The judge interrupted to say, “You can do a lot of things.”
“I’m sorry,” Portale said.
After a brief break requested by Portale to review his notes, he continued, “From the time you came into contact with Miss Graswald on April 29, 2015, till the time you got to Gully’s, she never asked for counsel, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“You never advised her that she had a right to counsel, correct?”
“That’s correct.”
“And nor did Investigator DeQuarto or Moscato, correct?”
“Not in my presence.”
Portale released the witness.
ADA Byrne started the redirect. “When you had any conversation with the defendant on April 29, 2015, what language did you speak?” he asked, trying to counter the defense’s argument about Angelika’s inability to understand anything but her native tongue.
“English.”
“What language did she speak in response to you?”
“English.”
“Did she ever express a lack of capacity to understand the language you were speaking?”
“No.”
“How would you characterize the tone of the conversation?”
“At the time we settled in, it was, you know, calm. And we were attempting to sort of console her at the same time as figure out exactly what the status of her cell phone was. And, also, her possible grief and her relationship with Mr. Viafore.”
“Was there any yelling?”
“No.”
“So, how would you describe the tone?”
“Calm, relaxed.”
Byrne released the witness and court was dismissed until June 20.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
At 10:00 am on June 20, 2016, Detective Donald DeQuarto took the stand. Prosecutor David Byrne established his twelve-year career with the New York State Police with a three-year stint as an investigator assigned to the state police Montgomery barracks. Together they went through DeQuarto’s meeting with Angelika at St. Luke’s Hospital and her deposition back at the barracks.
“You said that Vincent told her to call nine-one-one, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Did she say, at that time, that he had said anything else to her?”
“No. She told me that’s all he said.”
“And you were clear about that with her?” Byrne pressed.
“Yes,” answered DeQuarto. He related the conversation they’d had about Vince capsizing in the river.
“During the oral conversation with her at the barracks on that evening, did she describe if she and Vincent Viafore had any wedding plans?” Byrne asked.
“Yeah. She said they were supposed to get married, I believe it was in August.”
“Did she describe where the plans were?”
“I wasn’t too clear on that. She said that they thought they were trying to plan something over in Latvia, but then there may have been talk of planning a wedding in the area on Bannerman’s Island.”
“And during your whole conversation with her, she was clear that she was not able to get to Vincent?”
“Yes.”
“And that she was exhausted?”
“Yes.”
After establishing that their conversation was in English and Angelika had had no difficulty with comprehension, Byrne asked, “You described, at some point, a supporting deposition that was secured … how was that done?”
“I asked her the details of what happened that night and I typed it up on a computer,” DeQuarto said.
“And did you ask her anything or tell her anything with respect to her viewing the document?”
“Yeah. I asked her to read it and I asked her if she wanted anything changed on it, to let me know, and if she didn’t want any changes, after she read it in its entirety, to sign it.”
“Did she indicate that she understood your instructions?”
“Yes.”
“Did she review it in your presence?”
“Yes.”
“Did she make any changes to it?”
“No.”
Byrne introduced the first exhibit, a copy of Angelika’s deposition from that night, and asked the investigator if he recognized it. He said he did.
“How do you recognize it to be so?”
“It’s signed by myself … and Angelika Graswald.”
The defense rose to question DeQuarto about the document before it was officially submitted into evidence. “Did you read this start to finish? The body of this supporting deposition?”
“Yes.”
“Just now?” Portale shot back.
“No, not just now.”
“Okay. So, I’m just curious, how do you know that this is the supporting deposition that my client signed, besides the signatures? What’s contained in here that’s—”
DeQuarto interrupted, “I recognize it from being a copy of what I took that night.”
“But you just testified that you didn’t read it.”
“I didn’t read it in its entirety, but—”
Portale barged on. “So, the contents of that supporting deposition, People’s One, is the same content as the deposition that you took from my client?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. No objection,” Portale said.
Byrne resumed his questioning. “Investigator DeQuarto, did the defendant say anything more about the rescue itself?”
“No,” DeQuarto answered. “She just said that three men had pulled her out of the water after ten minutes of being in the water.”
“Did she describe whether or not she had a conversation with them?”
“No.”
“Did she describe whether or not she asked them to search for Vincent Viafore?”
“She had said that there was her fiancé that was in the water and they brought her back to shore.”
“And did she describe whether or not she was treated?”
“Yes. She said that EMC was there.”
Byrne then asked about when she left the barracks and where she went.
DeQuarto said that he had driven her to her car at Plum Point at 11:00 pm.
“What was her demeanor like at Plum Point that evening?”
“She seemed calm.”
“Okay,” Byrne continued, “during the time that you spoke to her on April 19: on the phone before you saw her in person at the hospital, at the hospital, at the state police barracks, and also at Plum Point, for the entirety of the time that you spoke to her, did she ever request the presence of counsel?”
