Milwaukee Journal Sentinel News Articles

Court TV decided not to cover trial afterall
From the Associated Press
February 08, 1999

Green Bay -- Court TV has withdrawn its application to broadcast the murder trial of John Maloney because the courtroom rules set by the judge were unacceptable, a media coordinator says.

The cable network had wanted to bring a camera into the courtroom and place microphones in addition to what was already there, said Scott Patrick, liaison between the media and the Brown County courts.

But Circuit Judge Peter Naze told the network it could use the same setup available to the rest of the media, which Court TV officials said was not acceptable to them, Patrick said.

-- Associated Press
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February 9, 1999

Green Bay -- The attorney for a former Green Bay police detective on trial in the murder of his wife said Monday the man's girlfriend -- and not his client -- committed the crime.
Defense attorney Gerald Boyle made the accusation during opening statements Monday in the trial of John Maloney, who is accused of killing his estranged wife and setting her house on fire.

The girlfriend, Tracy Hellenbrand, had motives for killing Sandra Maloney, who was demanding large sums of money from her husband in a divorce settlement, Boyle told jurors.

Hellenbrand, a key prosecution witness, committed the murder because financial problems were damaging her relationship with John Maloney, Doyle contended.

"So, Tracy Hellenbrand decided she was going to rid John Maloney of the problem," Boyle said.

And on Feb. 10, the day investigators believe the murder occurred, Hellenbrand told her boyfriend she would be home late from work, which gave her ample time to strangle Sandra Maloney and torch the house to conceal her crime, Boyle said.

Special prosecutor Joseph Paulus told jurors that John Maloney killed his wife using knowledge he acquired during 20 years working in the Green Bay Police Department.

It would have been a perfect crime, but "before he left the house, he forgot to ventilate the house," Paulus said. Lacking sufficient oxygen, the fire burned itself out, leaving a woman that medical examiners said had been strangled to death before the fire was set, he said.

John Maloney, 42, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and arson. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison plus 50 years.

Police arrested John Maloney after he told his girlfriend he was in his wife's house the night she died, which was opposite what he had told investigators. The conversation took place in a Las Vegas hotel John Maloney meticulously checked for bugging devices while his girlfriend was away. The search was recorded by police stationed in an adjoining room, Paulus said.

Sandra and John Maloney were high school sweethearts and had been married almost 20 years. But their relationship went into a tailspin in 1990, when Sandra Maloney became mentally ill. She also became addicted to prescription drugs that she mixed with vodka. As her condition worsened, so did the marriage.

Maloney, wearing a blue blazer and tan slacks, made eye contact with the panel of 12 jurors and two alternates, as Paulus delivered a blistering opening statement.

A suspect from the start, John Maloney "continually tried to feed potential suspects to police in an effort to get them off his back," Paulus said.

John Maloney also "did everything to control the investigation," the prosecutor added. When Hellenbrand first suspected her boyfriend was the killer, he gave her false information about the investigation to throw her off track, Paulus said. John Maloney said he found out his estranged wife had a phone conversation with her mother at 8 p.m., the night police think she was killed, Paulus told jurors.

Police believe she was killed shortly after talking with her mother at about 6 p.m. Evidence indicates that John Maloney killed his wife after his girlfriend went upstairs at 7 p.m. for a 45-minute nap, Paulus said.

John Maloney was home by the time Hellenbrand was awake at 7:45 p.m. A clock in Sandra Maloney's living room "stopped at 7:53 p.m. because soot (was) in the mechanism" from a "quick, hot fire," Paulus said.

John Maloney also told Hellenbrand that when Sandra Maloney's mother arrived Feb. 11 to visit her daughter, the door knob was hot, Paulus said. John Maloney wanted his girlfriend to think the fire occurred a day later than the fact, Paulus said.

The person who killed Sandra Maloney was "not a stranger," Paulus said. "There was no sign of forced entry, no evidence of theft or robbery, no evidence that (she) was sexually assaulted."

Sandra Maloney's killer left the house by a side door that was locked with a dead bolt when her mother arrived. The house also has a front door and sliding back door, but the sliding door was blocked from the inside with a stick and front door was tied with a shoelace to a storm door.

The killer needed a key to lock the side door from the outside, Paulus said. Initially, John Maloney told investigators he possessed the key, then said he could not find it, Paulus said.
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February 13, 1999

Green Bay -- A former police detective on trial for allegedly killing his wife and setting fire to her house returned to his rented home the night of the slaying with "the smell of death" clinging to his body, his ex-girlfriend said in a videotape shown in court Friday.
"You think I'm going to . . . smell that smell and not know (a person has) just killed someone?" Tracy Hellenbrand said in the video that police investigators in Las Vegas secretly recorded in July.

