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Post-Standard,
The (Syracuse, NY)
November 22, 2002
Section: News
Edition: Final
Page: A1
HIRED EXPERT SAYS POSSIBLE BULLET HOLE SUGGESTS KINGE WAS SHOT WHILE ON HIS BACK.
John O'Brien Staff writer
Photographs and a videotape
taken 12 years ago by the landlord of suspected murderer Michael
Kinge contradict state troopers and suggest he was shot while on
his back in his Dryden bedroom, according to a firearms expert hired by
Kinge's mother.
The evidence surfaced Thursday in court papers served on the state
by Shirley Kinge's lawyer as part of her lawsuit against four
former and one current state trooper involved in the Feb. 7, 1990, fatal
shooting of her son. The
photos and videotape taken by Mary Tilley in 1990 reveal for the first
time that two pieces of flooring, not one, were removed from the spot
where Michael Kinge's body lay after state troopers shot him in his
bedroom, according to Shirley Kinge's lawyer.
Gregory Danas, the firearms expert hired by Shirley Kinge's
lawyer, says the videotape reveals, also for the first time, a floor joist
with gunshot damage that he says raises the possibility a 10th gunshot was
fired in Kinge's bedroom. State police have said only nine shots
were fired.
Kinge's lawyer, Russell Maines, of Rochester, said he'll
seek a court order to let Danas into the apartment to inspect the joist
and try to determine who fired that shot.
Troopers killed Michael Kinge, 35, after their investigation
into the December 1989 slayings of four members of the Harris family led
investigators to his door. His mother was convicted of helping him cover
up the slayings by burning the bodies. But the charges were dropped after
two state troopers admitted they'd planted her fingerprints on a gasoline
can to falsely place her at the crime scene.
One of those troopers, David Harding, admitted he burned pieces of
flooring that had been cut from Kinge's room. Harding told a
special prosecutor he burned the boards to cover up what he believed was
an improper shooting by his colleagues. One floorboard had an indentation
that matched a bullet protruding from Kinge's back.
State police have said troopers shot Kinge from across his
bed when he turned toward them as he was holding a shotgun under his chin
and the weapon fired, grazing the side of his face. A grand jury and a
special prosecutor concluded the shooting was justified.
Trooper defends shooting
Douglas Vredenburgh, one of the two troopers whose shots struck
Kinge, said Thursday he knew nothing about the damaged floor joist.
He maintained troopers fired no more than nine shots and that they were
acting in self-defense.
"Was it an execution? Definitely not," said Vredenburgh, who
retired in 1991. He would not say whether anyone shot Kinge while
he was flat on his back. "I'll tell you one thing. Before he hit the floor
he was dead." He said he based that on where the first round hit
Kinge and what that round consisted of, but would not elaborate.
State police have explained the shot that protruded from
Kinge's back and matched a floor indentation by saying the troopers
kept firing as he fell.
"You have to remember, everything took place within two or three
seconds, all nine shots," Vredenburgh said. "It's hard to stop after one
or two shots. Your mind's programmed and you set into motion this conduct.
It's what you're trained to do."
Vredenburgh said he still doesn't understand why Harding burned the
floorboards. Vredenburgh didn't understand until years later what Harding
meant when he told him in passing that he'd done it, Vredenburgh said.
"If David Harding burned something, he burned it on his own,"
Vredenburgh said. "For what reason is beyond me."
Neither lawyers for the state nor Nelson Roth, the former special
prosecutor who investigated the Kinge shooting as part of a state
police evidence-tampering scandal, would comment on the new allegations.
Maines contends state troopers concealed from Roth evidence of a 10th
shot, including the hole in the floor and the damage to the floor joist.
Angry landlord
Tilley took the photos and videotape within two weeks after the
shooting to record the damage done to her apartment, according to her
affidavit.
Tilley mailed the photos and videotape anonymously to Maines in
June, after she read a newspaper story about Shirley Kinge's
lawsuit. He tracked her down and she gave an affidavit saying she didn't
realize the significance of the photos and videotape until she saw the
newspaper story.
Tilley said she was surprised to read a description of a missing
floorboard beneath Kinge's back and no mention of the hole near his
head, she wrote in the affidavit.
"I was deeply incensed when I read the article ...," Tilley's
affidavit said. She refused to comment Thursday.
Until she mailed the materials to Maines, Tilley had had no contact
with him, and hadn't had contact with Shirley Kinge since before
her arrest on the day of the shooting, the affidavit said.
Not recorded
Until now, no record of gunshot damage to the floor joist or of a
second piece of missing floorboard had emerged in the grand jury and trial
testimony of the troopers, in police reports or photographs taken by
police, Danas wrote in an affidavit.
"The state's materials that have been provided to me fail to record
a shot of any kind that traveled into the floor underneath Michael
Kinge's head," Danas wrote. "It is striking that the existence of
such a gunshot, as documented by Ms. Tilley's videotape, contradicts the
findings of the state police, the special prosecutor and the Onondaga
County medical examiner."
Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, an assistant Onondaga County medical
examiner at the time, testified to a grand jury that Kinge suffered
three gunshot wounds to his head. All those projectiles were accounted
for, Germaniuk testified. They don't explain the gunshot damage to the
joist and couldn't have had the downward trajectory that would've been
necessary to cause such damage, according to Danas' affidavit.
Maines served papers Thursday on the state in response to a request
from state lawyers that a federal judge dismiss Kinge's lawsuit on
the grounds that it was filed beyond the three-year legal limit. He said
he would seek a court order to allow Danas to examine the floor joists in
the apartment, to review any undisclosed state police photos of the scene,
and to question the troopers involved in the shooting in light of the new
evidence.
Danas is president of Instructional Shooting Inc., in Lowell,
Mass., which teaches 20 firearms programs to 800 people a year. He's done
advanced firearms training for police and the general public, is a
licensed gunsmith and has training in the design and use of firearms,
according to his affidavit.
Shirley Kinge sued four former troopers and one current
trooper in federal court, claiming they improperly destroyed evidence -
meaning Michael Kinge - that would have cleared her of charges that
she burned the Harrises' bodies. Had he been taken alive, Michael
Kinge would have told police he had acted alone, his mother has
said.
Maines included in his court papers a state police photo showing a
hatchet going through a picture of Michael Kinge, and another photo
showing what Maines contends is a noose around the same photo of
Kinge. Maines contends the pictures suggest troopers were bent on
killing or seriously injuring Kinge when they went into his
apartment.
The players
The Harrises: Warren and Dolores Harris and their children, Shelby,
15, and Marc, 11, were each bound, shot and burned in their Dryden home
Dec. 22, 1989.
Michael Kinge: State police killed him in a shootout at his
Ithaca-area home Feb. 7, 1990, six weeks after members of the Harris
family were killed. Police say Kinge, 35, executed the Harris
family during a robbery.
Shirley Kinge: Kinge, 67, of Atlanta, was convicted
in November 1990 of helping her son set fire to the bodies. The charges
were dropped in 1992 after state police investigators admitted planting
her fingerprints at the scene. She pleaded guilty to forging the Harrises'
signatures on stolen credit cards and was sentenced to a conditional
discharge.
David Harding: Harding, 44, of Tampa, Fla., pleaded guilty 10 years
ago to faking evidence in four criminal cases while he was a state police
investigator. He served four years in prison.
Robert Lishansky: Lishansky, 44, of Oneonta, admitted faking
evidence in 21 criminal cases, including the Harris slayings, as a state
police investigator. He served five years in prison.
David McElligott: McElligott, 65, of Watkins Glen, was forced to
retire as a state police senior investigator because of the
evidence-tampering scandal. A special prosecutor questioned how
McElligott, as a supervisor, could not have known his troopers were faking
evidence in dozens of criminal cases.
H. Karl Chandler: Chandler, 65, of Oneonta, was forced to retire as
a senior investigator as a result of the evidence-tampering scandal.
Arthur Daniels: Daniels, 50, of Greene, fired two of the shots that
struck Michael Kinge in the shootout. Daniels is currently a state
trooper.
Douglas Vredenburgh: Vredenburgh, 55, of Delhi, fired three of the
shots that struck Michael Kinge. He is retired from the state
police.
Illustration: GRAPHIC: New evidence
State troopers
fatally shot Michael Kinge in the bedroom of his Dryden
home
Feb. 7, 1990, after they tracked him down as a suspect in the
Harris
family murders. The troopers said he was holding a shotgun
under his
chin. They said he turned toward them and his shotgun
discharged,
grazing his face. The troopers said they opened fire and
kept shooting
as he fell to the floor. A grand jury and a special
prosecutor
determined the troopers were justified. But newly disclosed
photographs
and a videotape taken by Kinge's landlord in 1990
contradict the
troopers, suggesting they shot Kinge twice while he was
on his
back, according to a firearms expert hired by Kinge's
mother,
Shirley Kinge.
Holes cut in floorOutline of Michael
KingeThis hole was cut from the
area beneath Kinge's back after
the shooting, according to court
documents. A former state trooper,
David Harding, admitted cutting it
out and burning it to cover up what
he considered an improper
shooting. The floor had an indentation that
matched a bullet that
protruded from Kinge's back. This hole has
never been disclosed by
state police, according to the firearms expert
who reviewed police and
court records. The hole is near where
Kinge's head had been, according
to the expert. This videotape
frame shows a floor joist, seen through
the second hole, with what
appears to be gunshot damage, according to
the firearms expert. The
damaged joist had never been documented in
police or court records,
according to the expert. The damage to the
joist suggests there was a
10th gunshot - one more than troopers
have described in their
accounting of the shooting, the expert said.
The expert, Gregory Danas,
wants a court order to go into the home and
examine the joist to
determine who fired that shot.
Note: The position of Kinge's
body was taken from a state police
photograph of the crime scene. The
placement of the holes was taken
from one of the recently disclosed
photographs taken in 1990 by the
Kinges' former landlord, Mary
Tilley.
Sources: Federal court documents, state police photo, and
photos and a
videotape taken by Tilley in 1990.
The Post-Standard.
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Copyright, 2002, The
Herald Company