“No.”
“Did she ever indicate that she did not want to speak with you?”
“No.”
“Did you make any promises, coerce her in any way, make any threats in any fashion?”
“No.”
Byrne walked DeQuarto through the next few days in which he had apprised Angelika of any developments in the search for Vince. Then he moved on to cover the scheduled interviews that Angelika had accepted and missed and her belated appearance on the evening of April 28.
“What was the sum and substance of that conversation?” Byrne asked.
“I asked her to take me through the sequence of events of that day, to tell me a little bit about themselves, about Vincent, and she stated, in sum and substance, that they were together for about a year and seven months.”
DeQuarto repeated the description of the accident Angelika had given him at their meeting. “They were heading back around seven-oh-two and she knew that that was pretty much the exact time they were leaving because she had sent a text message to one of the volunteers that worked on Bannerman’s Island at that time. And she said that Vincent had tipped over in his kayak because of the rough waters and reiterated, pretty much, what she told me on the first night. And she was breathing heavy.”
Byrne repeated the questions he’d asked earlier, getting DeQuarto to once again assert that he’d communicated with Angelika in English and did not coerce her
, threaten her, or make any promises. The only distinction in this series was a question about her demeanor on April 28. “She was holding her stomach and breathing heavy,” DeQuarto said.
The prosecutor asked, “During your conversation with her, did she indicate that she lost anything else in the water, besides her phone? Did she talk about a wallet or anything else?”
“Yes, she had a wallet that, I believe, had some credit cards and her license in [it].”
Byrne moved back to the central incident. “Did she describe in more detail what happened to Vincent out on the water?”
“She said that he was in the water and he was holding on to a blue flotation device and his kayak and he also had, I believe it was a dry bag with some belongings in it, and he had asked her to call nine-one-one. She said she called nine-one-one and then when she got rescued, she said she couldn’t see him anymore at that point.”
“When she still could see him, according to her, was she describing what she could see of his body in the water?” Byrne asked.
“She said she saw his head just bobbing up and down.”
“Did she describe the conditions, the weather conditions, on the way from Plum Point to Bannerman’s Island?”
“She said the water was choppy, but it got progressively worse as they were at the island.”
“Did you ask her then, ‘Well, why didn’t you leave earlier?’”
“Yeah,” the investigator said. “She said because they were having a good time.”
“During your conversation with her on the twenty-eighth, was she ever in cuffs?”
“No.”
“Was she ever told she was under arrest?”
“No.”
“And also, going back to your conversation on Sunday, April 19, was she ever in handcuffs?”
“No.”
Byrne took DeQuarto step by step through April 29 and the time he spent with Angelika out on the island, when she’d first mentioned the plug. “Are you a kayaker?” he asked.
“No, I’m not.”
“At that time, was any plug recovered in the investigation?”
“No.”
“Was any ring recovered in the investigation?”
“No.”
“So, when the defendant spoke those words, were you seeking clarification from her as to what she was talking about?”
“I had never kayaked a day in my life and I don’t really know the importance of any kind of ring on a paddle. I didn’t even know paddles have rings on them, safety rings, or in particular, that kayaks have plugs, so, she was telling me this, I really wasn’t sure, and I needed to clarify what she was saying because, like I said, I never kayaked, ever.”
ADA Byrne once again established that Angelika never asked for counsel, was not coerced in any way, was never in handcuffs, and had displayed no difficulty in comprehending or speaking English. Then he introduced three photographs: of the dock, the decking area, and the trail that Angelika and DeQuarto had followed.
Defense attorney Portale spoke up, badgering the witness about who’d taken the photographs, when they were taken, and if they really did represent the area as it was when he was there. After all that, he did not object to the submission of the exhibits.
The prosecutor then asked a series of questions about the areas depicted in the pictures and asked, “About how much time did you speak with the defendant without Investigator DaSilva or Senior Investigator Moscato?”
“I would say it was approximately an hour.”
DeQuarto then described their return to Gully’s and the car ride to the state police barracks in Montgomery. He stated that he did not ask any questions of Angelika prior to their arrival at the barracks.
“Did there come a time when you advised her of what’s commonly known as Miranda warnings?” Byrne asked.
“Yes.”
“How was that done?”
“In writing, a piece of paper that is a photocopy of a Miranda card.”
The prosecutor offered a copy of the Miranda card as evidence. Portale jumped at this. “This is a copy of your card?” he asked DeQuarto.
“That’s correct.”
“So, where is your card now?”
“In my vehicle.”
“Is that where you keep it commonly?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t keep it on your person?”
“No,” the investigator said.
Portale asked, “Did you read from this copy, or was it some other copy?”
“I don’t know if it was that copy, but that’s a copy of my card.”
