COUNTYWIDE : Prosecution Fumes at Delays in Case

Prosecutors in the Thomas Maniscalco triple murder case made their most vociferous complaints to date Wednesday over defense requests for yet another lengthy delay in the 7-year-old case.

“We are just astonished that the Superior Court of this county can’t get this case going,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Brent F. Romney told trial Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary. “We are utterly frustrated at the court’s inability to take hold of this case and move it.”

Stung by Romney’s sharp criticism, O’Leary shot back that many people share blame for the delays--including the prosecutors.

“It was four years before Mr. Maniscalco (along with Daniel Duffy) was even arrested,” she said. “We’ve put in 12-hour days to get this case moving. . . . This portion of Superior Court has moved this case along.”

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Maniscalco, 45, and Daniel Duffy, 46, for the 1980 slaying of three people in a tract house in Westminster.

Prosecutors contend that Maniscalco, a lawyer and co-founder of the Hessian motorcycle gang, masterminded the death of Richard Rizzone as part of a feud over drug deals and a counterfeit money scheme. The others killed were a young man and Rizzone’s girlfriend, who prosecutors say were eliminated only because they were in the house with Rizzone at the time. Duffy allegedly participated in the slayings.

Maniscalco sat in County Jail for more than five years while his lawyers and prosecutors argued over legal motions, with most of the delays the result of defense actions. Then at his first trial, concluded last November, jurors hung 10 to 2 in favor of convicting him of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors wanted to begin the new Maniscalco trial immediately after the first one resulted in a hung jury. But O’Leary said it was unrealistic to expect the defense to be ready that soon.

Now Maniscalco’s lead attorney, Joanne Harrold, who missed several weeks of work during hearings before the first trial, is out again until the end of March.

Prosecutors vehemently demanded Wednesday that O’Leary drop her from the Maniscalco defense team to avoid any further delays. The judge refused but ordered an April 5 hearing so she can learn from Harrold the status of her health.

O’Leary also set an April 19 hearing on a prosecution request that Duffy and Maniscalco be tried together to save time and expense. Prosecutor Romney even mentioned two separate juries hearing the same trial, if that is the only way it can be worked out.

Maniscalco’s lawyers have asked for at least a 45-day delay in even setting a trial date.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard M. King, who is prosecuting both Maniscalco and Duffy, is so upset about the delays that he stated in court papers that working the case was like being in “the ‘Twilight Zone.’ ”