Author sees holes in Maloney murder case

The circumstances of Sandy Maloney's autopsy intrigue Berry the most

By Melanie Fonder
For The News-Chronicle

A little more than 10 years ago, Sheila Berry, an Appleton native, worked in the Winnebago County district attorney's office for Joe Paulus. Now she lives halfway across the country, and is writing a book about the John Maloney case, one that is not flattering of Paulus.

Maloney is the former Green Bay police arson investigator serving a life prison term after being convicted in February 1999 of the murder of his estranged wife, Sandy. Paulus served as special prosecutor in the case.

"I thought long and hard about [writing] this," Berry said. "But there were so many holes, and I know how those holes are created and maintained."

Berry said because prosecutors are so burdened to get convictions, she has seen many cases of "overzealous" district attorneys and typically a "backward reasoning" is employed.

"If a defendant is guilty, then this is true," Berry said. "That is the question that is usually asked: 'Can we get a conviction?' You stop looking for truth and start looking for convictions."

Berry's book, with the working title "A Full Circle," is nearly completely written but will not likely be released until sometime early in 2002. In writing the book, Berry has combed through the transcripts of the trial, had independent forensic experts review reports and interviewed many of the key players involved in the case.

Somewhat unusual, Berry said, is that everyone who has contributed their resources to the Maloney case has worked pro bono on one condition: that they be called to testify at the upcoming hearing.

Though she has never met John Maloney, she has "interviewed" him through three or four letters from prison.

Of all the information in the case, Berry said the facts surrounding the autopsy were the most compelling. Dr. John Teggatz, who conducted the only autopsy on Sandy Maloney, called the Green Bay Police Dept. the next day to request photos and the videotape from the crime scene, but the department never complied.

The Department of Criminal Investigation eventually took "selective photos" to the Milwaukee pathologist in April, but they didn't include pictures of a ligature, electrical cord and two stacked VCR's on a table in the basement.

Then there was the day Maloney's former girlfriend, Tracy Hellenbrand, called Berry, but blocked her caller ID and would not disclose where she was calling from or what she was now doing.

"She said, 'I just wanted you to know that at the time I testified I believed everything I said," Berry said, and that Hellenbrand was worried about the way she would be portrayed in the book.

Maloney's new attorney, Lew Wasserman, is basing part of the next appeal on the possibility a movie deal was being negotiated by defense attorney Gerald Boyle while he was representing Maloney in an earlier appeal.

"This movie controlled John's defense - that's pretty scary," Berry said.

Gin Maloney, John's sister, believes Boyle was working on the movie deal long before the appeals stage of the trial.

"He talked about a movie from the first time we met him," she said.

Melanie Fonder, who covered the John Maloney case during her tenure as a News-Chronicle reporter, is a staff writer for The Hill, a Washington, D.C., newspaper that covers Capitol Hill. Her column appears Mondays. Write to her at melfonder@yahoo.com.