Local police chief, prosecutor talk about detective’s decisions

Eufemia: Hightstown ‘still considered the lead agency’ on Digirolamo/Giordano investigation.

By: Vic Monaco
   TRENTON — Conspicuously absent from the first press conference on the investigation into the disappearance of Amy Giordano of Hightstown was the man described up until this week as the lead investigator — borough Detective Ben Miller.
   While some of the actions taken by the local officer have raised eyebrows, Mercer County Prosecutor Joe Bocchini on Wednesday declined to level any criticism, and borough Police Chief James Eufemia came to his detective’s defense.
   But Mr. Bocchini said the detective’s suggestion last week that Ms. Giordano may have just wanted to disappear and start a new life is not the way circumstances are being viewed this week.
   "That was last week. It was very early in the process," he said. "I’m not going to say he was wrong at that time."
   Detective Miller did not realize he likely had a missing persons case until June 14, the same day law enforcement authorities eventually learned that Ms. Giordano’s married boyfriend had left the country.
   Nonetheless, several things done or not done by Detective Miller have prompted questions from the press; her landlord, Mike Vanderbeck; and even other law enforcement officials.
   They include:
   — deciding not to seal her apartment for a week after Ms. Giordano’s disappearance, until a "joint decision" with the county prosecutor’s office on June 21, thus allowing about a dozen people, mostly media members, to go through it;
   — failing to find a purse in the closet of the apartment, which was filled with credit cards, identification cards and a Mercer County voter registration application signed by Ms. Giordano and dated June 5;
   — saying he had no right to search her apartment without a warrant, after Mr. Vanderbeck gave him permission for a search and explained that Ms. Giordano’s lease had expired; and
   — waiting until June 21 to write up a press release with the descriptions of Ms. Giordano and Mr. Digirolamo and the car he was driving.
   Asked Wednesday about the usefulness of the apartment as an investigative tool after so many people had been in it, Mr. Bocchini said, "It is not unusual for a crime scene, if that’s what it turns out to be, to be entered and contaminated in other investigations."
   Asked about the need for a warrant with the given circumstances, he said such action is a matter of "safety and good prosecutorial conduct."
   "You could wind up with evidence that is inadmissible without a warrant," he said.
   Mr. Bocchini said he could not comment on the timing of the release of the descriptions.
   Chief Eufemia, who initially declined to return several phone calls, said Wednesday that his detective had conducted himself properly in light of the fact that he was investigating a missing persons case and not a crime.
   "Based on the information in the beginning, it (sealing the apartment) needed to wait until it rose to the requirement of a warrant," he said.
   Responding to the fact that it was the landlord, and not Detective Miller, who found the purse, Chief Eufemia pointed out that it was in the back of a closet. "It wasn’t out in the open," he said.
   He said the descriptions weren’t released until the detective had good photos to go along with them. But several photos of Ms. Giordano had already been published by media outlets.
   Chief Eufemia acknowledged that Detective Miller may have been overwhelmed and that some things might have been handled better.
   "I think you could say that about every big case," he said.
   "I think it was and still is an overwhelming case," he also said. "He’s one man doing what I think is a very good job with this case, working a lot of extra hours. It’s gone in a lot of different directions."
   Chief Eufemia said it was he who requested that the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office take over all media inquiries because it has an employee in place with that as her job responsibility.
   Mr. Bocchini on Wednesday spoke of a "joint investigation" involving his office, Hightstown police, State Police from New Jersey and Delaware and the FBI. Asked Wednesday if Detective Miller is still the lead investigator, Chief Eufemia said:
   "We’re still considered the lead agency."