Pubdate: Mon, 19 Aug 2002
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2002 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact:  http://www.boston.com/globe/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Douglas Belkin, Globe Staff

PERJURER IMPERILS 6 YEARS OF CASES

Ex-Officer Linked To Public Counsel

More than 600 cases handled by the state public defender's office over the 
last six years could be appealed because they were investigated by a 
private detective company connected to a disgraced former Boston police 
officer convicted of perjury, the chief counsel for the office said Friday.

Carlos Luna, a detective with the city's drug unit in the late 1980s who 
was convicted of making up information to obtain search warrants and then 
lying about it under oath, works for Scollay Square Investigations, 
according to attorneys and private investigators who know him. And, 
according to its chief, Scollay Square Investigations has worked on 
hundreds cases for the Committee for Public Counsel Services.

William Leahy, the chief counsel for CPCS, suspended Scollay Square 
Investigations from doing business with the agency July 25, when a report 
began circulating that Luna - whose high-profile perjury trial in 1991 
blighted the reputation of the city's police department - was connected to 
the company and working as an investigator there.

Letters to 40 attorneys who used Scollay Square Investigations were mailed 
Thursday, asking them why they hired a detective agency with an association 
to Luna. Depending on their answers, the attorneys could be barred from 
work with CPCS, Leahy said.

If Luna, 46, investigated a case and uncovered evidence that could help a 
defendant, he would not have been able to effectively testify on behalf of 
that defendant because of his background, Leahy said. ''It could mean that 
counsel was ineffective and the convictions are invalid,'' Leahy said. ''It 
could be grounds for an appeal if that person was convicted. It's something 
we're very, very concerned about.''

Leahy said he doubts Luna ever testified ''because, what's the first 
question a prosecutor is going to ask him?'' But Leahy said he plans to 
have every case Luna may have worked on reviewed by his office.

Neither Luna nor his wife, Francesca - who is the owner of Scollay Square 
Investigations - returned multiple telephone calls to their home and 
business seeking comment.

Luna was a 32-year-old detective when his partner, Detective Sherman 
Griffiths, was fatally shot in the head during a raid on a Dorchester 
apartment in 1988. Charges of first-degree murder were dropped and then 
reinstated against the alleged killer when it was discovered that Luna 
invented the informant - and his testimony - to obtain a search warrant to 
enter the apartment.

The alleged shooter was eventually acquitted and, 21/2 years after the 
incident, Luna was convicted of 25 counts of perjury, sentenced to five 
years' probation, and subsequently fired from the force.

Scollay Square Investigations began getting work from CPCS almost 
immediately after it was licensed on June 25, 1996, by Francesca Luna, who 
is also listed as the firm's president.

The firm was incorporated July 22, 1996. Between Sept. 6, 1996, and July 
26, 2002, the company submitted 691 bills to the public defender's office 
for a total of $473,062.50, according to documents from the state 
comptroller's office. The pay scale for investigators at CPCS starts at $30 
an hour and runs to $70 an hour.

Tom Giblin, a defense lawyer who often takes cases for the agency, said 
last week that in the case of Scollay Square Investigations it's money well 
spent. Giblin has used the company for more than 100 cases and worked with 
Luna on several. He described Luna as a sharp investigator who was a good 
cop, scapegoated by higher-ranking officers. And he characterized Leahy's 
shock that Luna has been on the CPCS payroll as disingenuous. ''I've had 
him on witness lists, he's signed bills, everybody at the committee knows 
Carlos,'' Giblin said. ''I think CPCS is just trying to cover themselves.''

Giblin said Luna has never testified for him, but, with his client's 
informed consent, he would let him.

''I have no question about Carlos's credibility whatsoever,'' Giblin said. 
''Just because a guy has a felony conviction doesn't mean you should not 
hire him.''

Thomas Jackson, the vice president of the Licensed Private Detectives 
Association of Massachusetts, said he became aware that Luna was working 
for Scollay Square Investigations soon after it was incorporated.

Jackson discouraged anyone from hiring him because of his reputation, but 
said there is a shortage of good, Spanish-speaking, streetwise 
investigators in Massachusetts. Luna filled that niche, Jackson said.

Bruce Carroll, an attorney who has done work for CPCS, said he also knew 
that Luna was working as an investigator for CPCS and saw him in court 
occasionally. Carroll said he would never hire him ''because of his past.''

But at least 40 attorneys like Giblin - all of them in private practice, 
not on staff at CPCS - did hire Scollay Square Investigations, Leahy said.

''We want to know if they knew Carlos Luna was employed there, and if they 
didn't know, why didn't they know,'' Leahy said.

CPCS serves defendants who can't afford an attorney. Investigators can also 
be appointed by a judge to help a defense. Typically, investigators cost 
about $800 per case and are recommended to a judge by the defendant's 
attorney, Leahy said. Although the judge handling the case approves the 
money for investigators, they do not always know who they are because they 
are not necessarily named by the attorneys when a request is submitted.

If Luna is indeed working for Scollay Square Investigations, his wife's 
license could be revoked, said Lieutenant Richard Cashin, commanding 
officer of the Massachusetts State Police Certification Unit. When a 
private detective license is issued, Cashin said, only the background of 
the person applying for the license is checked. Employees of the company 
don't have to be licensed private detectives, but by law a license-holder 
cannot hire anyone with a felony conviction.

''There are a lot of companies that slip through the cracks,'' Cashin said.

When told that Luna appeared to be working illegally, Giblin said he wasn't 
familiar with that law.

''If CPCS says not to use him anymore, I won't use him,'' Giblin said. 
''But I will use him in private investigations.''
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens