GREENWICH — Washington County District Attorney Kevin Kortright said Monday he believes police followed proper procedure and did not illegally search a home where the adoptive parents of Jaliek Rainwalker lived earlier this month.
Kortright’s comments came after a lawyer for Stephen Kerr and Jocelyn McDonald filed a notice of claim against the village of Greenwich and Cambridge-Greenwich Police Chief George Bell, accusing Bell of leading an unlawful search of the Hill Street home where the Kerrs lived. They moved to West Rupert, Vt., earlier this month.
A notice of claim is the precursor to a lawsuit and is required when someone plans to sue a municipality or municipal agency.
Lawyers for Kerr and McDonald allege their clients were illegally detained, and that police should not have gone into the home before they got a search warrant on Feb. 7.
Kortright, though, said his office had been in communication with Bell’s office and State Police the day of the search as a search warrant was being prepared.
“I haven’t heard anything about what they (police) did that would be cause for concern,” he said.
Police sought to seize computer equipment to compare anonymous, typed or computer-generated notes sent to news media earlier this month — in which it was written that Rainwalker, 12, was still alive — to correspondence sent out by McDonald, in which fonts were similar.
Kerr and McDonald were in the process of moving from a home at 11 Hill St., owned by Kerr’s father, at the time of the search.
Police were watching the home as they awaited the warrant, which was being sought from Greenwich Village Justice John Pemrick, officials said. That’s when Kerr and McDonald arrived.
It was at that point that investigators, fearing the computer equipment they sought would be removed, entered the home, saw a computer and remained in the home despite a request from McDonald that they leave.
Bell has said police had the legal right to remain in the home to safeguard what they believed was evidence until the warrant arrived, since they were concerned it might be removed.
Kortright said that belief was correct.
“I don’t know all of the facts as to how that played out, but if it’s a situation where they’re concerned evidence can be destroyed or removed, they can stop or prevent that,” he said.
Kortright said the investigators involved in the case have decades of experience and have handled innumerable search warrants. An illegal search would result in any evidence gleaned from the search being suppressed.
Meanwhile, the case took another strange twist recently when two New Jersey writers who planned to write a book about Rainwalker received a “cease and desist” letter from one of Kerr’s lawyers, Jeffrey McMorris.
Proceeds from the book were “to be used to provide post-adoptive services for Capital Region families and for services to children who have aged-out of the foster care system,” said Elaine Person, leader of a group of foster parents with ties to Rainwalker who have dubbed themselves the Find Jaliek Task Force.
McMorris said he sent the letter because the couple was concerned that they were not approached about the book and had not given permission for it.
McMorris said it was his understanding of copyright laws that without the permission of Rainwalker’s parents, a for-profit book could not be written about him. He said there were also questions about the book’s authors.
“My question of them is, ‘What are they doing, and how will this help?’ ” McMorris said.
Person said a new author has agreed to pen the book, to be titled “An Inconvenient Child,” but that person will remain anonymous until the book is published.
Kerr, the last person known to be with Rainwalker, has been named a person of interest by police, who believe Rainwalker is dead.
Investigators have cited inconsistencies in Kerr’s story and his refusal to take at least two lie-detector tests as reasons for their suspicions.
The boy has not been seen since the night of Nov. 1, and no trace of him has been found. He had been having problems at home, and Kerr and McDonald had planned to undo their adoption of him.
Kerr and McDonald have said they believe Rainwalker ran away. They have been critical of police for focusing on the belief the boy is dead instead of the possibility he left on his own.
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2008/02/19/news/local/13360395.txt
