Fayette County Judge Ralph C. Warman Tuesday lambasted an out-of-county judge who threw out a 1986 murder conviction based, in part, on Warman's conduct as a prosecutor in the case.
"He must have been thinking about who's going to play him in the movie," Warman said of visiting Northumberland County Judge Barry F. Feudale.
Feudale vacated the first-degree murder convictions and life sentences of David J. Munchinski, 52, for the Dec. 2, 1977, slayings of James "Petey" Alford, 22, of Hempfield Township, and Raymond P. Gierke, 28, of Bear Rocks.
Feudale ruled earlier this month that Warman and Judge Gerald R. Solomon, then the county's elected district attorney, hid evidence from Munchinski's lawyers in his joint trial with co-defendant Leon Scaglione in 1983, which ended in a hung jury, and again in his separate 1986 retrial. He also found that a former assistant district attorney, John Kopas III, failed to disclose evidence during post-conviction appeals.
Feudale also barred prosecutors from trying Munchinski again unless they turned over a key witness' taped statement to his defense counsel, attorney Noah Geary, within 10 days of the ruling.
Warman has testified the tape does not exist.
State Attorney General Jerry Pappert filed an appeal of Feudale's ruling and received an automatic stay of Feudale's order. A bond hearing for Munchinski is scheduled for next month in front of Feudale.
Warman talked to a reporter yesterday outside his courtroom in the Fayette County Courthouse, where he has practiced law for 34 years. He said the movie comment was based on his understanding that Munchinski has been planning a book upon his release.
"It's well known that Munchinski offered a percentage of his book to (former Munchinski lawyer) John Cupp," Warman said.
Cupp, who stepped aside as Munchinski's lawyer in 2001, said he and Munchinski never discussed a book.
According to Warman, Feudale got the ruling all wrong, mostly because Munchinski was finally successful in getting the county bench and the district attorney recused from the case. Then-President Judge William J. Franks, who had handled Munchinski's appeals for more than a decade, in 2002 ordered the entire county bench recused from the case.
"Everybody who knew anything about the case was off of it now. They got what they wanted," he said.
Warman also said he and Solomon, his former boss, did nothing wrong.
"Give me a break. Gerry Solomon never did a thing wrong in his life -- and neither did I. You pay your taxes, you do things right all your life, and this guy comes in and finds you're a perjurer. It's upsetting," Warman said.
Solomon has been on vacation in France and wasn't available for comment yesterday.
According to Warman, Feudale erred by accepting the findings of fact proposed by Munchinski's lawyer.
"He took the word of a convicted murderer, Montgomery Goodwin, over that of his superior, a good man," Warman said.
Warman said he believes Goodwin is attempting to hurt prosecutors, embittered that he's still in jail for a killing he committed.
"He's going to lash out at anyone associated with his case, and that's the commonwealth (prosecutors)," he said.
Goodwin, the investigating officer in the Munchinski case, was later arrested and convicted in the 1987 killing of Eugene "Jiggs" Williams, of Connellsville, who was seen dancing with Goodwin's estranged wife at a bar the night of his death.
Goodwin told Feudale during hearings over the past two years that he saw Warman operate a tape recorder to tape the first statement given by star witness Richard Bowen, who said he witnessed the slayings.
Bowen later recanted that story, but testified at an appeals hearing that he lied when he told FBI agents that he was in Oklahoma the night of the killings. He later hanged himself in prison.
At hearings in 1992 and last year, Warman testified that Goodwin was mistaken. He said he excised a paragraph from Goodwin's report because Goodwin was mistaken about the tape being made.
Meanwhile, Warman said he's not concerned about the possibility of hearings before the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court or the Judicial Conduct Board.
"What are they going to do to me⢠I'm 61 now," he said.
He said at the end of the day, he's still convinced of Munchinski's guilt.
"I know this: I'm no killer, and that guy is," he said.
