Tapes open window to police interrogations

The first recorded interrogations in Suffolk police history are reaching the courts, opening a window on how detectives try to get confessions from homicide suspects.

The use of video, following a similar move by Nassau police three years ago, is part of a national trend.

More than 650 police and other agencies -- often under pressure from lawmakers, district attorneys, and constitutional rights groups -- have begun voluntarily recording some interrogations, including at least 21 in New York State, since 2003. Like Suffolk and Nassau police, most limit recording to those accused of homicides or a short list of violent crimes.

In a 2 1/2-hour video recorded in early June, detectives question a gang member who says it was his "destiny" to beat a stranger to death with a pipe outside a Brentwood pool hall the previous night.

The suspect, speaking in Spanish, says he doesn't know his fellow assailants, and can offer no reason for the attack. "Don't insult me," a detective tells him.

In another video, two officers shift from stern to soothing, trying to get an emotional, nicotine-craving suspect they're questioning in the killing of his girlfriend to open up.

"If you don't get in front of this, people are going to judge you the wrong way," an interrogator says.

SEE PHOTOSNotable LI crimes

An issue of rights

The videos, captured by hidden cameras and microphones in two windowless rooms in Yaphank police headquarters, are among 11 homicide interrogations recorded since Suffolk's long-delayed program began in October.

John Collins, a Suffolk assistant district attorney and chief trial prosecutor, said the hope was that the recordings would help quell defense attorneys' frequent allegations of police coercion or denial of rights.

"Prosecutors thought it was a boon to their [cases] because it eliminated a lot of challenges and accusations to the statements prepared by detectives," Collins said.

In court, the full-color digital video, shot from two angles, caters to jurors who increasingly expect to see technology in court, including evidence such as Internet search records and cellphone logs. If presented well, experts said, such evidence can bolster police credibility.

In addition, the presence of recorders makes detectives mindful of what they say and how they say it: What information can only the guilty person know about this crime? What impression will lies used to get a confession make on a jury?

"I think it's understood that people aren't going to walk into a police station and say without any pressure 'You know, I did that homicide,' " said Rebecca Brown of The Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that advocates for recorded interrogations.

Most agencies inform suspects they are being recorded, said Thomas Sullivan, a Chicago attorney who researches taped interrogations. Neither Suffolk nor Nassau police are doing so, though Nassau detectives are required to acknowledge the taping if a suspect asks. New York law does not require more than one party be aware of recording.

The shift to videotaping in Long Island has been slow and fitful. A Newsday study in 1986 showed that Suffolk police obtained an admission of guilt in an unusually high 94 percent of homicide cases. In 1991, three Suffolk detectives involved in a murder case in which three people confessed to the same killing were transferred out of the homicide squad. Charges against the man police said made the initial confession were later dismissed.

In 2005, then-Nassau District Attorney Denis Dillon called for taping after several confessions proved false. Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said in February 2008 that police would begin recording, which District Attorney Thomas Spota endorsed.

Videos can boost cases

"Prosecutors and police have slowly but surely come around to realize that that is a great law enforcement device," Sullivan said. In the vast majority of cases, he said, the videos reveal professional conduct by police and strengthen cases against the guilty.

"The only real victims, if you want to call them that, are people who waive their Miranda rights and confess, or police who use improper tactics, which they can't do anymore because they're being recorded," Sullivan said.

Many defense lawyers predicted confessions will become far less frequent, and said the videotaping marks a major turning point in how murder cases are handled in the county.

"I believe the confession rate will plummet in Suffolk County because they were artificially high," said Jason Bassett, a Central Islip defense lawyer.

Sullivan said hundreds of interviews with police and prosecutors nationally show no trend toward fewer confessions or lower charges in agencies recording interrogations, though no comprehensive survey has been done.

Suffolk police declined to comment.

The Nassau County district attorney's office has seen "no discernible trend" toward fewer admissions since the program began, spokesman John Byrne said.

A window into questioning

In a recorded interrogation from May, two Suffolk detectives interrogate Douglas Rico, 44, a homeless man who sits without shackles in a corner chair, under arrest and accused of killing his girlfriend.

Alternately accusatory and sympathetic, the detectives go back and forth with Rico over the events surrounding the day that a Riverhead motel maid found Henrietta Sholl dead.

Over two hours, they rarely deviate from the message: We know that she died from physical injuries and that you're responsible. Tell the truth.

At one point, a detective places a hand on Rico's shoulder, a comforting gesture. Rico begs for a cigarette and repeatedly declares his love for Sholl, while saying she asked him to press a pillow to her face during rough sex.

"You've got more reasons to lose your temper than a lot of people," one detective says.

Rico later signs a one-page statement saying he's sorry and "must have made her stop breathing." Afterward, he cries while holding a photo of Sholl, and eats a slice of pizza.

Attorney Daniel Russo of Westhampton, who represents Rico on a manslaughter charge, said the video helps establish that Rico didn't intend to kill Sholl. Without the video, Russo said, "it's a good chance they charge him with murder. The video is hard evidence that he said from the get-go this was an accident, that he's consistent."

Representatives of both Long Island DA offices said they supported the programs' eventual expansion to include more violent crimes.

With Victor Ramos

Excerpt from interrogation of Jairon Gonzales-Martinez, 21, who was ultimately charged in the beating death of a man outside a Brentwood pool hall.

DETECTIVE You're in here now, but that doesn't have to be your future. It doesn't have to be the rest of your life.

SUSPECT Whatever God says.

DETECTIVE If you believe in God . . .

SUSPECT Yes, I believe in God.

DETECTIVE And if you believe in God, then why did this happen last night?

SUSPECT I don't know. But I've always believed in God.

DETECTIVE So how are you and God going to fix this problem you have now? Because you said it yourself that what you did was pretty bad.

SUSPECT [Shrugs] That's why . . .

DETECTIVE Are you going to ask for forgiveness? Are you going to explain it to him what happened? Because you don't want to explain it to me.

SUSPECT I can't explain it to him. He already knows, because he knows everything.

DETECTIVE How do you think God will feel about what you did? You think it was a good thing or a bad thing?

SUSPECT A bad thing.

DETECTIVE When it comes to that, everyone agrees, that God knows it was a bad thing.