Alton Maddox in Poughkeepsie

Reprints of excerpts from OTP’s 44-page Evidence Concealed, Now Revealed award-winning feature published in 1998 About the Tawana Brawley case, resumes with “A DETECTIVE’S STORY” by Graham B. Weatherspoon Pt III

So now you have the written statements of the victim, you have a rape kit,
what happened after that?
There were a number of problems here. Because Tawana was saying that a member of law enforcement raped her, she became a victim a second time. They interviewed her on the 30th of November. On the first, of December, the detective submits his report on the interview. No steps are taken by the District Attorney’s office or the sheriff’s office to secure all of the possible evidence. On the second of December, three days following the initial interview, a part-time police officer from Fishkill named Harry Crist, is found dead in his apartment. This is interesting because of the testimony of mailman Tim Losee.
Mailman Losee recalled seeing a car, which looked like an old police cruiser, roaming around the area of the Pavillion Complex, with four white males in it, one of which looked very close to Scott Patterson.

How did he know it looked like Patterson?
What happened was that he noticed the car cruising the area very slowly, as though these guys were looking for somebody. He looked at the vehicle, the number of men in it, and the driver. He later saw a picture of Scott Patterson in the newspaper and realized he looked like the driver of the car.

He noticed them because of the way they were driving?
Right. They weren’t just driving. They were creeping through the area. He said it was either the 28th or the 29th that he saw this car. Now Tawana was found on the 28th. The description of the car that Tim Losee the mailman gave, matched that of the car that was owned by Harry Crist. Now, Pagones testified that he and the guys were in Danbury, Connecticut that day.

Four guys in the same car?
In the same car. Losee said he had given the description of Harry Crist’s car to DA Grady and he also made statement to the New York State Police. Grady realized after hearing this, that there had to be a connection between Pagones, Crist and the others relative to the placement of Tawana’s body. You see, Tim Losee did not come forward until after the Grand Jury report had been written.

Why not?
Mr. Losee wanted to see how this investigation would go. And when the official report came out, he realized it was not on the up and up. This is a white male who had nothing to gain by going along with the program on behalf of Tawana, but he realized that something was awry relative to the investigation, he had information and was willing to give it but it was not called for.
So Harry Crist wound up dead three days after a car just like his was seen near where Tawana was found. All of the authorities said he committed suicide. The State Police said he committed suicide, the District Attorney said he committed suicide, and of course the media reported that he committed suicide. Tawana happened to see Harry Crist’s photo in a newspaper or magazine, and stated “That was the cop that stopped me.”

Who did she say that to?
She said that to her parents.

Who did the parents tell that to?
All the proper authorities, the DA, the FBI, everybody.

Harry Crist is found dead. If you’re an investigator, and the victim says, “That’s the guy,” wouldn’t you investigate that guy?
Definitely. You see one of the funny things is that Steven Pagones said that he was with Harry Crist the night before he died. Independent of the investigation, this is a statement he made. The night before Crist died, Scott Patterson also said he was with Harry Crist, in Harry’s apartment, lifting weights. He said he had left his wedding band in Harry’s apartment. He had taken it off so it wouldn’t dent on the iron. He had forgotten about it, gone home, and went back to get it the next morning. He had a key to Harry’s apartment.
Harry’s aunt lives downstairs. She said she never heard a shot. But Harry is dead in his apartment from what they said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Meanwhile, when it comes over the radio that a police officer has been found dead, apparent suicide, Steven Pagones says, that he was in the Fishkill State Police barracks, working on a forgery case and he was talking to the trooper involved in the case. When asked who the trooper was he doesn’t recall. When asked who the judge was who had the case, he doesn’t remember. When asked who the defendant was in the case, he doesn’t remember. But he said he was there when the call came in and he inquired, “Who’s the cop?” They said, “A guy named Crist.” He said, “That’s my friend.” The fact is, Harry and Steve were not close friends, they were more like acquaintances. The irony is that just a few days prior to Crist’s death, he had pulled a gun on Steven Pagones and threatened to shoot him.

Where does that come from?
From Steven’s own mouth. They had gone to Danbury, Connecticut to quote, “Do some shopping for their girlfriends for Christmas.”

Now Tawana was found on the 28th. When did they say they were in Danbury?
The 28th.

The three of them?
Yes. Crist, Pagones, Patterson and Branson.

Four grown men?
Four grown men.

They went shopping together at the mall?
At the mall, buying gifts for their girlfriends.

Did they have receipts?
Steven Pagones presented what he said was a receipt for a sweater that Harry Crist bought. Firstly, what’s he doing with Harry Crist’s receipt? Second, these receipts were not computer generated. They weren’t printout receipts. All of his stuff was handwritten. Do you think, at a major mall, you would be getting handwritten receipts, even in 1987? And this receipt is supposed to have come from a store owned by a close friend of his fathers’. Steve didn’t produce a receipt for anything he bought.

