Judge reverses ruling
A federal judge in Pittsburgh has reversed an earlier order to allow the attorney for David J. Munchinski the opportunity to depose a former state trooper who he claims could bolster a lawsuit his client filed against the county. The lawsuit, filed against judges and former prosecutors and police, has been dismissed – but attorney Noah Geary asked the federal court to allow the deposition of Montgomery Goodwin while that dismissal is on appeal.
U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone allowed the deposition last year, but on Thursday ruled that because the case had been dismissed, Geary no longer could depose Goodwin.
Goodwin’s no-go deposition is the latest in an already twisted and confusing case in which decisions in civil and criminal proceedings are on appeal.
In 1986, 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 Fayette 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.
Prosecutors with the state Attorney General’s office have maintained that the tape does not exist and mounted an appeal of Feudale’s ruling.
One of the key witnesses to testify that the tape does exist was Goodwin, a former trooper now in prison for killing his estranged wife’s paramour.
Relying in part on Goodwin’s testimony, Feudale vacated Munchinski’s conviction, prompting a civil suit in 2005 that alleged intentional prosecutorial misconduct had violated Munchinski’s rights.
In February 2006, Geary asked Cercone to allow him to take Goodwin’s deposition in the civil case because Goodwin was gravely ill. Cercone granted the request, but before the deposition was taken, he dismissed the civil case as prematurely filed when an appellate court reinstated Munchinski’s criminal conviction.
Both Cercone’s decision and the reinstatement of the conviction now are on appeal.
Geary, meanwhile, scheduled Goodwin’s deposition, but civil lawyers representing the county and those sued objected because Cercone had dismissed the case.
That objection prompted Cercone to overturn his earlier ruling, and on Thursday, he entered an order precluding Geary from taking Goodwin’s deposition.
Goodwin, according to court papers, is currently in the skilled care unit of the State Correctional Institution at Laurel Highlands, where he is monitored 24 hours a day.