After Frustrations with New York State Officials, a Disturbing Experience with a Cattaraugus County Legislator in My Search for Justice

    As I mentioned in my original post below (September 22, 2010), after contacting federal officials about the problems with the New York State Police investigation into my brother's death, I was informed that murder is a state crime.  Senator Charles Schumer of New York responded to a letter I wrote in 2005 that as a matter of protocol he was forwarding my materials to Senator Arlen Specter.  After making inquiries on my behalf, the office of Senator Specter advised me to contact the State Senator and the State Representative from the Great Valley area and to send a letter of complaint to the head of the New York State Police in Albany.
 
    In late 2005 and early 2006, I pursued these avenues for redress.  I wrote a letter to N.Y. State Senator Catharine Young, who sent a brief reply.  Although commending me for "gathering such a detailed collection of the facts and reports surrounding this unfortunate event," Senator Young stated that the matter was not under her jurisdiction.  I also wrote to N.Y. State Representative Joseph Giglio, but received no reply.  In addition, I wrote a letter of complaint to N.Y. State Police Superintendent Wayne Bennett.  Superintendent Bennett did not reply.  Back in 2004, I had already written to the Attorney General of New York.  Peter Drago of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office simply replied that they did "not have jurisdiction to be of assistance."  State officials were presumably unable or unwilling to refer the matter to the proper jurisdiction on their own initiative.  So there seemed little else I could do on the state level.

    When I conveyed to Senator Specter's office the disappointing results of my letters to Senator Young, Representative Giglio, and Superintendent Bennett, I was advised to write to the Attorney General again and to the Governor, given that I had obtained much more information since 2004.  After continuing to seek more information, I wrote letters to both in 2007.  Peter Drago, Director of Executive Chamber Operations, responded to my letter by stating that Governor Spitzer asked him to thank me for contacting the Governor's office about my concerns.  He added: "Your correspondence has been forwarded to the appropriate members of our staff.  I am sure it will be of interest to them."  The Governor's office later informed me that a representative of the New York State Police would be in touch with me.  As I indicated in my original post, however, State Police Lieutenant Allen did not respond to me in any meaningful way but simply reiterated the position taken by the original investigation.  When I complained to the Governor's office about this superficial response, I ended up being told that I would have to deal with the New York State Police about the matter.  I also wrote to then Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.  Attorney General Cuomo did not respond.

    Given the failure of these state officials to take any real action in response to my concerns, I was initially surprised but optimistic when a Cattaraugus County official expressed an interest in the case of his own accord.  On Memorial Day weekend in 2009, I was in Salamanca to plant flowers on family graves that included great grandparents who had come from Poland over a hundred years ago.  After our father died in 1995 until his own death in 2003, my brother had been performing this family service.  While tending the graves in Calvary Cemetery that Sunday, I happened to see a man standing near my parents' plot.  Noticing the name on the headstone in front of him, I asked if he was a Vecchiarella.  He replied, "Yes, I'm Carmen."  When I told him that I was Barbara Pavlock, he said, "I thought you might be."  I mentioned that I remembered him from my high school days but added that I hadn't lived in Salamanca for a very long time. 

    Explaining why I was there, I told Carmen that I was still very upset about my brother's death and the ruling of accident in spite of the suspicious circumstances of his truck fire.  Carmen replied that he had known Mark and had been concerned about his death.  He added that he had tried to do what he could at the time to find out what had happened but couldn't get anywhere.  I referred to my frustration that so many things had not been done in the investigation and that the police report glosses over troubling aspects of the scene, including the location of the truck in the field, the gas can in the cab, and the pool of Mark's blood in his driveway.  I mentioned results of my own efforts to learn the truth, including the information about a wound on Mark's forehead observed by a firefighter on the scene and by a doctor at the burn unit and the conflicting claims by individuals on the scene about what my brother had been able to say when emergency workers arrived.  Carmen informed me that he was a county legislator and would look into the matter.  Pointing out that he had not been able to see the police report, he asked me to send him the relevant documents.

     After returning home, I mailed Carmen Vecchiarella the information he requested, including copies of my letters to D.A. Sharkey and the police, autopsy, and fire investigator's reports.  After waiting several weeks to hear back, I tried calling him.  Although I left messages and was told by his mother that she had let him know I was trying to reach him, Carmen never returned my calls or responded in any form.  He had voluntarily discussed the circumstances of Mark's death with me and requested the information I had on the case, and yet would not communicate with me afterward.  I thus have no idea if he spoke to any officials about the case or to any individuals who were on the scene of the fire.

     It came to my attention that two of the first emergency workers on the scene of my brother's truck fire are now or were at the time Cattaraugus County officials.  These two individuals in their witness statements reported hearing my brother say the words "gas" or "gasoline can" (words apparently interpreted by the State Police to imply that there had been no foul play), yet as firefighter Wayne Frank insisted to me, they could understand nothing Mark was trying to say.  Firefighter Mark Ward (also at the time superintendent of the Salamanca school system) is, like Carmen Vecchiarella, a Cattaraugus County legislator; and firefighter Gary Wind was a Cattaraugus County deputy sheriff then (now acting chief of the Salamanca police force).  Did Carmen speak with either of these two firefighters about what they had observed on the scene?  Did he speak with firefighter Wayne Frank about what he had heard or seen, including the wound on Mark's forehead?  Carmen and Wayne overlapped at Salamanca High School and remained in the area; so they presumably ran into each other from time to time.  Reportedly, two other individuals on the scene were Salamanca police officers.  Might Carmen have spoken to them?

    Apparently, Carmen Vecchiarella has no intention of letting me know how he used the information I supplied to him and what he learned from it.  Under the circumstances, that is difficult to understand.