Did the other guys have receipts?
None of the other guys would come in. All of his alibi witnesses refused to come in. Steven also testified that Harry asked him, about eleven thirty, “Hey, did you hear about the girl they found in a bag of shit?” Now Tawana was not found until after two o’clock. But Steven says that Harry is talking about this around eleven thirty.
Steven said he said, “What girl in a bag of shit?” And Harry said, “Well, never mind, forget about it.”

What about Harry Crist and this suicide? I know there were no powder stains on his hands, but what other things came out in the trial about this?
Well what they called the suicide note had no fingerprints of Harry Crist on it.

Did it have any fingerprints on it?
Scott Patterson’s.

Oh really?
This is what we got from the investigation. Scott Patterson is reported to have found the suicide note, which was really a letter to Harry’s girlfriend. Not a suicide note, just a letter.

Just a letter. There was nothing that characterized it as a suicide note?
Right. If this were a suicide note, why would not Dennis Vacco release that note so that the jury could see this note relative to this purported suicide? What happened here is that Harry Crist’s body was removed from the crime scene, transported for autopsy. The medical examiner of Dutchess County is not a pathologist and cannot perform an autopsy. But he has the position. So they had to hire a pathologist and they told him that Crist committed suicide. When I’ve had dead body, a homicide or whatever, and I go to the autopsy, I have to give certain information to the pathologist performing the autopsy. The doctor will tell you, “Yeah the guys dead, he’s been shot.” But there’s more to it than that. If you’re telling me this is a suicide, there has to be evidence supporting that. They brought no crime scene photos; they brought no weapon, just a body. They didn’t even bring what they call the suicide note. They just said it’s a suicide, here’s the body.
Now in a suicide, I would imagine that the weapon would be found still clutched firmly in the hand, or certainly in the area.
The weapon would not be clutched in the hand. You see, Harry Crist was shot through the lower jaw. He had a lateral abrasion running from the left to the right side of the jaw. It was fresh abrasion. Bright red. He had a second one on his right breast about three inches above his nipple. Those were fresh bruises. They were not black and blue. They were fresh, bright red. The capillaries were standing out. In that lateral abrasion under his jaw, right in the middle of it, is a gunshot wound. That’s where the bullet enters. When I examined those two autopsy photos, and even the photo of his brain after it had been removed, I said to Alton Maddox, “This is not a suicide.” It’s death by gunshot, but it’s not a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He died during the course of a struggle. The barrel of the gun dragging across his jaw caused the mark on the jaw. You’re struggling with someone with a gun; it drags across your jaw and then, boom.
Now, I would be looking for the angle of trajectory of the bullet through the brain. When you take a weapon and turn it on yourself, you can only rotate your wrist but so far. If you’re left handed or right handed. This bullet went right through the mid brain. The likelihood of you being able to point a gun directly up is low. It’s going to go at an angle. He was shot with a semi-jacketed soft-nose round, which we believe is a .357. Harry Crist did not own a .357.
None of the men that I’ve worked with who have committed suicide went out and bought a gun to commit suicide with. They used the one they had. But we do know for a fact that Scott Patterson owned a .357 magnum, because he was a State Trooper. That was the standard weapon. Semi-jacketed, soft lead ammunition.

Where’s the bullet?
The bullet was extracted from the rear of the cranium. It fractured the rear of the skull. They said they didn’t have the weapon. Then sometime later they said they found the weapon. How could you not find the weapon? Does a man commit suicide and take the weapon with him?

Did anybody investigate this “suicide”?
No.

Who are these guys. You talk about Pagones, Patterson, and Crist. Who are they in the police department, the county?
Scott Patterson was a state trooper whose father was a colonel in the New York State Police. He was one of the highest-ranking officials in the New York State Police, and he oversaw that area of the state as well. As a matter of fact, today, Scott Patterson sits at the right hand of God. He is a bodyguard for George Pataki.

Scott Patterson is a bodyguard of Governor Pataki?
Yes. And he said that under no circumstances would he appear in court to testify in this trial. Now this is a servant of the people of New York saying you can take that subpoena and shove it. I will not show up in court.

What about Pagones?
Pagones at the time was a young Assistant District Attorney. He had been working for the D.A.’s office for about a year-and-a-half, covering various courts around the county.

What about his family?
Well to do, silver spoon. His father was a judge. His uncle was a housing court judge.

So these were certainly well connected young men. What about Harry Crist?
Harry Crist was a regular Joe. He didn’t have the panache that Pagones or Patterson had. He was a part-time police officer in Fishkill. He was just hanging out with the big guys. Steven had told his supervisors that Harry had pulled a gun on him November 28 during their Danbury trip.

Are you serious? When did he say this?
He said this in the current trial. Now this was the same day Tawana was found but there was no investigation. He told DA Grady about it but there was never an arrest relative to the menacing with a weapon; nothing at all became of it.