Man convicted of 1986 homicides files another appeal
The attorney for David J. Munchinski has filed an appeal of a federal district court judge’s order precluding him from taking the deposition of a former state trooper. A federal judge initially allowed attorney Noah Geary to depose Montgomery Goodwin, now in jail for killing his estranged wife’s beau, in connection with a civil suit filed against Fayette County on Munchinski’s behalf.
However, U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone put the brakes on Goodwin’s deposition last month because the suit itself was dismissed last year.
The suit centered on allegations that former Fayette County prosecutors intentionally withheld information from Munchinski during his 1986 double murder trial. Munchinski, 55, 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, when 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. Feudale entered the fray as a visiting judge after county judges removed themselves from the case.
The state Superior Court reversed Feudale’s ruling last year, reinstating Munchinski’s conviction, but Geary already had filed a lawsuit claiming Munchinski’s civil rights were violated during the 1986 trial.
Because the conviction had been reinstated, Cercone dismissed the lawsuit as premature, and with it, Geary’s permission to depose Goodwin, who suffers from a heart condition.
The appeal has yet to be assigned to another federal judge for review.