"I will never forget that smell on your body," she told John Maloney in July during a heated argument at Lady Luck Casino Hotel. "That's a distinct smell."

Jurors watched four hours of tapes showing Hellenbrand demanding that Maloney admit he killed his estranged wife and describe how it he did it. The blank-and-white videos are rife with near-hysterical shouting and a barrage of vulgar language. At one point, Maloney, then an arson investigator for the Green Bay Police Department, attacked Hellenbrand with his hand around her neck.

In live testimony later, Hellenbrand, 28, said Maloney's skin the night of the killing smelled "like someone who had been working out in a musty basement. It just came right off his chest."

A small, frail-looking woman, Hellenbrand testified that Maloney behaved strangely the night before his estranged wife's soot-covered body was discovered Feb. 11 of last year on her living room couch.

His hands trembled so badly, he struggled trying to put a cigarette between his lips, said Hellenbrand, who became a police informant after meeting with investigators June 8. He appeared distracted and seemed to move "in slow motion" later that same night, she said.

A 19-year Police Department veteran, Maloney has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide, arson and mutilating a corpse in the Feb. 10, 1998, death of Sandra Maloney, 40. He has pleaded not guilty to all three felonies.

If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison plus 50 years.

Sandra and John Maloney were in the middle of bitter divorce when she died. She and John Maloney were high school sweethearts. But the marriage turned bad after Sandra Maloney began showing symptoms of mental illness in 1990 and started abusing prescription drugs and alcohol.

Prosecutors allege Maloney torched the house to conceal his crime. The fire burned itself out and her body was recovered, enabling police to learn she had been strangled.

Hellenbrand testified that Maloney, 42, strip-searched her a few days after Sandra Maloney's funeral, looking for a concealed listening device. The search was done after she told Maloney she wondered how the victim's mother reacted when she discovered Sandra Maloney's body on Feb. 11, 1998, Hellenbrand said. The question enraged Maloney, she said.

She testified that as they were making love last summer, he confessed to killing his wife.

Later in his kitchen, he confirmed again that he had committed the killing, Hellenbrand said. "He said, 'Yes,' and he looked away," she said.
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February 16, 1999

Green Bay -- The ex-girlfriend of a former Green Bay police detective on trial in the murder of his wife failed a polygraph test taken in connection with the crime, the defendant's attorney claimed in court Monday.
After learning of the results, Tracy Hellenbrand, the state's key witness in the case against John Maloney, allegedly said, "That's because I'm a compulsive liar," according to defense attorney Gerald Boyle, who made his claim while jurors were outside the courtroom.

Hellenbrand, a former criminal investigator for the Internal Revenue Service, also was found with a document describing how to defeat a polygraph test, Boyle said.

Special prosecutor Joseph Paulus called Boyle's statements, "flat-out inaccurate" but would not elaborate.

Brown County Circuit Judge Peter Naze ruled the results of the polygraph test could not be used as evidence because the state Supreme Court said the results can be unreliable.

Monday marked the start of the second week in the trial of Maloney, who is charged with strangling Sandra Maloney and setting her body and home on fire last February. The two were in the middle of a bitter divorce.

Maloney, 42, a former arson investigator for the Green Bay Police Department, is on trial for first-degree intentional homicide, arson and mutilating a corpse. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum of life plus 50 years in prison.

Boyle, who last week told jurors that it was Hellenbrand -- not Maloney -- who committed the murders, questioned the former girlfriend more than five hours Monday, often losing his temper when she seemed to sidestep questions.

Naze twice reprimanded her for not answering Boyle's questions.

Hellenbrand, 28, who turned informant for the police and then prompted defendant John Maloney to make incriminating statements, was the last witness for the prosecution before it rested its case Monday.

She told Boyle she asked for immunity from prosecution because the police "kept telling me I was involved" in the killing.

Several months before helping investigators videotape Maloney saying he was at the crime scene the day his wife died, Hellenbrand said, she told an investigator: "Help me get out of this mess; I got to get immunity."

She did not receive immunity from prosecution for homicide in the case.

Police alleged that Maloney killed his wife hours after learning she had demanded half the couple's assets in the divorce settlement.

Investigators believe that the crime occurred between 7 p.m. and 7:45 p.m., a period when Hellenbrand told investigators she was napping and could not account for Maloney's whereabouts. She said she took another nap at 8 p.m.

When Boyle said she never mentioned the naps in a written statement given to detectives, Hellenbrand said she reported the 7 p.m. nap to Green Bay police Detective Kenneth Brodhagen, but he forgot to include it in a document she signed.

