Sunday, September 13, 2015

An Informative E-mail about Officer Mark Marowski and about the Investigation into My Brother’s Death


As the twelfth anniversary of my brother Mark’s suspicious truck fire approaches, this post makes public an e-mail sent to me by former Salamanca police officer James Campbell concerning Officer Mark Marowski.  Ofc. Campbell’s communication is based on his experience working with Marowski in the 1970’s.

Ofc. Campbell appears to have had a long, productive career as a police official.  The following is an excerpt from an official press release on a new position awarded him in 2003: “Sheriff George T. Lasater is proud to announce the appointment of James Andrew Campbell, Deputy Sheriff, to the position of Officer in Charge of the Beaver Island Sub-Station.  Deputy Sheriff Campbell brings an extensive background in law enforcement experience.  He started his law enforcement career in Salamanca, New York, in 1974 where he served for four years.  Deputy Campbell then relocated to Michigan and has been employed with the Rockwood Police Department for the past 25 years.”

Here is the complete e-mail I received from Ofc. Campbell, verbatim:

“I have been following your blog for about 2 years. I was a PO in Salamanca from 1974 to 1978. I worked with Mark Marowski and knew him pretty well. He had a problem with alcohol and perscription drugs even then. He was also very good friends with Michael Malick, who was also an ex Salamanca PO. Mark was a consummate lier. But he was also a complete coward. I don't think he would have had much to do with what appears to be the very suspicious death of your brother. Marowski using his position to have your brother arrested is right in character for him, that didn't surprise me at all. I read through all the reports and it doesn't appear that much of an investigation was done because, I think, they thought no one would give a damn anyway. Anything that was done subsequent to the original shoddy investigation was only an effort to justify what had not been done in the first place. In other words the NYSP will not admit that their man was a lazy ass and did not do the job that he was paid to do.”
 
First of all, I am grateful to Ofc. Campbell for his informed assessment based on his professional experience with Marowski. It is disturbing to learn that Marowski abused alcohol and prescription drugs as far back as the mid-1970’s, yet was allowed to continue his career in law enforcement without addressing and rectifying those problems.  Marowski in fact remained on the Salamanca police force until he himself was finally arrested for DWI and speeding in 2006.

It is reassuring that, contrary to the New York State Police and the District Attorney’s office, Ofc. Campbell indicates that my brother’s death looks “very suspicious.”  In considering Marowski cowardly and likely to have used his position to have my brother arrested, he concludes that Marowski would not have had “much to do” with Mark’s death.  The word “much” is key. 

On this point, I would say that in general cowards get others to do the dirty work for them.  Before being doused with gasoline and set on fire, my brother appears to have been beaten up in a paved area off his driveway, where he left a pool of blood, right after he drove in with his truck.  Presumably, assailants were waiting for him, perhaps hiding by the shed close to where my brother pulled in.  More than one person would have to have been involved in the attack since Mark was physically fit and very strong.  Whoever wanted my brother dead didn’t have the courage to face him alone.

In the chain of events that ended in my brother’s death, I myself do not know what Marowski did beyond abusing his power as a police officer to call in and have Mark arrested after getting into a personal argument with him.  But Marowski clearly had animosity toward my brother (see esp. post of October 17, 2014), and the claim that he was having an affair with Mark’s wife Susan needs to be taken seriously (see post of August 11, 2014).  If the latter is indeed true, what would those two issues alone suggest about some level of involvement by Marowski in Mark’s death?  Marowski certainly should be investigated (see esp. posts of July 28, 2011, April 18, 2013, August 11, 2014, September 14, 2014, October 17, 2014, December 14, 2014, and February 15, 2015).

I am grateful to Ofc. Campbell for taking the time to read through the official reports (i.e., the police and the fire investigator’s report, available through links on this blog).  Ofc. Campbell’s conclusion is to the point: “it doesn’t appear that much of an investigation was done.”  His view is thus in obvious contrast to the State Police’s insistence that the investigation was “thorough.”  Ofc. Campbell, furthermore, alludes to one specific issue that might well have affected the investigation.

It came as a surprise to me to learn that Marowski “was also very good friends with Michael Malick [i.e., Malak], who was also an ex Salamanca PO.”  Michael Malak was District Attorney Edward Sharkey’s investigator when my brother was killed.  He was in fact heavily involved in the discussions about the case during the investigation (see Inv. Kalfas’s narrative in the police report). Of course, I do not know whether Malak and Marowski remained “very good friends” up to Mark’s death, but they appear to have had a tight bond for some years.  Malak, to say the least, had a potential conflict of interest in the investigation.

I am also grateful for Ofc. Campbell’s assessment of the failure by the New York State Police to make any meaningful effort to act on new information given to them since 2005, beginning with Atty. Michael Kelly’s efforts to get them to re-open the case.  Here is Ofc. Campbell’s conclusion: “Anything that was done subsequent to the original shoddy investigation was only an effort to justify what had not been done in the first place.  In other words the NYSP will not admit that their man was a lazy ass and did not do the job that he was paid to do.”  What recourse does a private citizen have when the official investigating agency does not do its job?

The problem is more egregious when there are legitimate grounds for suspecting a cover-up.  The State Police not only failed to look closely at Ofc. Marowski as a possible suspect; they also failed to verify that alleged lengthy phone call immediately before the fire between my brother’s wife and Pete Rapacioli, who himself had a police connection (see post of December 24, 2013).  I have no doubt that Ofc. Campbell is right about the State Police’s refusal to admit that Inv. Kalfas did not do his job, and so they will not re-investigate.  Are there no viable options for redress?

The phone records (landline and cell) would be one source of important information.  They could have been used to test the credibility of key participants in the events and to provide a more detailed timeline. They would reveal, for instance, if Marowski called Mark’s and Susan’s house or their cell phone in the period immediately before and up to the night Mark was killed and if that alleged phone call between Susan and Rapacioli actually took place.  Any competent investigator would have obtained them.

Is there a way a private citizen can obtain access to phone records?  If anyone reading this blog should have information about getting access to phone records, it would be much appreciated.