By Karenlyn Barone
Fusco was a pretty 16-year-old student at East Rockaway High School in November 1984. According to school guidance counselor Clark Chirlin, she was a hard worker; in fact, she was leaving her job at Hot Skates in Lynbrook the last time she was seen alive. Her nude body was discovered three weeks later alongside the railroad tracks in Lynbrook. According to a press release from the Nassau County District Attorney's office, Fusco had been strangled, and there was evidence of sexual assault.
After an intense investigation, three local area men were arrested. John Kogut, 22, of Island Park; John Restivo, 27, of Lynbrook; and Dennis Halstead, 31, of Lynbrook were tried and convicted of the rape and murder of Fusco in 1986.
Solid evidence against the three was weak. Although Halstead's phone was taped for more than 70 hours, only 20 seconds of the tape was admitted as evidence. In that span Halstead was asked by his sister if he had anything to do with the crime. His reply was, "Yeah." Defense argued that his answer was meant to be sarcastic.
Two hair strands from the victim were found in the van the men reportedly forced Fusco into that fateful night. The defense argued that the hairs were planted by the police. The police denied the charges.
But it was a written and videotaped confession given by Kogut to the police that solidified the prosecutor's case. The defense argued that the statement was coerced after an exhausting 18-hour interview. That argument was not heeded by the jury, which returned with a verdict of guilty for all three men. Restivo and Halstead were sentenced to 33 1/3 years to life, while Kogut received 37 1/2 years to life because of a prior conviction. For the district attorney, the case was over. For the defense, there was still arguing to be done.
Enter modern technology -- in the form of DNA testing -- which aided the defense in untying the case and eventually unlocked three cell doors.
In November 1993, new DNA testing on blood and semen from Fusco's body excluded Halstead as a contributor to the crime. However, the test did not exclude Kogut or Restivo. But in November 1994, another independent lab test excluded all three men, reporting that none of them contributed to the DNA taken from the victim.
Remarkably, it wasn't until last fall, while the defense was re-investigating the case, that an intact sample of semen taken from the victim was found while boxes of trial evidence were being sorted. The DNA test on that seminal fluid not only excluded the three convicted men, but, more important, it pointed to another, unknown man. Only after those test results were known did District Attorney Denis Dillon concede and ask for the convictions to be overturned. The men walked out of prison on June 11.
Nevertheless, Kogut, Restivo and Halstead stand convicted until Dillon decides whether or not to re-try the case. For now, though, the men will return home and try to make up for precious lost time.
