Opinion ID: 2810501
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Subsequent Testimony

Text: On October 25 and 26, 1999, Michael J. Sweeney, a 37‐year veteran of the New Haven Police Department (“NHPD”)—and one of two police detectives who questioned Ruiz on the night he first implicated Lewis―provided critical information concerning the circumstances in which Ruiz inculpated Lewis at the police station on January 13‐14, 1991. At the hearing on Morant’s motion for a new 6 No. 14‐193‐pr trial before the Honorable Judge Jon C. Blue of the Connecticut Superior Court,1 Sweeney testified as follows. Detective Vincent Raucci arrested Ruiz in connection with another murder on January 13, 1991 and brought him to the New Haven police station. Sweeney, Raucci’s supervising officer, first questioned Ruiz about the Fields‐Turner murders. Ruiz said he did not know anything about them. Then, Sweeney and Raucci jointly interviewed Ruiz, who repeated that he had no information about these murders and was not at the murder scene. Raucci then began telling Ruiz the facts of the Fields‐Turner case. Raucci described where the murders occurred, the apartment building, and a scenario in which the murderers escaped with guns in a gym bag. At that point, Sweeney asked Raucci to step outside and told him that his interrogation approach was inappropriate. When the detectives returned to the interrogation, Raucci told Ruiz 1 In this separate proceeding, Judge Blue denied Morant’s motion for a new trial based on his conclusion that there was extensive independent evidence implicating Morant in the murders. See Morant v. State, No. 398736, 2000 WL 804695 (Conn. Super. Ct. June 5, 2000), affʹd, 68 Conn. App. 137 (2002). This decision regarding Morant is not before us. Relevant here, however, Judge Blue determined at that hearing that Sweeney was a credible witness, and that the testimony recounted below should be credited. 7 No. 14‐193‐pr that “he would let him go,” and that he wanted him to say “that he was driving the car that night.” S.A. 443. Raucci also warned Ruiz “that it was in his best interest to tell what happened [and] give a detailed statement as to his participation and also the other two.” S.A. 443. At that point, Ruiz started changing his statement. Sweeney again took Raucci outside and told him to “knock it off.” S.A. 444. Specifically, Sweeney told Raucci “don’t tell [Ruiz] parts of the case and then five minutes later let him parrot what you’re saying and take it as fact.” S.A. 444. When Judge Blue asked Sweeney to clarify what information Raucci gave Ruiz, Sweeney said, among other things, that Raucci told Ruiz “that he was present with the two individuals, Scott Lewis and Stefon Morant.” S.A. 460. On cross‐examination, Sweeney acknowledged that police officers frequently divulge certain facts in order to extract additional information from a potential suspect, but explained that Raucci was “detailing the whole case” to Ruiz, S.A. 414, rather than telling him “a little to get a lot,” S.A. 337. 8 No. 14‐193‐pr Sweeney was then pulled away on another matter, so Raucci interviewed Ruiz alone. When Sweeney returned, Raucci told him that Ruiz wanted to give a detailed statement about his involvement in the murders. Concerned by the significant change in Ruiz’s story, Sweeney spoke to Ruiz alone and asked him if he was “truthful in stating that these two persons were there and [he] drove the car.” S.A. 446. Ruiz said “no . . . . [h]e was not telling the truth,” he “knew nothing,” and “the information he did give . . . . was all information gathered from Detective Raucci.” Id. Significantly, Ruiz told Sweeney that he changed his story “because Detective Raucci said he was gonna let him go.” Id. Sweeney, again, confronted Raucci. At Raucci’s request, Sweeney gave Raucci one final opportunity to interview Ruiz alone. After that interview, Raucci told Sweeney that Ruiz wanted to say that he “overheard these two people talking about the case, that he wasn’t present.” S.A. 446. At that late point in the evening, Sweeney thought that “might be true,” so he told Raucci to take the statement. 9 No. 14‐193‐pr S.A. 446‐47. Shortly thereafter, Sweeney’s shift ended, and he did not see Ruiz again. In 1998, Sweeney retired from the NHPD and volunteered to serve as a U.N. station commander, supervising police officers in post‐war Bosnia. When he returned to the United States, he read in a local newspaper that Raucci had resigned from the NHPD because of misconduct. Specifically, Raucci was linked to the New Haven drug trade; charged with larceny following an internal NHPD investigation; arrested for a domestic‐violence incident; and, after fleeing Connecticut as a result of the charges against him, was ultimately arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) after a four‐hour standoff in New Mexico. Sweeney later testified during an evidentiary hearing on Lewis’s federal habeas petition that he came forward because he felt Ruiz was “absolutely untruthful,” A. 39, and that the story implicating Lewis and Morant was “fabricated,” S.A. 37.2 At Lewis’s trial in 1990, the prosecution We also note that Sweeney’s testimony corroborates evidence obtained by 2 the FBI during an investigation of Raucci’s conduct. That evidence, which we do not take into consideration in deciding Lewis’s habeas petition, includes a letter Ruiz wrote to the FBI on August 24, 1999 in which he wrote that he “set up” 10 No. 14‐193‐pr failed to disclose to the defense any of the circumstances of Ruiz’s police interrogation to which Sweeney testified.