The trial will move to Oct. 3 after a series of hearings.
Eric Denson at previous court appearance with lawyers Harry Miles and Bonnie AllenSPRINGFIELD – Defense lawyers for the man accused in the fatal stabbing of Cathedral High School soccer star Conor W. Reynolds want to use a nationally-known expert to support their contention police secured a dozen faulty identifications of a suspect.
The lawyers say investigators turned to a “suggestive format” for witnesses to identify an assailant in the March 2010 homicide in the midst of what the defense describes as a “high-profile, publicity-generating case.”
Police in some cases presented to witnesses a still photograph which was captured from a video by a surveillance camera at a nearby convenience and which did not show the individual’s face, according to the defense.
“In this case massive confusion reigned, panic ensued and no one claimed he or she got a good look at the actual assailant,” attorneys Harry L. Miles and Bonnie G. Allen say in a motion filed in Hampden Superior Court on behalf of Eric B. Denson.
Denson, 21, has denied a charge of murder for the March 13, 2010 stabbing of Reynolds, a Cathedral student and soccer star, during a private but crowded party at a St. James Avenue nightclub.
The defense lawyers are asking a judge to block the identifications made by 12 witnesses in the prosecution’s case. They want to use testimony by Steven Penrod, a forensic psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a well-known expert in eye-witness reliability, to raise questions at trial about the police identification practices.
A hearing is set for July 26 at which Penrod is to be questioned about what his testimony will entail. A judge will then decide if Penrod can testify at pre-trial hearings regarding the defense’s bid to throw out some of the identifications made of Denson as the assailant. Those hearings are expected to take about a week and are slated to begin on Aug. 3. The trial date has now been moved to Oct. 3.
Penrod’s work has a particular emphasis on eyewitness reliability and juries, and he has written over 100 books and journal publications.
Hampden district attorney Mark G. Mastroianni, who is prosecuting the case, contends there is no precedent for use of an expert witness on eyewitness testimony at a hearing on motions to suppress – or throw out – identifications. Expert testimony on that subject, if allowed by a judge, is a matter to be addressed during a trial, he said in a motion filed with the court.
The defense has from the inception of the case said the accuracy of identifications of Denson will be a major issue.
“The evidence drives the conclusion that in this high-profile, publicity-generating case, the police became anxious when they could not identify the assailant,” Miles and Allen wrote in their motion. “As a result, when normal identification alternatives failed, they moved to the more suggestive format to increase the probability of success.”
For almost all of the 12 identification witnesses, the defense argues the young people who were at the party did not pick Denson’s picture from among hundreds of photographs shown them by police. Most also did not pick Denson’s photo from arrays with a smaller number of men’s pictures.
It was only when police showed the witnesses a still photograph captured from the surveillance video that many of the witnesses in question identified Denson as the person walking near the club, the defense contends.
The motion says Denson’s face is not visible in the still shot from the video camera, only his clothing.
“Most of the witnesses described the assailant by clothing; some were able to estimate height,” Miles and Allen wrote.
Denson also faces charges of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon in the case; one involves the attack on Reynolds and the other for the stabbing of another Cathedral student, Peter D’Amario. D’Amario was also wounded during the altercation at the Blue Fusion Bar & Grill, 487 St. James Ave.
D’Amario’s identification is among the 12 which the defense wishes to block from the trial.
Police said the now-closed Blue Fusion had an estimated 200 people attending a private birthday party for another student when the stabbings occurred. The club lacked licenses and permits for entertainment, food and beverages, city officials said.