Munchinski appeals federal court ruling
Through his attorney, David Munchinski has appealed a federal court decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the former Fayette County prosecutors, police and detectives involved in his double murder conviction. Last month, U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone called any civil claims Munchinski made against the men “premature” because an appeal of his criminal case is currently before the state Superior Court. He also indicated that the statute of limitations for the case had already passed.
Attorney Noah Geary filed suit against Gerald Solomon, Ralph Warman and John A. Kopas III, all former county prosecutors, and Humphrey Lukachik, George Fayock and Robert Mangiacarne, all law enforcement officials.
Solomon and Warman are now judges.
Geary appealed the decision to the United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
In 1986, Munchinski, 54, of Latrobe was convicted of killing James P. Alford and Raymond Gierke at a Bear Rocks chalet in Bullskin Township on Dec. 2, 1977. Munchinski and co-defendant Leon Scaglione were arrested several years after the murders, after Richard Bowen came forward to tell state police that he was a getaway driver for the two.
Both Scaglione and Bowen have since died in prison.
Bowen’s statements, specifically an alleged tape recording of the first statement he made to county prosecutors, are at the center of the case. After hearing testimony from former prosecutors and troopers, Northumberland County Senior Judge Barry F. Feudale ruled in 2004 that prosecutors had to turn the tape over to Geary or Munchinski’s conviction would be vacated and retrial barred.
Prosecutors have always maintained that the tape does not exist and mounted an appeal of Feudale’s ruling.
Last year, the state Superior Court overruled Feudale’s decision and reinstated Munchinski’s conviction. Before that ruling, however, Geary filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that police and prosecutors violated Munchinski’s civil rights by withholding evidence that could have changed a jury’s verdict at trial.
Geary has since asked the state Supreme Court to evaluate the criminal portion of the case, but the court has yet to decide whether it would take the case.
Cercone said in his August opinion Wednesday that until Munchinski obtains a “final, favorable termination of the proceedings” regarding the murder case, the civil suit will remain untimely.