OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK baie Sy hte Sanor amt currents stro Shcce inesen fis eva ‘sip.osinn sat (15-012 ax esronDTOSreACISCONICS August 6, 2015 Gregory Oakes, Esa Oswego County District Atirney's Office 39 Churchill Read (Oswego, New York 13126 RE: PEOPLE V, GARY THIBODEAU INDICTMENT NO. 94-161 ‘eat tr, Oakes “This lete isin response to your Office's claim of truth seeking by enlisting the efforts of the FBI to investigate our claim that Michael Bohrer was involved inthe abduction of Heidt ‘Allen, and the Atfomey Geseral's Office to investigate our Brady allegations andthe integrity of ‘Gary Thibodeau’s eonviticn, Fist, your actions throughout the pendency of this case fil to demonstrate that your office has been seeking trts and justice. I willemind you that your ofice inexplicably ‘dumped 66 gigabytes of in’omation on the defense on the Friday, January 9, 2015, after 5:00 P.M, prior tothe hearing which was scheduled to commence on Monday, January 12, 2015. My office was served with more than 2,600 pages of documents, 8.8 hours of video, 18 hours of suo and 851 photographs, Incded inthis discovery dump was a statement from an eye ‘witness, Wiliam Piere, who identified James Steen as Allen's abductor, Pierce provided a statement in July 2014 and during that same month identified Steen ‘Aaitionally, Chris Combscontacted Sheriff's investigators in July 2014 and disclosed ‘admissions made by Roger Breckenridge. During a subsequent interview with Wesco in ‘Axgust, 2014 you and Investigator Rojek even confronted Wescott about Combs and his relationship with Breekenriige. Notwithstanding the fact that you were in possesion of this information for several moaths, you inexplicably chose fo withhold the information until the eve ofthe heatingFor reasons you filed to articulate, you frantically and repeatedly atlempted to contact re after the document dump in an effort 6 draw my attention to several individuals with exculpatory information. Thre can be no question that your efforts were disingenuous since you ‘were aware of ths information ong before January 9, 2014 and there was never any exigency in {geting this information tothe defense. Infact, you were armed with this information prior to filing your responsive pape's in which you requested the Court to deny ou motion on every statutory ground, without te necesity ofa hearing. Inthe event the Court granted your request ‘and didnot order a hearing, itis obvious thatthe defense would never have received the information, ‘Equally disturbing isthe fact you possessed a video tape interview of Wescot from ‘August 2014 and her polygraph examination and results. The video footage revealed Wescott failed the polygraph examination, and in particular, she fuled questions relating to her knowledge that Steen, Breckenridge and Bobrer were involved in Allen’s abduction. ‘Notwithstanding the results of your ov investigation, you advanced the argument that Priest ‘was incredible and Wescot was simply fabricating her knowledge surounding Allen's kidnapping. Interestingly, after she failed the polygraph, Wescot was never interviewed again Notably, you were also awere Wescot disclosed admissions by Breckenridge regarding the Aisposal of Allen’s body dering her August 2014 interview. This is simply a smal sampling of the information you dumpel on the defense onthe eve ofthe hearing 1 now tur othe recent developments regarding Michael Bohrer. As you know, Initially requested your office to investigate Bahree’s background and 1 was tld Leould conduct my own investigation at my expense but Oswego County Sheriff's Department would not be doing any further investigation. In fet, in your responsive papers you chalked Bohrer's behavior up to ‘mental liness and taking gafication from being involved inthe cas. It did not tke any type of Taw enforcement training te recognize there was something amiss regarding Bobret, his elim, and hs collection of Heidi Allen documents. chose to investigate his background and discovered he hada convicion for False Imprisonment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, However, we ‘were no immediately ale-o access the charging documents therefore, when the hearing began, 1 ‘was not clear on the underlying facts. ‘When I attempted to question Bohrer during the post-conviction hearing about his past, ‘you objected and I was precluded from asking him about the False Imprisonment conviction. "In ac, throughout my questening of Bohrer you repeatedly objected to my questions arguing that the information I was attempting to elicit was ielevant, Additionally, you objected to my ‘question about his emotion state during his testimony when he began to sob. You ‘cknowlediged he was emotional and maintained that we should not be permitted to ask him why Ihe was emotional and the Court sustained your objection. After our frst recest ofthe post-conviction hearing, our office discovered Bohrer had 2 co-defendant, Join Bohrer, during the evetts tha led to his conviction for Fase Imprisonment, but we till were not able te obtain the charging documents. We immediately located John Bohrer in Erie, PA and he disclosed the underlying fcts ofthe conviction. We learned through John Bohrer that he and Michael followed a random woman home from workin the esrly ‘morning hours and altempted to abduct her as she exited her vehicle inthe parking lot of herpartment complex. We located the victim, Catherine Schmit and that same day the charging ‘documents were faxed to ort office. Your office was notified of this discovery and while you indicated this was disturbing news, you maintained it had nothing todo withthe disappearance ‘of Allen, I also fold you we hada basis to believe there were other victims based upon my conversation with John Bohrer. (See transeript excerpts attached). In particular, I mentioned Dutchess County and Beacon, New York. Following the Couns denial of our request to cll Schmitt asa witness based on your ‘opposition, we mide a seeand visto interview John Bohrer and we learned more about their activities in Dutchess County. When I told John Bobrer we spoke to the woman ftom the ‘partment complex, he immediately launched inte a story about a woman in Bescon, NY. ‘When I probed him further he refused to elaborate and sad he had nothing todo with it. Dring the post-convietion hearing when I mentioned that I believed there were other vitims, you ‘maintained that I was purely speculating. ‘Therefore, Iam baled by your suggestion that the Sheriff's Office “discovered” that [Michael Bolrer was a suspect in the Beacon Assault and that he had another vet in Milwaukee, Our office wes awaze that Bohrer had Disorderly Conduct Convition in Milwaukee and we had putin a request for those records and had yet to receive the documents. ‘You received the Milwaukee Disorderly Conduet documents in connection withthe Asswult case in Beacon, ad those recorés were not accessible tothe defense. I do not applaud you for turing ‘over the Beacon reports which should have been discovered long before the hearing and certainly pot asa result of our invest gation. Finally, your office filed to condct the most basic Investigation into Bohrer’s background which would have uncovered Bohrer’ iomecsasiatme> 'Now, you seek ereit for engaging the FBI and the Office ofthe Attomey Genera into this matter, Your letter outines in detail offenses that clearly have no connection to Bohrer or ‘his investigation and ignore the actual crimes of Bohrer that are similar to the Heidi Allen case. “Although you claim you are seeking the trth, my office was excluded from the FBI investigation into Bohrer's background although we have a wealth of information pertaining to “Michael and John Bohrer, Further, you have repeatedly told me thatthe information Ihave provided about Bohrer's pst is relevant to ths ease. ‘Your letter is yet another futile atempt at appearing as though you are trying to uncover the truth and sek justice, Ifyou are truly seeking justice, your office should consent toa retrial ‘of Gary Thibodeau and let jury decide the truth ‘Very traly yours, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER By: “Lisa A. Pesbles, Bag Federal Public Defender ec: Hon. Daniel King Oswego County Clerk's Office