American Justice - Or Lack Thereof

Read it and weep...

City of Newburgh, NY detectives should have used an interpreter when they interviewed a 13-year-old accused killer, and that mistake will cost prosecutors statements from the boy and the knife police recovered, a judge ruled Thursday.

The decision by Family Court Judge Andrew Bivona covers an array of evidence collected following the slaying of 17-year-old Levi King Flores. The 13-year-old is accused of fatally stabbing Flores during a Jan. 13 brawl on the corner of Carpenter Avenue and First Street.

Detectives interviewed the 13-year-old twice after the killing, eventually arresting him. The boy's mother was present both times in keeping with Family Court law. She doesn't speak English so Detective Rolando Zapata, who is bilingual, read her the Miranda rights in Spanish. Detective John Zagarella then interviewed the boy, who speaks English, in English. The boy had his Miranda rights read to him in English.

Defense attorney Stuart Greenberg argued the language barrier of the mother prevented her from helping her son understand what police were asking and the consequences of answering. Bivona agreed and granted Greenberg's motion to suppress the boy's statements. That presented another problem: It was during those statements that the boy told detectives where he'd tossed a kitchen knife after the stabbing.

Lawyers call that "fruit of the poisonous tree." Because the recovery of the knife stemmed from inadmissible statements, Bivona ruled, prosecutors won't be able to use the knife as evidence. The same goes for DNA police collected.

Prosecutors will still be able to use identifications made by two people who claimed to see the stabbing. Each picked the boy out of a photo array as the killer.

Greenberg hinted he'll argue those alleged witnesses were involved in starting the fight that day. He asked Zagarella whether they were potential defendants. Bivona sustained Assistant Orange County Attorney Allan Drian's objection to the question.

The proceedings are set to continue at 1:30 p.m. Monday. The boy faces three charges of second-degree assault and a count of criminal possession of a weapon along with the manslaughter charge.

The is justice? This is common sense?

We're in deep, deep, deep trouble, my friends...