This happened seven months before I graduated high school about a mile from my home. I met his mother some years later at a local shopping center.
SUMMARY:
On December 1, 1991, Tommy Burkett was found dead in his Herndon, Virginia home with multiple injuries--a fractured jaw, a battered right ear, and abrasions on his chest. He also had a bullet wound to the head, supposedly self-inflicted from a .357 Magnum that was in the room. The exit wound was 1/4" by 1/2". The autopsy revealed no powder burns nor powder debris. The gun's cylinder was unlatched, and there were no prints on the gun or cartridges. The police did not talk to witnesses who observed Tommy's car being chased that afternoon , saw his car returned to the house hours after he was already dead, and observed other cars at the scene.
The investigating officer from the Fairfax County Police lied repeatedly concerning his activities; the medical examiner's signature was forged on the report identifying manner and cause of death one day prior to an autopsy; and the pathologist denied the existence of photos of the injured right ear even though he had previously shown them to Tommy's father. After appealing to the Virginia State Medical Examiner and The Governor, the parents appealed to the Justice Department.
The FBI at first refused to investigate, but after Janet Reno received over 4000 signatures on a petition, they opened an investigation. In their 20-month "investigation" they never spoke to the investigating officer and accepted the word of the local medical examiner, Dr. Donald Haut that his obviously forged signature was his own(Wm. Megary, the FBI supervisor, said "Anyone can sign anyone's name to anything."). They took walls from the Burkett house which held blood spatter far removed from the death scene but did no DNA testing, although they did acknowledge it was human blood and the pattern was consistent with gunshot injuries. FBI investigator Robert Pocica refused to accept tips from "Unsolved Mysteries" and refused to interview reporters who had received threats after covering Tommy's story. He did not obtain or test the gun, nor did he obtain and compare fingerprints collected by the expert hired by the family (the FCPD did no fingerprinting other than the gun, did not test the gun, did not remove the supposed "fatal" bullet from the wall nor do any other forensic tests). In short, the FBI followed the same script as the FCPD with the obvious intention of clearing the local cops of any wrongdoing. This is the pattern established by the feds in cases like this. (See the "Primetime" segment of Dec. 13, 1995 on FBI investigations of local police misconduct.)
thepacc dot org
http://www.thepacc.org
SUMMARY:
On December 1, 1991, Tommy Burkett was found dead in his Herndon, Virginia home with multiple injuries--a fractured jaw, a battered right ear, and abrasions on his chest. He also had a bullet wound to the head, supposedly self-inflicted from a .357 Magnum that was in the room. The exit wound was 1/4" by 1/2". The autopsy revealed no powder burns nor powder debris. The gun's cylinder was unlatched, and there were no prints on the gun or cartridges. The police did not talk to witnesses who observed Tommy's car being chased that afternoon , saw his car returned to the house hours after he was already dead, and observed other cars at the scene.
The investigating officer from the Fairfax County Police lied repeatedly concerning his activities; the medical examiner's signature was forged on the report identifying manner and cause of death one day prior to an autopsy; and the pathologist denied the existence of photos of the injured right ear even though he had previously shown them to Tommy's father. After appealing to the Virginia State Medical Examiner and The Governor, the parents appealed to the Justice Department.
The FBI at first refused to investigate, but after Janet Reno received over 4000 signatures on a petition, they opened an investigation. In their 20-month "investigation" they never spoke to the investigating officer and accepted the word of the local medical examiner, Dr. Donald Haut that his obviously forged signature was his own(Wm. Megary, the FBI supervisor, said "Anyone can sign anyone's name to anything."). They took walls from the Burkett house which held blood spatter far removed from the death scene but did no DNA testing, although they did acknowledge it was human blood and the pattern was consistent with gunshot injuries. FBI investigator Robert Pocica refused to accept tips from "Unsolved Mysteries" and refused to interview reporters who had received threats after covering Tommy's story. He did not obtain or test the gun, nor did he obtain and compare fingerprints collected by the expert hired by the family (the FCPD did no fingerprinting other than the gun, did not test the gun, did not remove the supposed "fatal" bullet from the wall nor do any other forensic tests). In short, the FBI followed the same script as the FCPD with the obvious intention of clearing the local cops of any wrongdoing. This is the pattern established by the feds in cases like this. (See the "Primetime" segment of Dec. 13, 1995 on FBI investigations of local police misconduct.)
thepacc dot org
http://www.thepacc.org
