Judge Removes Himself to Speed Murder Trial

A Superior Court judge who has been the target of defense criticism in the 8-year-old Maniscalco/Duffy triple murder case has removed himself from the case in an effort to bring it to trial more quickly.

Judge Theodore E. Millard said Monday that he disagrees with the defense contention that he has a conflict of interest because he was once a prosecutor in a case where co-defendant Thomas F. Maniscalco was the defense attorney.

“But they’ve been making this same motion to get me off the case for a year and a half,” Millard said. “It was beginning to look like there was just no end to their ball of string.”

Maniscalco, 43, and Daniel M. Duffy, 44, compatriots in the Hessian motorcycle club, face possible death penalties if convicted in the 1980 Memorial Day weekend slaying of two men and a young woman at a suburban Westminster home.

Prosecutors claim Maniscalco, an attorney who opened his Westminster home to an assortment of admitted dope dealers and counterfeiters, was the mastermind behind the killings. A key witness against the two men is a former drug dealer who admitted participating in the murders.

Maniscalco and Duffy were arrested four years ago and immediately began filing motions which resulted in numerous trial delays.

But one of the most time-consuming motions has been Maniscalco’s request, beginning in December, 1986, that Millard disqualify himself from the case.

Millard refused, and prosecutors sided with the judge.

Maniscalco’s attorneys wanted Millard disqualified for conflict of interest so they could save their remaining peremptory challenge for another judge, if necessary. Each side in criminal cases is allowed one peremptory challenge. Such challenges do not require a stated reason.

Once the courts finally decided that Millard should remain on the case, Maniscalco’s attorneys then tried to use their peremptory challenge.

But both the Superior Court and the 4th District Court of Appeal found that the challenge was not timely. It was the state Supreme Court that last month ordered the 4th District to hold a hearing on the issue.

That hearing was scheduled for June 21. Millard sent a letter to the appellate court, dated April 20, disqualifying himself from the case.

“Why didn’t he do that a year and a half ago?” asked Joanne Harrold, Maniscalco’s trial attorney.

Millard said his only motive was to try to bring Maniscalco to trial more quickly. Duffy’s trial is scheduled to follow immediately after Maniscalco’s.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Anthony J. Rackauckas Jr., unhappy about losing Millard from the case, isn’t so sure the judge’s efforts will pay off in a quicker trial date.

For one thing, Harrold is going to ask whatever judge is assigned to the case to rehear many of her pretrial motions that Millard has already denied. If she wins, that could delay the trial for several more months.

“But Judge Millard’s motives are commendable,” Rackauckas said. “None of us knew a year and a half ago that it was going to take this long to resolve this issue.”

In a chronology Millard filed with the court, the judge listed several dates when various judges ruled against Maniscalco’s motion to disqualify him.

The victims in the triple slaying were Richard (Rabbit) Rizzone, 35, , a longtime Hessian gang member; Thomas Monahan, 28, and Rena Arlene Miley, a 19-year-old police officer’s daughter who became Rizzone’s girlfriend just a few weeks before the slayings.

The victims’ bodies were found on June 8, 1980, more than a week after the shootings, at a house Rizzone rented from a doctor. Rizzone, found in a closet, and Monahan, in the living room, were shot twice each. Miley, found nude in a bedroom, was shot three times in the head.

Prosecutors claim in court papers that Rizzone was the target.