Second trial for attempted rapes begins

by: Ivan Sciupac - Published in: The Journal Newspapers
May, 2000

Man's conviction was thrown out after evidence was found

More than two months after winning a new trial because Alexandria police misplaced some key evidence, Ronald Suzukawa yesterday sat quietly in the same courtroom where he was convicted before on rape charges, his defense attorneys once again trying to convince a jury their client is innocent.

In January, Suzukawa, a former computer analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, was convicted on 20 charges of breaking into seven apartments at the 17-story Aspen House complex in Alexandria between 1992 and 1995 and trying to rape several residents. After seven hours of deliberations in that earlier trial, the jury recommended he be sentenced to 67 years in prison.

But Suzukawa's conviction was thrown into doubt a few weeks later when his defense attorneys unearthed a file of exculpatory evidence not introduced during the four-day trial.

The file contained photographs of a 24-year-old neighbor who had been identified by a victim as her attacker, as well as fingerprints taken from a victim's doorknob that are not Suzukawa's.

Alexandria Circuit Court Judge Alfred D. Swersky ordered a new trial for Suzukawa, 50, ruling there was human error in how the lost police file was handled and "perhaps negligence" on the part of prosecutors and police detectives in their attempts to retrieve the file.

Yesterday, in the first day of proceedings, Suzukawa's attorneys again attacked the credibility of the police department's investigation, criticizing detectives for failing to follow up different leads, influencing victims who had not identified Suzukawa as their attacker, and destroying forensic evidence that might have cleared his name.

"This is truly a sad case," defense attorney Lisa Kemler said during her opening statements. "There are real victims in this case, but convicting the wrong man is not going to undo the damage these victims suffered."

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Molly Sullivan, however, used her opening comments to urge jurors to look at details Suzukawa allegedly gave in confessions to his employer and to Alexandria detectives.

"He told police why he entered these apartments, how he entered these apartments, what he found inside and what he did once inside," Sullivan said. "The proof of this case is really in the details."

Alexandria police began investigating a series of breaking and entering and attempted rape cases in February 1992. They changed their beliefs on the attacker's identity several times, eventually focusing on Suzukawa.

They investigated Suzukawa but did not find sufficient evidence for an arrest.

The case against Suzukawa lay dormant until 1999, when his employer, DIA, ran a routine security clearance review and learned police had suspected him of breaking into seven apartments with the intent to rape his neighbors and of sexually assaulting three of them.

DIA investigators interrogated Suzukawa for 23 hours over seven sessions spanning several weeks in July until he confessed to the break-ins.

Agents testified during the January trial that Suzukawa told them he would target apartments that had not been secured with deadbolt locks, would slide a piece of milk-bottle plastic into the locks to open the doors, and would leave them ajar. Then he would go to his own apartment, take off his clothes and return naked to the unlocked apartments.

But Suzukawa's attorneys argued during the trial that Suzukawa had made a "false confession" and that DIA agents altered his memory of the events by supplying him with several details he was not able to recall. They also suggested police coerced witnesses into providing their accounts by reminding them of details.

Still, the jury found him guilty on all 20 charges.

But the missing police file turned up after Suzukawa's attorneys filed a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request for documents regarding police attempts to find the file, which was discovered in the city's Archive and Records Center.

Alexandria Police Capt. Al Tierney, who investigated the circumstances of the missing documents, testified that the inability of police and prosecutors to find the file was traced to two instances of human error.

The first instance centered around an inaccurate request slip that indicated the file had been checked out by Detective Barry Schiftic, though he did not have it. Tierney said detectives working the case believed Schiftic had misplaced the file and he was subsequently "ill treated" by some colleagues.

The file, however, had been returned to the archives center to the wrong filing address, Tierney said.

The second incident, Tierney said, was a result of "flawed communication between two human beings" and occurred when Special Police Officer Al Richter asked an employee at the archives center to retrieve all the police files in the Suzukawa case. Either he did not make the request for the specific file or the employee failed to write it down, Tierney said.

Richter never saw the file and was unaware it was missing. The file eventually was found earlier this month where it was supposed to be, Tierney said.

The trial is expected to last four days.