Word: goetz
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Although New York "Vigilante" Bernhard Goetz is reputed to be publicity shy, he was anything but reticent last week. Goetz seemed to be everywhere, telling his increasingly disputed story about shooting and wounding four black teenagers who approached him on a Manhattan subway last Dec. 22. He appeared on local television news shows, wrote a bylined article for the New York Post, and ate take-out Chinese food with Barbara Walters in his 14th Street apartment for ABC's 20/20. ABC broadcast segments of a tape made by New Hampshire police on which Goetz is heard saying, "I knew...
...Goetz may tell his story next week to a second grand jury investigating him. The tactic is unorthodox; if he testifies (no date has yet been set), he waives immunity and anything he says can be used against him later in court. The grand jury, which was convened last week on the basis of new evidence, heard testimony from a subway passenger who contradicted Goetz's account of the shooting. Two of the gunman's victims, Troy Canty and James Ramseur, also appeared after they were granted immunity...
...Morgenthau, who faces an election this year, the case has become a political snare. Those upset by the first grand jury's lenient treatment contend that the district attorney did not press the grand jury hard enough for an indictment for attempted homicide against Goetz, who had overnight become celebrated as a quirky urban hero, an Everyman who finally fought back. In New York, unlike some other states, prosecutors seeking a grand jury indictment are required to present a balanced case and must include exculpatory evidence. Even so Morgenthau was astonished by the original grand jury's finding. "We thought...
...four of Goetz's victims have criminal records. One is still hospitalized with brain damage. Morgenthau was reluctant to allow any of the other three to testify before the first grand jury and thereby gain automatic immunity. He was concerned that it would appear to the grand jury that he was letting off a rather unsavory character with a previous criminal record in order to indict someone (Goetz) without one. Morgenthau says he subsequently urged one of the youths to testify before the new grand jury, but the boy's family was unwilling; it has already received 50 death threats...
...Goetz's lawyers called the reopening of the case a "judicial lynching." Says Joseph Kelner: "Mr. Morgenthau has been highly pressured by politicians who see gain in this for themselves. If he has a new witness, you have to wonder why they pop up now." Arguing that there is a tacit conspiracy among officials to convict his client in the court of public opinion, Kelner cites the decision this month to release a brooding confession Goetz made when he surrendered at a Concord, N.H., police station nine days after the shootings. "He's being turned from a crime victim into...