cindrich, the mayor. "The village board is concerned with the truth. We will conduct our own internal investigation, and if there are any violations of the rules and regulations, we will deal with that. As far as the criminal case, we have no control over that."
Bubaris was a New York City police officer before joining Mount Kisco in August 2006. He spoke briefly to WCBS-TV news yesterday, although his lawyer had told him not to discuss details.
In that interview, Bubaris said he thought that "what happened to Perez is appalling."
He also said that he was not biased against immigrants and that, despite the financial difficulties caused by the case, "it's hard to think about money. I'm thinking about my freedom."
Authorities have refused to say exactly what they think Bubaris did. But the lesser charges in the indictment suggest he is suspected of at least driving Perez to the spot where he was found.
Hayes has refused to say whether Perez was in Bubaris' car. But he said his client did not mistreat Perez and finds it unlikely prosecutors can convict him of the manslaughter charge.
"They probably overindicted him by a lot," Hayes said. "They charged him with everything but the kitchen sink, and now they're stuck with it."
He said Perez was a troublesome vagrant whose years of alcoholism likely killed him and his client had no way of knowing what internal injuries Perez had sustained before the police had contact with him.
Although New York has no law permitting cameras in the courtroom, Hayes said he was thinking about asking for the trial to be televised. "The only way to defend yourself in these cases in terms of your reputation is to have it on television," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Tibbe
Another victim of a failed government that will not do it's job.
This is a printer friendly version of an article from the The Journal News.
To print this article open the file menu and choose Print.
http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070908/NEWS02/709080369
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mount Kisco cop just a fall guy, lawyer says
By JONATHAN BANDLER AND JORGE FITZ-GIBBON
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: September 8, 2007)
WHITE PLAINS - The lawyer for a Mount Kisco police officer charged in the death of a homeless immigrant says his client is just a convenient fall guy in the highly charged case.
Edward Hayes, the attorney representing Officer George Bubaris, also said a village police lieutenant - not Bubaris - should have been responsible for determining if homicide victim Rene Javier Perez required medical care.
"If Perez gave any indication he needed to be taken to a hospital, then that's the lieutenant's job," Hayes said yesterday.
Bubaris, 30, posted $100,000 bail yesterday, one day after his arraignment on a grand jury indictment charging him with second-degree manslaughter, official misconduct and unlawful imprisonment in Perez's death.
The 42-year-old Guatemalan immigrant was found dying on Byram Lake Road in Bedford on April 28, less than one hour after making a drunken 911 call to police from a Mount Kisco laundry.
Bubaris and two other Mount Kisco officers - Lt. Edward Dunnigan and Officer Edward Dwyer - responded to that call.
Kevin Gilleece, Dunnigan's attorney, did not return numerous calls seeking comment.
Dwyer's attorney, John Grant, said yesterday that his client testified before the grand jury that was convened two weeks ago and voted an indictment on Tuesday.
"He was subpoenaed as a witness and did so truthfully before the grand jury," Grant said.
"He's had no involvement (in Perez's death). His employer should be satisfied at this point that he had no involvement."
Grant would not discuss Dwyer's testimony, but said the officer had received immunity.
Mount Kisco Mayor Michael Cindrich said that Dwyer and Dunnigan would remain on modified duty pending an internal investigation that would begin within 10 days.
He said Bubaris had been suspended without pay. The officer is due to return to court Nov. 29.
Bubaris was allowed to remain free to make bail arrangements after his arraignment Thursday. He used his South Salem home as collateral and spent just a few minutes yesterday before state Supreme Court Justice Lester Adler.
Bubaris is accused of recklessly causing Perez's death after he and the other Mount Kisco officers responded to Perez's drunken call at 10:47 p.m. April 28.
Bubaris radioed headquarters at 10:55 p.m. that it was not a police matter. Dunnigan and Dwyer were sent on another call five minutes later, police records show.
Bubaris did not have another call for more than 40 minutes. At 11:35 p.m., Perez was found unconscious four miles away on a remote stretch of Byram Lake Road.
He died early the next morning at Westchester Medical Center. The medical examiner determined Perez died from internal bleeding and ruled it a homicide.
Hayes suggested Mount Kisco would welcome a criminal conviction because it would help the village in the federal civil rights suit brought by Perez's brother.
"If I'm an employee of a locality and I commit a crime and (the plaintiff) can't show that you should have supervised me better, you have a lot less liability," Hayes said yesterday.
"So it's very much in Mount Kisco's interest and it's very much in Dwyer's and Dunnigan's interest to put the weight on somebody else to ease their financial liability. If there was something wrong with Perez, then they should have said something when they first saw him."
But Hayes acknowledged that he did not know what the two officers testified and conceded that it could have simply been that they left to answer another call and didn't know what happened to Perez.
Mount Kisco Village Attorney Whitney Singleton said he "was taken back" by Hayes' comments, and said the village would probe the incident fairly and thoroughly.
"It will be very broad and it will not be one person or three people," Singleton said. "It'll look at the entire conduct of the Mount Kisco Police Department and whether it adhered to proper policy, general order and the like in conducting itself."
"It is not a witch hunt," he said. "It is not done with a predetermined outcome or anything else."
Singleton said the District Attorney's Office had asked the village to delay its internal investigation while the state probe was under way. The village has now been told it can begin, he said.
"I'm concerned with the truth," said Cindrich, the mayor. "The village board is concerned with the truth. We will conduct our own internal investigation, and if there are any violations of the rules and regulations, we will deal with that. As far as the criminal case, we have no control over that."
Bubaris was a New York City police officer before joining Mount Kisco in August 2006. He spoke briefly to WCBS-TV news yesterday, although his lawyer had told him not to discuss details.
In that interview, Bubaris said he thought that "what happened to Perez is appalling."
He also said that he was not biased against immigrants and that, despite the financial difficulties caused by the case, "it's hard to think about money. I'm thinking about my freedom."
Authorities have refused to say exactly what they think Bubaris did. But the lesser charges in the indictment suggest he is suspected of at least driving Perez to the spot where he was found.
Hayes has refused to say whether Perez was in Bubaris' car. But he said his client did not mistreat Perez and finds it unlikely prosecutors can convict him of the manslaughter charge.
"They probably overindicted him by a lot," Hayes said. "They charged him with everything but the kitchen sink, and now they're stuck with it."
He said Perez was a troublesome vagrant whose years of alcoholism likely killed him and his client had no way of knowing what internal injuries Perez had sustained before the police had contact with him.
Although New York has no law permitting cameras in the courtroom, Hayes said he was thinking about asking for the trial to be televised. "The only way to defend yourself in these cases in terms of your reputation is to have it on television," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Tibbe