September 20, 2008 DiGuglielmo leaves prison; D.A. to appeal Rebecca Baker The Journal News WHITE PLAINS - Convicted killer Richard DiGuglielmo walked out of prison a free man yesterday, after serving 11 years for his role in a fatal shooting outside his family's Dobbs Ferry delicatessen. DiGuglielmo, now 43, left the Eastern Correctional Facility in Ulster County and returned to Dobbs Ferry, where he stood with his family on the steps of their Virginia Avenue home and thanked all of his supporters. "I woke up and they told me I was going home and that was it," he said, hugging his mother and sister. "I actually think I'm still dreaming." DiGuglielmo, a former New York City police officer, was released a day after Westchester County Judge Rory Bellantoni threw out his conviction. The judge said prosecutors withheld evidence from DiGuglielmo's defense team about how they dealt with eyewitnesses to the Oct. 3, 1996, shooting of Charles Campbell -evidence the judge said could have led to an acquittal. Richard DiGuglielmo (R) with his mother and father. Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore said she will appeal the judge's ruling, which she called "wrong on the facts and wrong on the law." "We have already begun the appellate process and look forward to arguing this case in the higher court," she said. The victim's cousin, Michael Lynch, said Bellantoni's ruling brought all the pain back and was a slap at Campbell's memory. He added that Campbell's supporters didn't appreciate the judge attacking police and prosecutors while only relying on the accusations of two witnesses - one of whom did not testify at trial - while ignoring the testimony from a dozen others who said the shooting was unjustified. Lynch said he was organizing a rally in front of the Westchester County Courthouse at 8 a.m. Friday, when he and other family members will speak out against the ruling. Lynch is also planning a candlelight vigil in front of the deli at 4 p.m. Oct. 3 -the anniversary of his cousin's slaying. "We will be out there until the wee hours of the morning," he said. There were efforts at reconciliation between the two families, including in 2001 after a federal jury awarded $4.5 million to Campbell's family in its wrongful death lawsuit. Following the verdict, Rosemarie DiGuglielmo approached William Campbell, the victim's brother, took his hand and said, "I know you're a prayerful man, and I just want to offer you peace." But in recent years, Campbell's family grew increasingly disturbed by the lengths to which DiGuglielmo's supporters went to disparage the victim and win the ex-cop's release. The shooting capped a violent confrontation between Campbell, a White Plains sanitation worker, and three men, including DiGuglielmo and his father, over a parking space. At one point in the fight, Campbell was hit in the head with his own cell phone so hard the phone shattered. He got an aluminum baseball bat out of his car and hit the elder DiGuglielmo in the leg. The younger DiGuglielmo ran into the deli, got a .32-caliber handgun, and shot the 37-year-old Campbell, killing him. One of the witnesses, Michael Dillon, told police and a TV news reporter the night of the shooting that he thought it was justified. He changed his account four days later, telling police that Campbell was not swinging the bat when he was shot. He stuck with the latter account when he testified at trial. Jurors rejected DiGuglielmo's claim that he fired the gun to save his father's life and convicted him of second-degree murder in 1997, not because he intended to kill Campbell but for showing a depraved indifference to human life. Then, two years ago, Dillon told investigators working for DiGuglielmo's family that he had been taken back to police headquarters several times and coerced into changing his account. Bellantoni held an eight-day hearing in November and heard testimony from detectives, prosecutors, Dillon and James White, a witness who did not testify at trial but supported Dillon's story of police pressure. The judge's ruling was highly critical of Dobbs Ferry detectives, particularly Lt. James Guarnieri, and Assistant District Attorney Patricia Murphy, the lead prosecutor who tried DiGuglielmo. Bellantoni suggested Murphy, one of the top homicide prosecutors in the office, knew much more than she acknowledged about how Dillon was coerced and had shown a "win-at-all-cost" attitude that subverted justice in the case. "The prosecution embarked on a mission to pressure certain eyewitnesses into changing or conforming their testimony to fit the charge of murder that had been filed, rather than filing charges that fit the facts as revealed in the statements of eyewitnesses," he wrote. Former Westchester County Judge Jeanine Pirro was the district attorney at the time. Neither Murphy nor Guarnieri returned calls yesterday. Former Dobbs Ferry Police Chief George Longworth declined to comment. But Rosemarie DiGuglielmo, who never stopped fighting to get her son out of prison, shared her happiness and relief with reporters. "This is so wonderful," she said. "I can't describe how I feel. What would be a description for it, I don't know. I've never had anything like this."

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