Holyoke police detective Paul Barkyoumb's credibility jeopardize drug cases
Suspicions over Holyoke police detective Paul Barkyoumb's credibility jeopardize drug cases
By Stephanie Barry
November 02, 2009, 10:40PM
HOLYOKE - Drug prosecutions continue to be imperiled as suspicions linger over Holyoke police detective Paul C. Barkyoumb’s credibility and whether he pocketed a suspect’s cell phone during a drug raid and used it to send his ex-girlfriend threatening text messages.
A group of lawyers on Monday signaled their intent in District Court to seek dismissal of charges against four defendants arrested in the raid on the basis of “egregious government misconduct.”
The action is based on a finding from a Connecticut family court judge who concluded that Barkyoumb took the cell phone of one of those defendants, Elizabeth Perez, during a drug raid in early September.
Attorney Luke Ryan told Judge Lauren MacLeod in District Court that he and three other lawyers will seek to dismiss drug possession and school-zone drug violation charges against Perez and three co-defendants.
“We’ll seek to dismiss on the grounds of egregious government misconduct,” Ryan said. A hearing, however, will not be conducted until January.
Outside the courtroom, he said he and his fellow lawyers will also seek all records related to the internal affairs and Connecticut State Police probes of Barkyoumb’s alleged theft of the cell phone.
Holyoke lawyer Lisa Ball, who represents Perez, said they believe the allegations against Barkyoumb have crippled the prosecution’s case.
“We’re just going to keep pushing and pushing,” she said.
Her client’s cell phone was taken by police during the raid, but never turned in as evidence to the Police Department, according to the proceedings in Connecticut.
In the Rockville, Conn., family court case, Barkyoumb’s ex-girlfriend, Michelle Cruz, a victim’s advocate for the state of Connecticut, argued Barkyoumb had harassed and threatened her after the two broke up last spring.
She sought a restraining order, and presented evidence to suggest a string of anonymous threatening text messages from a New York cell phone actually came from the hand of Barkyoumb.
The 13-year police veteran took the witness stand himself in the Connecticut court, denying he threatened Cruz or took the cell phone. However, Perez testified that Barkyoumb had taken her cell phone from her during her arrest. The phone was never logged in to evidence, and Perez produced a receipt for the phone, which bore the same number that sent the messages including:
“R U afraid? Psycho dike (sic) bitch .¤.¤. I will find a way to get you back,” one said, according to court records.
Calling the detective “absolutely corrupt” from the bench, Connecticut Judge Eliott N. Solomon imposed a one-year restraining order. This triggered a ripple effect of bad luck for Barkyoumb, a narcotics officer who was stripped of his gun and placed on desk duty. A Connecticut State Police criminal probe into the harassment allegations is pending as well as an internal affairs investigation in the Holyoke Police Department, officials say.
Meanwhile, Barkyoumb has become virtually radioactive in the court system. Last week, two drug prosecutions were dismissed in Hampden Superior and Holyoke District courts because Barkyoumb is on an unspecified medical leave, according to Hampden District Attorney William M. Bennett. Bennett has said he will be unable to testify for the prosecution for months.
Holyoke Police Chief Anthony R. Scott has repeatedly refused to comment on Barkyoumb’s troubles and would not speak again this week about the detective’s absence. Bennett said he will review cases in which Barkyoumb is a key witness on a “case-by-case basis.”
He would not address whether Barkyoumb’s absence could present a longterm problem for his office.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index....oke_police.html
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