More on the Failure of the N.Y.S. Police to Pursue the Question of Mark’s Head Wounds

A previous post (January 29, 2019) pointed out information about head wounds sustained by my brother that was relayed in a meeting by Atty. Michael Kelly to Senior Inv. John Wolfe and Inv. Edward Kalfas in September 2005.

As that post reported, earlier in 2005, my brother’s attending physician at the burn unit of the Erie County Medical Center had informed me that a CT scan revealed deep soft-tissue swelling on Mark’s forehead, suggesting that he had received a blow to his head, and additional soft-tissue damage to the left side of his face.  Not long after, a firefighter revealed to Kelly that he had seen a wound on my brother’s forehead the night of the fire, which looked as if Mark has been hit with a nine-iron.  This post considers further why the New York State Police failed to pursue the issue of those head wounds in 2005 and why they did not interview both men during the investigation itself in 2003.

Since firefighter Wayne Frank was one of the first emergency workers on the scene and helped to put the fire out on Mark, he should have been asked to give a witness statement as the other two firefighters, Gary Wind and Mark Ward, were.  Kalfas, however, did not interview Wayne Frank at all during the investigation.  When I learned by chance in July 2005 that Wayne Frank had been on the scene of Mark’s truck fire, I asked him about what he had observed.  He said that the fire did not look like an accident and added that the police should have looked for Mark’s nine-iron.  When Kelly interviewed him shortly afterwards, the firefighter willingly informed him about the wound on Mark’s forehead.

During the same meeting with the two State Police investigators in September 2005, Kelly suggested that they interview Wayne Frank, and Wolfe agreed to do it.  Yet several months went by, and Kelly heard nothing from Wolfe.  So, in January 2006, Kelly followed up on the issue with a call to Wolfe, but by February Wolfe still had not got back to him.  Wayne Frank obviously was never interviewed.

As Mark’s attending physician at the burn unit, Dr. Edward Piotrowski should certainly have been interviewed during the investigation into Mark’s death.  Kalfas had to have known that my brother’s attending physician was concerned about the severity of his burns.  In late December 2003, a nephew informed me about statements made to him in the burn unit by Dr. Piotrowski: that Mark's skin was saturated with gasoline and that his burns did not appear to be the result of an accident.  I then sent a letter to the Cattaraugus County District Attorney reporting the doctor’s concern that my brother’s wounds did not seem accidental.

When Kelly asked Kalfas during their meeting in 2005 why Dr. Piotrowski had not been interviewed, the investigator stated that he had in fact spoken with Mark’s attending physician, who he claimed had nothing to say.  But Dr. Piotrowski himself told me in February 2005 that although he had been concerned about the cause of Mark’s burns, no one from the investigation had ever questioned him and so he assumed that they had an explanation.

During the same meeting in 2005, Wolfe stated that he would contact Dr. Piotrowski himself.  When I called Wolfe a few weeks later to request an appointment with him, he replied that there would be no point since he had no new information.  Wolfe added that the telephone number I had passed on to Kelly for Dr. Piotrowski’s new office in Rochester must have been incorrect.  He explained that when he used it, the physician who answered said that Wolfe had got the wrong Dr. Piotrowski and that he himself had never worked at the Erie County Medical Center.   I informed Wolfe that I in fact had got that number from Dr. Piotrowski’s former secretary, who said that the doctor himself had given it to ECMC.

Kelly stated to me that he had urged Wolfe not only to contact Dr. Piotrowski but also to get a subpoena if the doctor refused to speak to him. That obviously never happened.

Did the State Police really want to find out--or not--about Mark’s head wounds?