Missing boy's parents want to toss judgment against early suspect; is it prejudicial to new suspect?
The parents of 6-year-old boy who disappeared in 1979 are asking a court to vacate a $2.7 million default judgment against the man they once believed responsible for the child’s death.
Stanley Patz filed an affidavit in a Manhattan trial court on Wednesday that says he and his wife no longer believe that the wrongful-death defendant, Jose Ramos, killed their son, Etan Patz, report the Associated Press, the New York Times and the New York Daily News, which was first with the story.
The Patzes never collected the money from Ramos, a convicted child molester. A judge entered a default judgment in 2004 after Ramos refused to finish giving a deposition.
The affidavit said the Patzes now believe the real killer was Pedro Hernandez, whose trial ended with a hung jury last year. A retrial is expected to begin in a month.
Hernandez had confessed to killing Etan Patz, but his lawyers say the confession was due to his mental illness and low IQ.
The lead defense lawyer for Hernandez, Harvey Fishbein, is calling the move by the Patzes “a blatant assault on Mr. Hernandez’s ability to receive a fair and impartial trial.” He is asking for a hearing on whether the Manhattan District Attorney’s office influenced Patz to seek to lift the civil judgment.
“Why now?” Fishbein told the New York Times. “It’s poisoning the jury four weeks before trial.”
Stanley Patz says he wasn’t influenced by the DA. “In no way did the DA’s office suggest, encourage or influence my decision to get that 2004 default judgment vacated,” he told the Times and the Daily News.
