Prostitute Taped Fears of Retaliation for Testimony

A woman whose nude body was found beaten and strangled in East San Diego County June 23 feared she would “disappear” because of her testimony against two San Diego police officers, according to a tape recording she made almost four months before her death.

Donna Marie Gentile, 22, a prostitute involved in the firing of one police officer and the demotion of another, made the tape March 13, the day she went to the County Jail at Las Colinas after being convicted of soliciting for prostitution.

“In case I disappear somewhere or is missing, I want my lawyer to give this to the press,” Gentile said on the tape. “I have no intention of disappearing or going out of town without letting my lawyer know first. Because of the publicity that I have given a police scandal, this is the reason why I’m making this. . . . I feel someone in a uniform with a badge can still be a serious criminal.

“This is the only life insurance that I have.”

About the same time, Gentile expressed her fears in a letter to her brother in Pennsylvania, Louis Gentile said in an interview Friday with The Times.

“She said she was going to jail and she explained to me the story about the cops,” Gentile said. “She said her friends thought she was crazy for doing what she did.”

Donna Gentile earlier this year was involved in a Police Department investigation that led to the Jan. 15 firing of Officer Larry Avreck and the demotion of Lt. Carl Black. The two were disciplined for engaging in improper conduct with a prostitute after Gentile said she had sex with Avreck in exchange for favors. Gentile denied having sex with Black.

Neither Avreck nor Black could be reached for comment Friday.

City records show that Gentile also filed an administrative claim against the city this year in which she alleged that she was continually harassed by several San Diego officers. The claim said she had received numerous traffic citations during a Police Department sweep of prostitutes on El Cajon Boulevard. She was cited for throwing a cigarette on a sidewalk, parking more than 18 inches from a curb and failing to have a working defroster in her car.

Gentile left jail May 5 and moved into a North Park apartment. Her landlord reported her missing in late June, and her body, discovered June 23 near Sunrise Highway in rural East County, was identified Wednesday.

Gentile’s lawyer, Douglas Holbrook, said Friday that she gave him the tape as she was being taken into jail March 13, telling him to give the tape to Bob Donley, a reporter for KGTV (Channel 10).

KGTV played part of the recording on the air Friday night. Donley said the tape was turned over to Sheriff’s Department homicide detectives investigating Gentile’s death.

United Press International on Friday quoted Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Baxter as saying Avreck and Black had been contacted by homicide detectives investigating the Gentile case.

“I wouldn’t go as far as to consider them suspects at this point,” Baxter told UPI.

Holbrook said Friday that Gentile had told him many times in the past several months that she feared Avreck. He said Gentile did not fear Black.

“She told me all along she was fearful of retaliation,” Holbrook said. “My feeling is, was she right? I’m curious to know what Avreck’s connection with it is.”

Holbrook said he is looking into the circumstances surrounding the slaying to satisfy his own curiosity.

“Certainly, I have a personal interest in wanting to find out who did something to one of my clients,” Holbrook said. “I have not been retained for that purpose. The concern I have is that since police were involved, I’m not sure what their inclination is to investigate it.”

Police spokesman Bill Robinson said the department is not investigating any connection Avreck might have to Gentile’s death. He said the department’s role in the case ended when Avreck was fired.

Louis Gentile said Friday that he could not afford to hire an attorney or private detective to investigate his sister’s death.

“Right now all I can do is sit and wait,” he said.

He said his sister grew up in Philadelphia but ran away from home with a girfriend when she was 15. The girlfriend returned to Pennsylvania, but Donna Gentile stayed in California, her brother said.