Boyle complained that police checked on John Maloney's whereabouts at the time of the killing, but no one investigated Hellenbrand's alibi.

Boyle on Monday asked Hellenbrand why she told Maloney that she was worried investigators may find her earrings at the crime scene. He also asked her to explain why she told Maloney she was afraid police might have smelled her perfume at the scene.

She replied that it was because she thought Maloney might have planted the earrings and spread the perfume around the scene to make her look guilty.
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February 17, 1999

Green Bay -- The former police detective charged with first-degree murder and arson "snuffed out his wife as if she were a rag doll and burned her body to hide his crime," a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.
John Maloney never intended to kill his estranged wife, Sandra Maloney, but there was no turning back after he "cut her head open" with a blow from a blunt object, special prosecutor Joseph Paulus said in closing arguments after the eight-day trial.

But John Maloney's attorney said it was the detective's ex-girlfriend who committed the crime.

Tracy Hellenbrand phoned John Maloney to say she would be home late from work, then went to Sandra Maloney's house to kill her, defense attorney Gerald Boyle said.

Closing arguments were made Tuesday evening in the trial of Maloney, a former Green Bay arson detective who is charged with strangling Sandra Maloney and setting her body and home on fire last February. The two were in the middle of a bitter divorce.

The Brown County jury will begin deliberating today. Paulus said John Maloney was probably arguing with Sandra Maloney on Feb. 10, 1998, when he hit her and then strangled her because he feared losing his job if anybody discovered that he had dealt her such a brutal blow.

Jurors need only watch videotapes that verify John Maloney killed his wife, Paulus said.

The July 1998 videos, made at Lady Luck Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, contain more than six hours of dialogue between Hellenbrand and John Maloney, including parts in which Maloney allegedly incriminates himself, Paulus said.

Paulus said John Maloney committed the crimes because he wanted to get the divorce over as soon as possible. It usually takes 120 days to get a divorce in Wisconsin, but in this case the proceedings "dragged on for eight months" while John Maloney was trying to establish a relationship with his new girlfriend.

He "snapped" and killed Sandra Maloney, his wife of 19 years, after fearing Hellenbrand would leave him because she was fed up with his divorce problems.

But Boyle maintained that it was Hellenbrand, who cooperated with police in the murder investigation, who committed the crime.

If Hellenbrand believed that John Maloney murdered his wife, why did she continue to have a sexual relationship with him for 2 1/2 months after she came to that conclusion, Boyle asked.

Boyle also said Hellenbrand didn't begin cooperating with police until after she received immunity from prosecution for problems that occurred while she worked at the Internal Revenue Service. And, Boyle said, the fire that was meant to burn down Sandra Maloney's house was set by an amateur, not a person trained as an arson investigator.

In testimony Tuesday, Randy Winkler, a retired Green Bay police detective and arson investigator, said the person who set the fire lacked knowledge to set a fire to destroy the house.

"The fact of the matter is, this arsonist was dumb," Boyle said.
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February 18, 1999

Green Bay -- A jury found a former police detective guilty Wednesday night in the murder of his estranged wife, who was found strangled and burned in her Green Bay home a year ago.
Jurors deliberated almost 12 hours before deciding that John Maloney, 42, was guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, arson and mutilating a corpse in the death of his wife, Sandra Maloney, 40.

The Maloneys' three sons sobbed as the verdict was read, prompting Judge Peter Naze to order them to leave the court.

John Maloney faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. Naze said sentencing would be in six to eight weeks, and he revoked Maloney's bail and ordered him held in the Brown County Jail until then.

The jury ultimately was not swayed by defense attorney Gerald Boyle's assertion that John Maloney's ex-girlfriend, the state's star witness, killed Sandra Maloney.

Sandra Maloney's burned body was found Feb. 11, 1998, the day a hearing had been scheduled for the couple's divorce. She had been strangled; her body was found on a burned couch in the couple's home.

The couple, who were married 19 years and had three young sons, filed for divorce in June 1997.

John Maloney, an 18-year veteran of the Green Bay Police Department, had been a detective and arson investigator for 2 1/2 years. He was arrested in July in Las Vegas after his then-girlfriend, Tracy Hellenbrand, cooperated with police and allowed her motel room to be bugged.

Boyle argued that Hellenbrand, who was living with John Maloney in February 1998, had just as much motive as his client did to kill Sandra Maloney. Boyle accused Hellenbrand, 28, an investigator for the Internal Revenue Service, of using harassment and sex to get a false confession out of Maloney in Las Vegas.

