In July 1998 Sandra Wysocki-Capplis, then a Worcester prosecutor,
was foraging for the evidence in the LaGuer case. Her boss, District Attorney John Conte, subsequently gave a nonsensical
explanation for her actions. Several attempts to get Wysocki-Capplis to explain herself were rebuffed. What is she hiding?
Some Chronology....
May 22, 1989
5/22/89 hearing p.130
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5/22/89 hearing p.131
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At the end of a May 22, 1989 hearing on LaGuer's
motion for a new trial Judge Robert V. Mulkern, in the presense of prosecutor James Lemire and attorney Robert Terk, ordered
the cardboard box with evidence sealed with masking tape.
from 5/22/89 hearing
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May 21, 1998 (nine years later)
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Worcester District Attorney John Conte receives a
pro forma notification of LaGuer's first parole hearing, having served 15 years of a life sentence. DA Conte stamps the letter
"Confidential" and summons Harry D. Quick III, Lynn Turcott (head of his appellate division and Wysocki-Capplis's boss),
and Leon Zitowitz.
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Harry D. Quick III
May 29, 1998
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Leon R. Zitowitz
Leon Zitowitz sent for and received LaGuer's
38-page Leominster Police file. In that file were Lt. Francis Ptak's inventories of May of 1989 showing three (3) pairs of underwear in the evidence when it left the police station.
July 8, 1998
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Sandra Wysocki-Capplis
Nine days after LaGuer's
parole hearing ADA Wysocki sent a letter to the Leominster Police inquiring as to the location of the evidence in the case,
expressing a particular interest in the rape kit. During his parole hearing LaGuer had made a public plea for DNA testing.
July 10, 1998
Two days later Wysocki-Capplis is informed
that the evidence was turned over to the district attorney nine years earlier.
December 11, 1998
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Five months after Wysocki-Capplis wrote
to the Leominster Police in search of the rape kit, she opposed LaGuer during a confernce call hearing on a motion he had
raised (98-P-63) having to do with a lack of women on his jury. The date is significant because DA Conte refers to it in his
April 2001 press release (below). LaGuer used this hearing to again plead for DNA testing.
November 18, 1999
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Richard Slowe, a former prosecutor and former FBI
agent with expertise in handling evidence, access the evidence in the Worcester Superior Court building. Significantly, Slowe
attests to his determination that the seal Judge Robert V. Mulkern had placed on the box in 1989 was broken.
from page 3 of Richard Slowe's 11/18/99 affidavit
click to see full affidavit
December 27, 1999
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Justice Robert J. Cordy
After LaGuer's team found and documented the evidence
from the case Justice Robert J. Cordy, then the managing partner of the law firm McDermott, Will & Emery, approached District
Attorney John Conte in an effort to establish a protocol to proceed with DNA testing.
January 14, 2000
page 1
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District Attorney John J. Conte
District Attorney Conte responded to Justice Cordy's
request with a press release that impugns the integrity of the team that discovered and documented the evidence. There is
no mention of why the seal on the box was broken when the evidence was found. It would take almost another year and a half
for Sandra Wysocki-Capplis' foray into the evidence to come to light. When it does, DA Conte issues another press release
containing an obvious and inescapable misstatement of fact.
page 2
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April 25, 2001
4/25/01 press release
District Attorney John J. Conte
In April 2001 LaGuer obtained a copy of his Leominster
Police file through the Freedom of Information Act. Wysocki-Capplis' letter seeking information about the rape kit was in
the file, as were other documents on this Web page. On April 25, 2001 DA Conte addressed the troubling question of why one
of his staff was looking for the evidence - with no notice to LaGuer - nine days after his 1998 parole hearing, and more than
a year before LaGuer's attornies found the seal on the evidence box broken.
DA Conte's explanation, in an April 25, 2001 press release titled
"Setting the Record Straight," that Wysocki-Capplis was looking for the evidence in response to an assertion by LaGuer
that the evidence was missing is demonstrablyUNTRUE. The hearing on matter
"No. 98-P-63", to which Conte refers, took place five months AFTER Wysocki-Capplis wrote to the
Leominster Police.
from 4/25/01 press release
page 12
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page 13
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The question of why Sandra Wysocki-Capplis was looking for the evidence
and what she did with it once she found it has yet to be answered. But indications are that District Attorney Conte's dismissive
response to Justice Cordy's good faith effort to cooperatively establish a protocol for DNA testing may have been a ruse
to cover up his own staff's surreptitious tampering with the evidence.
On February 1, 2002 Judge Timothy Hillman
issued a temporary order directing state agencies, specifically the Leominster Police Department, the Worcester District Attorney's office and the
Massachusetts State Police to preserve all documents connected to Commonwealth v. LaGuer. Seven months later, on September
24, 2002, Judge Hillman extended that order indefinitely. His directive still stands.
July 21, 2002
Eric Goldscheider
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On March 22, 2002 a trace amount of Benjamin LaGuer's
DNA was identified in the evidence for a rape he has denied for more than two decades. In the following months freelance reporter
Eric Goldscheider, who edits this Web site, reviewed LaGuer's Leominster Police file and other
documents from the case. In his efforts to better understand Sandra Wysocki-Capplis' role he telephoned her, sent her this
letter by return receipt mail, and he went to her house to personally ask for an interview. Each time she rebuffed his questions.
