Daniel Pinna
Officer's Anger Over a Verdict Tied to Killings
The following appeared in the New York Times by By Richard Lezin Jones and Robert Hanley written on April 12, 2002
A police officer's festering resentment over the outcome of a sexual molestation trial involving his daughter most likely drove him to fatally shoot five neighbors on Tuesday night, the authorities said today.
After the killings, the police said, Officer Edward L. Lutes Jr. of the Police Department in nearby Seaside Heights left a message on his home answering machine in which he railed against the criminal justice system over the January 2001 acquittal of one of his victims, Dominick J. Galliano Jr., on charges that he sexually assaulted Officer Lutes's daughter.
Mr. Galliano, his wife and a son were killed in Tuesday night's rampage along with Gary Williams and his wife. Court papers show that Mr. Williams was a character witness for Mr. Galliano during the two-day trial that resulted in his acquittal.
''Officer Lutes was very disappointed in the outcome of this litigation,'' said Gregory J. Sakowicz, the executive assistant prosecutor for Ocean County. ''It was his anger over this matter which in all probability led to the murders of the Galliano and Williams family members.''
However, Mr. Sakowicz said, investigators are baffled about what later led Officer Lutes to drive 20 miles south to shoot and seriously injure Chief James M. Costello, the head of the Seaside Heights Police Department.
''The attempted murder of Chief Costello, as it relates to the Dover Township murders, remains an enigma,'' Mr. Sakowicz said. ''Perhaps someday we'll find out what it was about, perhaps we won't.''
Officer Lutes's body was found Wednesday morning in the driveway of a home he had apparently driven to at random about four miles away from the chief's home in Barnegat. The police said that he had apparently shot himself in the head. That discovery ended a 12-hour manhunt involving more than 100 officers who had been called in to help search for Officer Lutes, an expert marksman and a member of the county's elite tactical response unit.
It also unnerved this working-class coastal community, which was still recovering from a similar shooting spree on Feb. 21, when a retired Newark police officer killed four of his neighbors, including his granddaughter, in a house-to-house shooting spree before surrendering to the authorities.
The man who prosecutors say was the gunman in that incident, John W. Mabie, 70, is awaiting trial on murder charges.
Today, as the first shock of the shootings gave way to lingering anguish, those who had known Officer Lutes began trying to make sense of his rampage.
Conversations with neighbors and relatives and a review of court papers yield a portrait of Officer Lutes as a man who bore the increasingly intense weight of personal and financial problems in recent years.
Officer Lutes had started divorce proceedings against his wife of six years, Deborah, in 1997. In February 2001, a girlfriend, Cindy L. Mansuy, whom he had planned to marry, was killed when her car collided with a school bus. And for much of the last six months, Officer Lutes, named as the beneficiary in Ms. Mansuy's $100,000 life insurance policy, was engaged in a bitter lawsuit with an insurance company that refused to pay him the benefits.
''He was a nice kid who had a lot of bad things happen to him,'' said Michael Carbone, 46, a childhood friend. ''It was one bad thing after another.''
But friends and relatives said that Officer Lutes was wounded most by the acquittal of Mr. Galliano.
''Mr. Lutes was very upset the trial didn't come out in his favor,'' said Joseph J. Dochney, a lawyer who represented Mr. Galliano in his two-day trial.
Mr. Dochney said that Mr. Galliano, 51, and Officer Lutes, 42, who lived across the street from each other, were friends at one time. He recalled an incident when Mr. Galliano helped Officer Lutes when the officer was locked out of his car.
Officer Lutes trusted Mr. Galliano so much that he allowed his daughter to wait at his neighbor's home for her school bus most mornings while he went to work on the 7 a.m.-to-3 p.m. police shift. In March 2000, Officer Lutes's daughter, then 9, told her father that Mr. Galliano had exposed himself to her and asked her to touch his genitals during one of those morning visits a year earlier.
Mr. Galliano was arrested shortly after the girl made the allegation and was indicted on three molestation charges by a grand jury in August 2000. Four months later, Mr. Galliano was cleared of the charges after 50 minutes of jury deliberation.
After the trial, Mr. Dochney said, Officer Lutes remained hostile toward Mr. Galliano and his family. After the verdict, posters appeared on telephone poles in the neighborhood indicating that an unnamed child molester lived in the area. Mr. Dochney said the source of the posters was never determined.
Mr. Dochney said Mr. Galliano remained very concerned about Mr. Lutes. ''He thought he was a dangerous individual,'' Mr. Dochney said.
That image contrasted with the perspective of some friends and colleagues who described the brawny, crew-cut, 6-foot, 220-pound Officer Lutes as an even-tempered, easygoing officer devoted to his job. ''He was a very fine officer,'' said Capt. Jamie Chaney, a colleague at the Seaside Heights Police Department. ''He did his job very well. He was a pretty brave officer.''
But some who knew Officer Lutes outside work described him as stern, moody and humorless and seemingly more concerned about making sure his lawn was well maintained than in making conversation.
''I would hear how little things set him off,'' said Scott Barone, a brother of Ms. Mansuy. ''That is a pretty dangerous thing. A person you have to walk on eggshells around all the time is dangerous.'
John A. Camera, borough administrator of Seaside Heights, spoke with Chief Costello after the shootings and said the men exchanged words after Officer Lutes pulled up to the chief's home. Mr. Camera said that the chief told him the following exchange ensued:
''Lutes, is that you?'' Mr. Camera said the chief called into the darkness.
''Chief, is that you?'' came the reply from Officer Lutes.
''Yes,'' the chief replied.
Then, according to Mr. Camera, Officer Lutes said simply, ''I'm going to kill you.''
A police officer's festering resentment over the outcome of a sexual molestation trial involving his daughter most likely drove him to fatally shoot five neighbors on Tuesday night, the authorities said today.
After the killings, the police said, Officer Edward L. Lutes Jr. of the Police Department in nearby Seaside Heights left a message on his home answering machine in which he railed against the criminal justice system over the January 2001 acquittal of one of his victims, Dominick J. Galliano Jr., on charges that he sexually assaulted Officer Lutes's daughter.
Mr. Galliano, his wife and a son were killed in Tuesday night's rampage along with Gary Williams and his wife. Court papers show that Mr. Williams was a character witness for Mr. Galliano during the two-day trial that resulted in his acquittal.
''Officer Lutes was very disappointed in the outcome of this litigation,'' said Gregory J. Sakowicz, the executive assistant prosecutor for Ocean County. ''It was his anger over this matter which in all probability led to the murders of the Galliano and Williams family members.''
However, Mr. Sakowicz said, investigators are baffled about what later led Officer Lutes to drive 20 miles south to shoot and seriously injure Chief James M. Costello, the head of the Seaside Heights Police Department.
''The attempted murder of Chief Costello, as it relates to the Dover Township murders, remains an enigma,'' Mr. Sakowicz said. ''Perhaps someday we'll find out what it was about, perhaps we won't.''
Officer Lutes's body was found Wednesday morning in the driveway of a home he had apparently driven to at random about four miles away from the chief's home in Barnegat. The police said that he had apparently shot himself in the head. That discovery ended a 12-hour manhunt involving more than 100 officers who had been called in to help search for Officer Lutes, an expert marksman and a member of the county's elite tactical response unit.
It also unnerved this working-class coastal community, which was still recovering from a similar shooting spree on Feb. 21, when a retired Newark police officer killed four of his neighbors, including his granddaughter, in a house-to-house shooting spree before surrendering to the authorities.
The man who prosecutors say was the gunman in that incident, John W. Mabie, 70, is awaiting trial on murder charges.
Today, as the first shock of the shootings gave way to lingering anguish, those who had known Officer Lutes began trying to make sense of his rampage.
Conversations with neighbors and relatives and a review of court papers yield a portrait of Officer Lutes as a man who bore the increasingly intense weight of personal and financial problems in recent years.
Officer Lutes had started divorce proceedings against his wife of six years, Deborah, in 1997. In February 2001, a girlfriend, Cindy L. Mansuy, whom he had planned to marry, was killed when her car collided with a school bus. And for much of the last six months, Officer Lutes, named as the beneficiary in Ms. Mansuy's $100,000 life insurance policy, was engaged in a bitter lawsuit with an insurance company that refused to pay him the benefits.
''He was a nice kid who had a lot of bad things happen to him,'' said Michael Carbone, 46, a childhood friend. ''It was one bad thing after another.''
But friends and relatives said that Officer Lutes was wounded most by the acquittal of Mr. Galliano.
''Mr. Lutes was very upset the trial didn't come out in his favor,'' said Joseph J. Dochney, a lawyer who represented Mr. Galliano in his two-day trial.
Mr. Dochney said that Mr. Galliano, 51, and Officer Lutes, 42, who lived across the street from each other, were friends at one time. He recalled an incident when Mr. Galliano helped Officer Lutes when the officer was locked out of his car.
Officer Lutes trusted Mr. Galliano so much that he allowed his daughter to wait at his neighbor's home for her school bus most mornings while he went to work on the 7 a.m.-to-3 p.m. police shift. In March 2000, Officer Lutes's daughter, then 9, told her father that Mr. Galliano had exposed himself to her and asked her to touch his genitals during one of those morning visits a year earlier.
Mr. Galliano was arrested shortly after the girl made the allegation and was indicted on three molestation charges by a grand jury in August 2000. Four months later, Mr. Galliano was cleared of the charges after 50 minutes of jury deliberation.
After the trial, Mr. Dochney said, Officer Lutes remained hostile toward Mr. Galliano and his family. After the verdict, posters appeared on telephone poles in the neighborhood indicating that an unnamed child molester lived in the area. Mr. Dochney said the source of the posters was never determined.
Mr. Dochney said Mr. Galliano remained very concerned about Mr. Lutes. ''He thought he was a dangerous individual,'' Mr. Dochney said.
That image contrasted with the perspective of some friends and colleagues who described the brawny, crew-cut, 6-foot, 220-pound Officer Lutes as an even-tempered, easygoing officer devoted to his job. ''He was a very fine officer,'' said Capt. Jamie Chaney, a colleague at the Seaside Heights Police Department. ''He did his job very well. He was a pretty brave officer.''
But some who knew Officer Lutes outside work described him as stern, moody and humorless and seemingly more concerned about making sure his lawn was well maintained than in making conversation.
''I would hear how little things set him off,'' said Scott Barone, a brother of Ms. Mansuy. ''That is a pretty dangerous thing. A person you have to walk on eggshells around all the time is dangerous.'
John A. Camera, borough administrator of Seaside Heights, spoke with Chief Costello after the shootings and said the men exchanged words after Officer Lutes pulled up to the chief's home. Mr. Camera said that the chief told him the following exchange ensued:
''Lutes, is that you?'' Mr. Camera said the chief called into the darkness.
''Chief, is that you?'' came the reply from Officer Lutes.
''Yes,'' the chief replied.
Then, according to Mr. Camera, Officer Lutes said simply, ''I'm going to kill you.''