Videos made in July 1998 at the Lady Luck Hotel Casino in Las Vegas contain more than six hours of dialogue between Hellenbrand and John Maloney, including parts in which Maloney incriminates himself. Jurors watched excerpts of the videos.

When the verdict was read, one of the jurors was crying, and the others on the jury of seven women and five men were solemn-faced.

After the verdict, John Maloney was escorted from court by sheriff's deputies. Before leaving, he turned and mouthed "goodbye" to relatives.

Outside the courtroom after that, Boyle's daughter and associate, Bridget Boyle, said the verdict was "like a death sentence" for her client, and that the defense was "shocked" by it. She said they would appeal.

Sandra Maloney's brother, Brad Cator, told reporters the verdict was "a lose-lose situation for both families."

"I hope the Maloney family knows we have no hard feelings for them, and we hope they feel the same for us," Cator said. "We have to pull together as a family for the sake of" the Maloneys' sons, who are 14, 10 and 9.

Maloney's relatives declined to discuss the verdict with the news media.

Special prosecutor Joseph Paulus said the case was "an ugly, ugly case, an ugly situation, and the reading of the verdict was ugly." Paulus said it was difficult to watch Maloney's children in court hearing the verdict.

"Their father, I don't understand for the life of me why he had those boys in court."

Sandra Maloney's mother, Lola Cator, said the verdict "was from God." She said she hadn't been hoping for any particular verdict and was prepared to accept the jury's decision whatever it was.

"I'm just praying it goes all right for all of us," she said.
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February 19, 1999

Green Bay -- Just as a Brown County jury struggled for nearly 12 hours before deciding that a former arson detective was guilty of murdering his estranged wife, Green Bay residents struggled Thursday over whether the panel had made the right decision.
Key evidence that prosecutors used against John Maloney, a 19-year veteran of the Green Bay Police Department, seemed too ambiguous for jurors to reach such a conclusion, according to some residents in a community that voraciously gobbled up news accounts of the eight-day trial.

Maloney was found guilty Wednesday night in the murder of Sandra Maloney, who was found strangled and burned in her Green Bay home on Feb. 11, 1998.

Ron Kempen, a local haircutter, said that a videotape that jurors were shown of Maloney telling his girlfriend he committed the crime was open to many interpretations.

"He never really did confess to her," Kempen said. "The way he described the murder was totally different from the way it happened."

Gerald Boyle, Maloney's attorney, told the jury at the start of the trial that his client's former girlfriend, Tracy Hellen brand, had the motive and the opportunity to kill Sandra Maloney.

John and Sandra Maloney, high school sweethearts who had been married 19 years, were in the midst of a bitter divorce. Boyle claimed Hellenbrand killed Sandra Maloney because Hellenbrand feared John Maloney was going to be saddled with a large divorce settlement.

But others disagreed.

Between bites of taco chips at a fast-food restaurant, Cheryl Kastor said, "Justice was served."

Kastor, a homemaker, said she has no doubt that the right person was convicted and that he acted alone.

"I feel sorry for the kids," she said, referring to John and Sandra Maloney's three sons, ages 10, 11 and 14. The boys were being cared for by their father before his bail was revoked and he was taken into custody Wednesday night.

The sons sobbed as the verdict was read, prompting Judge Peter Naze to order them to leave the court.

One of the jurors also was crying as the verdict was read about 8 p.m. Wednesday, while others on the jury of seven women and five men were solemn-faced.

John Maloney was escorted from court by sheriff's deputies. Before leaving, he turned and mouthed "goodbye" to relatives. Outside the courtroom after that, Boyle's daughter and associate, Bridget Boyle, said the verdict was "like a death sentence" for her client, and that the defense was "shocked" by it. She said they would appeal.

John Maloney faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment when he is sentenced in six to eight weeks.

After the verdict was handed down, Sandra Maloney's brother, Brad Cator, told reporters the verdict was "a lose-lose situation for both families."

"I hope the Maloney family knows we have no hard feelings for them, and we hope they feel the same for us," Cator said. "We have to pull together as a family for the sake of" the three sons.

John Maloney's relatives declined to discuss the verdict with the media.

Special prosecutor Joseph Paulus said the case was "an ugly, ugly case, an ugly situation, and the reading of the verdict was ugly." Paulus said it was difficult to watch Maloney's children in court hearing the verdict.

"Their father, I don't understand for the life of me why he had those boys in court," Paulus said.

Sandra Maloney's mother, Lola Cator, said the verdict "was from God." She said she hadn't been hoping for any particular verdict and was prepared to accept the jury's decision whatever it was.

