Attorney continues effort to free Munchinski
A Washington attorney is continuing his legal fight to free a man whose dual murder convictions in Fayette County were overturned four months ago. In papers filed Wednesday with the state Superior Court, Noah Geary contended that prosecutors had no right to appeal a bond order that would have released David J. Munchinski because they did not get the judge’s permission.
Munchinski, 52, of Latrobe was convicted of killing James P. Alford and Raymond Gierke on Dec. 2, 1977 at a Bear Rocks, Bullskin Township chalet. He and Leon Scaglione were arrested in 1982 after a man who later testified he witnessed the slayings came forward to state police.
After a mistrial in 1983, Munchinski, who has maintained he is innocent, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1986 and sentenced to life in prison.
Several appeals followed, including one in 1992 when county prosecutors were ordered to turn over the complete state police file on the case. That appeal was denied and a judge later determined prosecutors did not turn over the complete file.
Northumberland County Senior Judge Barry F. Feudale started hearing the most recent appeal in 2002, when both the Fayette County judges and district attorney’s office removed themselves from the matter. The credibility of Judges Ralph C. Warman and Gerald R. Solomon and former prosecutor John A. Kopas III were called into question during the proceedings.
After numerous hearings, Feudale entered an order last October vacating Munchinski’s convictions and barring the attorney general’s office from retrying him. Feudale cited several pieces of evidence that he said should have been turned over to Munchinski during his trials and appeals.
He also said Solomon, Warman and Kopas engaged in prosecutorial misconduct.
Not long after Feudale’s order, Geary started to fight for Munchinski’s release after 18 years behind bars. Initially, Feudale said he did not believe he had authority to set bond because prosecutors appealed his order vacating Munchinski’s conviction.
Geary took that issue to the state Superior Court, which ruled Feudale had the authority to set bail. Last month, Feudale entered an order that released Munchinski on a recognizance, or signature bond. However, before Geary could get Munchinski out of the State Correctional Institution at Fayette in Luzerne Township, the Superior Court granted the attorney general’s request for a stay.
Prosecutors also filed an appeal of Feudale’s bond order with the state Superior Court, claiming the judge could not release Munchinski because he is charged with crimes that resulted in a life sentence. The Pennsylvania constitution prohibits that, they argued.
The Superior Court overturned the bond order, noting that the appeal of Feudale’s decision to vacate the conviction stayed Munchinski’s release.
But in his latest filing, Geary has argued that the Superior Court never had the legal authority to entertain the appeal of the bond order because Feudale did not give prosecutors permission to appeal.
“They had to ask Judge Feudale for permission to appeal his order, and they failed to do that. Had they done that, and he granted their request, they could have appealed,” Geary said.
Geary contended that the order in interlocutory, meaning it cannot be challenged in a higher court.
“A final order is one which ends litigation, or disposes of the entire case,” Geary wrote in his motion to quash the appeal.
Feudale’s bail order, wrote Geary, “did not dispose of all claims, or all parties, nor ended litigation, nor disposed of the entire case.”
While he waits for the Superior Court to decide this latest claim, Geary said he will ask the state Supreme Court to review the Superior Court’s decision to overturn the bond order.
“I have a number of reasons why I think the Superior Court’s reversal is not legally justified, one of which is that the (bail) order is interlocutory and non-reviewable,” Geary said.