New & Noteworthy...Videotape shows Rooney trying to leave interview Published: Thursday, January 17, 2008 Police appeared to rebuff efforts by Brian Rooney to end a lengthy interrogation about his role in the disappearance of University of Vermont student Michelle Gardner-Quinn in 2006 two days before hikers found her body in Richmond. In a videotape of the interrogation shown in Vermont District Court in Burlington on Wednesday, Rooney repeatedly tries to tell police that his lawyer had instructed him not to give any more statements to police but is interrupted and advised to keep talking instead. Five times the Oct. 11, 2006, video showed him standing up inside an interrogation room at the Williston barracks of the Vermont State Police and saying he wanted to leave. The first four times he was talked out of leaving and agreed to sit back down. "I've been here long enough," Rooney, 37, said at one point. "There is no tomorrow," an unidentified police detective responded. Police at the time were desperately trying to find Gardner-Quinn, 21, and viewed Rooney as the chief suspect in her disappearance because he had let her use his cell phone to make a call during a late-night encounter in Burlington and was the last person to see her alive. Two weeks after Gardner-Quinn's body was found, Rooney was charged with aggravated murder. Police believe he abducted, raped and strangled the University of Vermont student. Medical examiners said Rooney's DNA was found on Gardner-Quinn's body. Wednesday marked the third day of a pre-trial hearing before Judge Michael Kupersmith, who has been asked to decide what evidence prosecutors in the case can use in Rooney's upcoming trial. Rooney's attorney, David Sleigh, has said there are 37 instances where the videotape shows police ignored Rooney's request to speak with his lawyer. Sleigh wants the videotaped interrogation suppressed. Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. Ed Twohig, who conducted the videotaped interrogation, testified in court Wednesday that Rooney agreed to talk voluntarily and had been made aware of his rights to remain silent and have an attorney present. "He could stop the questioning at any time," Twohig said. "He understood that, and he agreed to talk." Under questioning by Sleigh, Twohig said he knew that Rooney's lawyer at the time, Douglas Kallen, had sent a note to police asking them not to question Rooney anymore and that then-acting Chittenden County State's Attorney Margaret Vincent had told police to abide by Kallen's request. "I knew it was a bone of contention between the people running the investigation and Ms. Vincent," Twohig said. The interrogation is one of at least two Sleigh has contended were conducted improperly. Later Wednesday, an audio recording was played of another interrogation of Rooney that took place a day after the videotaped one. Rooney is heard weeping during an early part of the interrogation as Twohig and Burlington Police Detective Sgt. Kris Carlson urge him to tell the truth about what happened to Gardner-Quinn. "I'm an emotional wreck," he is heard telling Twohig and Carlson during his meeting with them outside a Winooski apartment house on Oct. 12, 2006. "Let the truth out," Carlson is heard telling Rooney. "I think you unknowingly did something wrong." Later, he begged Rooney to tell police where Gardner-Quinn's body is so her family can give her a proper burial. "You can help them with that," Carlson said. Neither interrogation appeared to provide much new information about Rooney's role in Gardner-Quinn's disappearance Oct. 7. Police and prosecutors have offered no evidence on when and where Rooney allegedly raped and killed Gardner-Quinn, or how her body ended up in Huntington Gorge. In the videotaped interrogation, designed to prime Rooney for a polygraph test that ultimately was not conducted, Rooney described how he spent Friday night, Oct. 6, 2006, drinking heavily at two downtown bars after receiving a large paycheck. He said he ran into Gardner-Quinn, whom he did not know, on Main Street early Saturday morning and let her use his cell phone because she was trying to call a friend and her cell phone's battery was dead. A jewelry store surveillance camera later caught an image of the two walking up Main Street near South Union Street. Rooney told Twohig he couldn't remember where he claims they parted. "I think she said something about getting a cab," he said "I don't really know." He said he woke up with a hangover the next day. "I was in bad shape," he said. "I tried to lay down and watch TV, but I still couldn't sleep." Through most of the interview, Twohig tried to persuade Rooney to trust him. Twohig told Rooney he thought Rooney was a good person, not a "hurtful guy." Twohig told Rooney that, by taking the polygraph test, Rooney could show the more suspicious cops at the barracks that he didn't anything wrong. "I'm trying to help you," Twohig told Rooney at one point. "I want to clear you. We're on the same team here." Rooney repeatedly expressed reluctance about the test and being interrogated further by Twohig. "I want to do this tomorrow," Rooney said at one point. "I've had a stressful day." Toward the end of the interrogation, Twohig is joined by Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. James Claremont, and Rooney is told that a police dog has found traces of Gardner-Quinn's scent on Rooney's clothing and in his Richmond home. "You haven't been telling the truth," Twohig told Rooney. "There are glaring holes in what you told the police from one story to the next." The detectives tried to increase pressure on Rooney to cooperate. His response was to stand up and say he wanted to leave. "We're not done with you," Claremont answered. Rooney then is persuaded to sit back down. Several minutes later, he stood up again and began to leave the room. "When we find the body, you're going to be in trouble," Claremont said to him. "You know she's not coming home. You're upset because you know it's the truth." The pretrial hearing before Kupersmith resumes this morning at 8:30. The judge today is also expected to take up a request by The Burlington Free Press and WCAX-TV for release of the videotape, audio recording and other police investigative materials that have been the subject of this week's prolonged hearing. Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com |