"I'm just praying it goes all right for all of us," she said.
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February 23, 1999

A sister of a former Green Bay police detective who killed his wife is in a legal dispute with a sister of the victim over guardianship of the couple's three young sons, according to court documents released Monday.
Wendy Conard of Mahtomedi, Minn., whose sister's burned body was found Feb. 11, 1998, and Virginia Maloney, whose brother, John Maloney, was convicted Thursday, each petitioned to become guardian of the boys, ages 14, 11 and 10.

The boys, who lived with their father at Virginia Maloney's home in Green Bay while he awaited trial, have remained there after he was taken into custody after the jury's verdict.

Conard's attorney, John Halloran Heide, said he does not expect a nasty court battle because they are interested in the children's best welfare and are seeking advice from professionals.

Wendy Conard and her husband, Alan, are acting cautiously "because I don't think they want the children's lives disrupted needlessly. They lost their mom and they lost their dad," he said. "We hope the other side feels the same way."

Contacted at home, Virginia Maloney said she did not want to discuss the matter.

"Wendy and Al are extremely balanced in how they look at this," Heide said. "A knee-jerk reaction after the verdict would have been, 'These boys need to be yanked from Virginia Maloney.' But Wendy and Al didn't see it that way, which I think is very, very impressive."

The petitions have been pending before Brown County Circuit Judge Richard Greenwood since a brief hearing Oct. 22. Heide asked Greenwood on Friday to schedule a hearing now that the trial is over.

John Maloney faces a mandatory life sentence for killing his wife. He also could be sentenced to up to 50 years in prison for disfiguring his wife's corpse and setting fire to her house.

The couple was in the midst of a bitter divorce. Sandra Maloney's body was found the day they were to appear at a hearing in connection with a custody dispute involving the children.

Maloney was arrested in July after Las Vegas police videotaped him telling his girlfriend he was at the crime scene at the time police think the killing occurred.
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April 24, 1999

Green Bay -- The former police arson detective who killed his wife and tried to conceal the crime by burning her body and setting fire to their house was sentenced Friday to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 25 years.

John Maloney, a 19-year veteran of the Green Bay Police Department, was convicted in February of murdering Sandra Maloney on Feb. 11, 1998, the same day a final hearing had been scheduled on the couple's divorce.

Jurors deliberated about 11 1/2 hours before finding Maloney guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, arson and mutilating a corpse in the death of his high school sweetheart and wife of almost 20 years.

But on Friday, as he did in the trial, Maloney insisted he was innocent.

"I did not commit this crime. I did not kill Sandy," Maloney, 42, told the court in a calm, steady voice, just moments before the judge handed down the sentence. "I believe I was set up -- manipulated -- to make it appear that I did commit this crime."

Maloney's tearful relatives whispered to him, "We love you, John; we love you," as three sheriff's deputies escorted him from court after the hearing.

Handcuffed and wearing an orange jail suit, Maloney nodded solemnly to his supporters.

Brown County Judge Peter J. Naze handed down the mandatory life sentence, saying that "one of the ironies of this case is that first the (Maloney's three) sons lost their mother, and now they will lose their father."

Naze set Maloney's parole eligibility date for Feb. 10, 2024, when Maloney will be 67.

In addition to sentencing Maloney for first-degree intentional homicide, Naze sentenced him to 40 years for arson and 10 years for mutilating a corpse.

Maloney's mother-in-law said she had mixed emotions about the way the case ended.

"Something inside me still loves" John Maloney, said Lola Cator, of Madison.

"I hate what he did. But how do you get love out of your heart that fast?"

Gerald Boyle, John Maloney's attorney, said he would appeal the case immediately. Boyle had argued throughout Maloney's trial in February that Tracy Hellenbrand, Maloney's girlfriend, was the killer.

"There is no doubt in my mind that he did not commit this crime," Boyle told Naze.

"I will go to my grave believing I am correct in my appraisal."

Special prosecutor Joseph Paulis told reporters outside court that Naze's sentence was too lenient because it makes him eligible for parole in 25 years. Paulis had wanted Maloney sentenced for life without any chance of parole.

"There is no place in society for John Maloney," Paulis said. "He is a brutal killer, a cold-blooded killer."

John and Sandra Maloney were in the midst of a bitter divorce when she was killed. Sandra Maloney had been struggling with a mental illness for several years. She wanted John Maloney to give her $1,400 a month because her emotional problems kept her from holding a job.

Prosecutors said Maloney killed his wife because he didn't want to give up the money.

He was arrested in Las Vegas after he told Hellenbrand he was at the crime scene. Hellenbrand was cooperating with police, and investigators recorded the couple's conversation at Lady Luck Hotel and Casino.
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