The defense dropped any objections to entering the warning into evidence, and DeQuarto read the Miranda statement aloud for the record.
Byrne continued his questioning. “During the course of the interview, from roughly three twenty or so pm on Wednesday, April 29, to roughly two thirty four am on April 30, 2015, were any breaks taken?”
“Angelika had several bathroom breaks,” DeQuarto said. “I personally gave her some water crackers, pizza, cigarettes, and I know that I made her some tea. Other members that were working that night made her coffee, and someone went out and they got tampons as well.”
“For approximately how long of that time period was the defendant alone in the interview room?”
“I would say about six hours,” DeQuarto estimated.
“At times when the defendant was alone in the interview room what did you see, if anything, her doing?”
“She was drawing at one point, writing on paper that was in the room. At other times she was stretching and doing yoga.”
The defense quibbled about the investigator’s ability to testify that the complete eleven-hour tape was a fair and accurate reflection of the defendant’s time in the room, since he sometimes was not present. He also pressed the witness regarding who’d copied the recording to a DVD, who’d applied noise reduction to the tape, and when he had last viewed the DVD. DeQuarto had no precise answers for any of the queries.
That series of questions incited an argument between the prosecution and the defense. “He has to have seen and heard everything that happened during that interview in order to actually be able to say that this disk is a fair and accurate depiction of what happened,” Portale insisted.
“That’s incorrect,” Byrne argued.
“If the witness wasn’t there for half an hour, let’s say he went out to get pizza, which we know he did, then he can’t say that what’s on this disk is actually what happened, because he wasn’t there—”
“He said it’s a fair and accurate recording. He is familiar with the system,” Byrne objected.
The two attorneys bickered back and forth for a few minutes, gaining no ground on either side. “So, we’re back in the ‘Twilight Zone’ again,” Portale cracked. “He could have watched it a hundred times. If he wasn’t there and didn’t see it or hear it, he doesn’t know if that’s accurate.”
Finally, the judge ordered Portale to move on. The defense attorney went to question the timing and frequency of DeQuarto’s breaks from the interview room. Again, the detective could not answer because he hadn’t kept track.
The state submitted another evidentiary exhibit: the paper Angelika had drawn on. One drawing, made at DeQuarto’s request, depicted one beer each in the kayaks—a Modelo for Angelika and a Dos Equis for Vince. The judge admitted it into evidence over the defense’s objections.
Byrne presented the document to Investigator DeQuarto. “Indicating the bottom of that document, is there a word there?”
“Yes.… ‘Free.’”
“And is there a drawing there?”
“Yes, it’s a picture of an island, of a palm tree, some water surrounding the island, and a picture of a sun with some birds.”
Byrne then pointed to the Miranda warning near the top of the paper and DeQuarto acknowledged that it was written in English.
“And a drawing of two kayaks with paddles, correct?”
“That’s correct.”
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Then Byrne drew his attention to a symbol at the top.
“It looks like the shape of a heart,” DeQuarto said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
After a lunch break, the hearing continued with the introduction of defense exhibits A through W, many of which were DeQuarto’s investigatory notes. Then DeQuarto was back on the stand for cross-examination.
The defense first asked the detective if he had testified in court about this case prior to today. DeQuarto testified that he had not. Portale then presented the exhibits, including the report about the conversation with Angelika on Bannerman Island the investigator had typed out, signed, and dated “April 30th, 2015,” as well as the notes he’d used to compile the report.
DeQuarto told the court he had written down the notes on April 30 and Portale questioned the accuracy of his statement several times as if he didn’t believe him—or didn’t want the judge to find him credible. Next, he queried the witness about the kayak and paddles, establishing that DeQuarto did not personally recover them, although he had signed off on their transfer to the Storm King Fire Department.
“You had testified on direct that you had taken Miss Graswald back to the Jeep—Mr. Viafore’s Jeep—on the nineteenth; is that right?” Portale asked. “And then she was allowed to go back home, or wherever she had gone in the Jeep, with those keys that she had?”
“Correct.”
Byrne rose to his feet. “Objection, Your Honor, to the word ‘allowed,’ as opposed to what she did.”
“You didn’t stop her, did you?” Portale asked.
“You can answer that part that way,” the judge told DeQuarto.
“No, I did not stop her,” he answered.
“So, you gave her a ride from the barracks to the Jeep and she went wherever she was going?” Portale continued.
“Correct.”
Portale handed over defendant’s exhibit W and asked, “What is that form?”
DeQuarto scanned the document. “It is a property receipt.”
“And it is a property receipt for two silver keys … are those the Jeep keys that Miss Graswald had at the time, or are those some other keys?”
“I didn’t fill this form out, so I’m not sure.”
“I mean, you’re the lead investigator in this case, right?” Portale asked, sarcasm dripping off every word.
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