Deadly Silence

Fear factors

Suspects and friends confront crime witnesses in courthouses, scaring many of them silent

By Maureen Boyle, Enterprise staff writer
   BROCKTON — As he waited to testify in a stabbing case just before Valentine’s Day last year, Ollie Jay Spears glanced at the man beside him on the courthouse bench.
    It was the defendant.
   At the end of the day, Spears took the elevator from the fourth floor of Brockton District Court to the lobby.
   “Guess who’s riding down the elevator with me? The defendant,” he recalled later.
   At 6-foot-1 and 475 pounds, Spears is not easily intimidated. But he can understand why others may be — and why many are reluctant to come forward with information, fearing they will be forced to testify in court.
   And that fear, several said, is keeping witnesses silent and killers on the street.
   “It is wrong as two left shoes, but it is what it is,” said Gwen Nauls, a member of the community activist group, Brockton Peace Crusaders.
   Whether called omerta, “no snitching” or the code of silence, the failure of witnesses to assist police in solving violent crimes is taking a toll on city neighborhoods and some towns in the region.
   For more than a year, The Enterprise has been taking a close look at the so-called “code of silence” by examining court records and crime statistics; interviewing investigators, victims, community leaders, business people and neighbors; going to crime scenes, and watching dozens of trials to see — first hand — what effect it is having and what is being done to stop it.
   There’s the witness in a murder case, David Gomes, who was shot and wounded the day before he was set to testify in a murder case in 2005. Gomes, who claimed he didn’t know who did it, was killed a year later.

Silencing witnesses
   1. In Bristol County, prosecutors filed witness intimidation charges 755 times in 2007 in juvenile, district and superior courts.
   2. In Plymouth County, there were 348 witness intimidation cases filed against adults in district and superior courts; juvenile court figures were not available.
   Source: County officials

   There’s the mistrial in the case of the man accused of opening fire outside a downtown bar. One witness lied and others insisted they couldn’t identify the assailant. That suspect faces murder charges in another case.
   There’s the man accused of firing the gun that killed 29-year-old Shawna Devine outside a now-closed Brockton nightclub in 2002. He went free after a key witness recanted her testimony.
   That happened after friends of the defendant lined the second-floor courthouse hallway, glaring at the witness, the victim’s family and her friends. Things got so tense, police at one point escorted jurors to their cars at the end of one day.
   “I saw one of the guy’s goons, one of his gang members come up to the main witness and whisper something in her ear,” Spears said.

Brockton Police detectives George Almeida and Nazaire Paul work the city’s downtown streets. (Craig Murray/The Enterprise)


Crackdown needed
   To try to break the code of silence, legislators have passed a series of measures in recent years — from barring the distribution of grand jury testimony to creating a witness protection program.
    But those in the courts and on the streets say much more is needed.
   Cases take too long to go to trial, leaving witnesses vulnerable. Witnesses don’t want to relocate. And many fear they’ll be harmed if they testify.
   Bob Davis, co-author of “Snitches Get Stitches: Youth, Gangs and Witness Intimidation in Massachusetts,” said that even though not many witnesses are harmed, the fear of it happening sometimes is enough. “It only takes one murder of a witness in a case,” he said.
   Julie Whitman, who co-authored the study with Davis, agreed.
    “It only takes one to get around the neighborhood for people to know it can happen to them,” she said.
    Some changes are in the works, though.
   One bill now pending would create separate witness areas in all new courthouses — but the measure doesn’t address existing courthouses, such as Brockton Superior Court.
   “It really wasn’t geared for retrofitting the old buildings,” Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said.
    Another bill, sponsored by Norfolk County District Attorney William R. Keating, would change the law so that younger teenagers who intimidate witnesses could be sentenced as adults and face up to 10 years in prison.
   Prosecutors are also charging a growing number of people with witness intimidation and perjury.
    In Bristol County, prosecutors filed witness intimidation charges 755 times in 2007 in juvenile, district and superior courts.
    In Plymouth County, there were 348 cases filed against adults in district and superior courts; juvenile court figures were not available.
   “Nobody wants to go to jail,” Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter said.
   The code of silence is a chronic problem for police.
   “There are cases where victims themselves survive and refuse to cooperate,” Brockton Police Chief William Conlon said. “It is really baffling.”
    It’s a problem for everyone if witnesses don’t talk.
    “If you allow them to get away with one, they’re going to try to get away with another one,” Cruz said.
    “They’re going to do it again,” he said, “and before you know it, they’re going to hurt or kill someone you know or love.”
   Speaking up is the only way justice will be done, several said. “It’s not CSI where we’re getting fingerprints off of carpets,” Detective George Almeida said.
    “You need the public to help.”