Evidence
access denied in John Maloney case
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By Andy Nelesen
anelesen@greenbaypressgazette.com
December 22, 2007
The lawyer for a former Green Bay cop convicted of killing his wife
cannot have access to some evidence from the investigation, a Brown
County judge ruled Friday.
The demands came in a post-conviction relief motion for John Maloney,
who is serving a life sentence for killing his estranged wife, Sandy,
in February 1998 and burning her home and body to conceal the crime.
Maloney, now 51, is eligible for parole Feb. 10, 2024.
Attorney John Brinckman filed a motion to see items he claims Maloney's
laywers weren't provided before trial, including a bloody blouse seized
from a hamper in the basement of Sandy Maloney's scorched Huth Street
home after she was found dead on the living room sofa and biological
slides made at Sandy Maloney's autopsy.
Brinckman, appearing by telephone, told Brown County Circuit Court
Judge Peter Naze that access to the information could clear the way for
an appeal based on ineffective counsel from both Maloney's trial
attorneys and his first appellate lawyers.
Brinckman said he wants experts to review the biological slides to
re-evaluate how Sandy Maloney died. At trial, prosecutors asserted she
was hit on the back of the head and left to die in the fire.
"I have two pathologists I want to take a look at these slides with a
broader perspective," Brinckmann said, adding that the defense now has
more information about Sandy Maloney's medical history.
Brinckman said the pathologists who examined Maloney's body initially
"weren't given the background information needed to make a valid
opinion."
Special Prosecutor Vince Biskupic said all of that autopsy information
was available to trial counsel as part of the case's initial exchange
of information, and the bloody shirt was used as an exhibit at trial
and already was examined by Maloney's lawyers.
"They're asking for something already made accessible to them,"
Biskupic said.
Naze noted the case has been through multiple versions of appeals and
been before the state's Supreme Court twice.
"There has to be an end of this litigation," Naze said in rejecting
Brinckman's requests.
"Not in a homicide case where someone is spending the rest of their
life in prison," Brinckman countered.
Naze said case law allows for additional review of discovery evidence,
but that it has to be of the caliber that would change the outcome of
the case, not merely create the possibility of an alternate outcome.
Maloney did not appear at Friday's hearing, nor were members of his
family present. Maloney maintains that he did not kill his wife.
Lola Cator, Sandy Maloney's mother, attended Friday's hearing and said
she is weary of rehashing the case.
"It's just more of the same," she said.
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