Two months prior, Mr. Sheu made a video stating that if he were harmed, it would be at the hands of NY State Supreme Court Judge Golia "and his men”; referring to two Queens District Attorney Bureau NYPD Detectives who had illegally detained him and allegedly threatened his life.
Background: The Underlying Mortgage Fraud Case
Sheu Asks the FBI For Witness Protection after Kidnapping by NYPD
According to Sheu, on January 14, 2009, he was illegally detained by NYPD detectives Dominic DeGenaro and James Monaco of the Queens District Attorney's Bureau. Sheu stated under oath that the detectives told him that his house "belonged to the bank" and threatened him with death if he went to the authorities or press to complain about the case or about Judge Golia's involvement. Queens DA spokesperson Kevin Ryan confirms Sheu’s detention on that date, but refuses to state a reason for the detention, provide a warrant, reveal who ordered the detention or provide any information of what took place during the detention. The NYPD has also refused to provide any of this information, except an email informing Sheu that he was detained due to a complaint of "aggravated harassment" by an unnamed party for placing a letter in Golia's mailbox. Under NY law, "aggravated harassment" requires a person to act "with intent to annoy or threaten" which was obviously not the intent of Shue's letter to Golia. The intent of Sheu's letter was to request that Judge act lawfully.
In an April 9, 2010 email to Special Supervising Agent Rachel Rojas of the New York FBI, Mr. Sheu told Rojas that he had been "kidnapped" by the detectives, and been warned that if he went to the media about his mortgage case or filed complaints against Judge Golia, he would be killed.. Sheu also met personally with Agent Rojas at her office at 26 Federal Plaza where he pleaded for witness protection. He provided her with hundreds of pages of evidence about the mortgage fraud. Rojas told Sheu that the FBI only investigates mortgage fraud cases in which the property is worth over one million dollars. Regarding Sheu's plea for witness protection, Rojas' only official reply was a one-sentence email: “Thanks Sunny Be careful and well”. After Sunny's death, the FBI refused to investigate.
Sheu Was Scheduled to Testify Against Golia, Made Video Predicting His Death
Sheu was scheduled to testify at a NY State Senate hearing regarding Judicial corruption, and had prepared a statement accusing Golia of threatening him with death.
Sheu also posted a video on Youtube, which has received more than 50,000 views, explainging the mortgage fraud, and saying that if anything bad happened to him it would be at the hands of Judge Golia and the two Queens DA's that detained and threatened him.
Despite the threats against him, Sunny also went to the Blackstar News, which published an in-depth article about his legal ordeal, including his kidnapping.
Sheu
Appealed to Senator Eric Schneiderman For Protection Two Months
Before His Death
On April 14th, 2010 Sunny Sheu and Will Galison, who was constituent of Senator Schneiderman, went to see the Senator at his first campaign appearance at Mr. Dennehy's bar in Greenwhich Village. Galison had testified at the recent Senate Judiciary Committee on judicial corruption, which Senator Schneiderman did not attend. Sheu was scheduled to testify at the next hearing, which was cancelled.
Before
the Q and A session at Mr. Dennehy's Bar, Schneiderman's PR
man, James Freedland approached Galison and Sheu and asked them what
they were going to ask the Senator. That seemed inappropriate,
but Sheu said he wanted to ask the Senator what he could do about
death threats he had received from two NYPD detectives on behalf of
Supreme Court Judge Joseph Golia.
Freedland told Sheu that he should not ask the question at the public meeting, but that Senator Schneiderman would have a personal meeting with them to discuss their concerns. In the following weeks Galison called Schneiderman's office many times and was told that he senator was too busy to have a meeting. Likewise, after Sunny's death, correspondence between the BSN and Schneiderman's office have continued to be ignored.
Sheu Investigates Golia’s Finances
The Ethics Commission felt that Sheu's complaint had enough merit that they demanded an amended financial disclosure from from Judge Golia.
Shortly before June 23nd, 2010 , the Ethics Commission informed Sheu that the Golia's amended form was available. Sheu went to the OCA June 23nd, 2010 to pick up the amended form.
Upon reading the amended form, and assessing that that Golia's misrepresentations on the original form had not been remedied, Sheu announced to the OCA that he had sufficient evidence to prove that Judge Golia was guilty of fraud. His exact words - captured on an audio recording by his colleagues - were: "Now I have enough evidence to put Golia in jail".
Sunny Shue is Killed
Three days later, On June 26th, 2010 at 3:15 PM, Sunny Sheu was found lying on a deserted street in Flushing, NY, with severe head trauma and in a coma. He was taken to New York Hospital of Queens by EMS, where he died at 8:15 PM.
Medical Examiner Autopsy Contradicts NYPD and New York Hospital ER Doctor on Cause and Manner of Death
However, the Official Medical Examiner's Death Certificate confirms that Sheu died from "blunt force trauma to head with skull fractures and brain injuries" and that the manner of death is "undetermined" (no "aneurism" is mentioned in autopsy) Under NY State law, and federal law, “Undetermined” deaths require an investigation.
Dr. Ahmed later confessed to Blackstar News editor Milton Allimadi that he had known there was head trauma at the time of the incident, and that "foul play" was involved.
Two weeks after the Medical Examiner determined that Sheu had died from "blunt force trauma to head with skull fractures and brain injuries", the NYPD continue to maintain that Sheu died “naturally” of "a seizure" and that there was “no head trauma", a position they presumably still hold, despite its blatant contradiction of the Medical Examiner's official autopsy findings.
The obvious significance of the NYPD's alteration of the M.E.'s determination is that “undetermined” deaths mandate an investigation, while “natural' deaths do not” The NYPD tried to influence the M.E. into changing his ruling from “undetermined” to “natural”, and when he refused, they changed it themselves. Of course, under law, the NYPD has NO AUTHORITY to rule on the cause and manner of death. That is the exclusive purview of the Medical Examiner.
The ME has confirmed that Sheu's body was cremated shortly after his autopsy, by a party falsely claiming to be the executor of Sheu’s estate, yet another crime never investigated by law enforcement.
NYPD Gives False Evidence to the Medical Examiner to Sway His Determination.
On June 28th, 2015, NYPD detectives, NYPD/ Medical Examiner liaison William "Billy" Grant and 109th precinct Detective Chris Austin, conveyed a memo to Dr. Michael Greenberg, the Queens Medical Examiner who autopsied Sheu, claiming that a “911 witness” who had seen Sheu "collapse" and "strike his head". The NYPD memo also informs the M.E. that due to the testimony of the “witness”, the homicide squad of the 109th had determined that Sheu's death was “accidental” and with “no criminality”. This was clearly an attempt to explain the head trauma, which they could not hide from the M.E.
This memo was fraudulent. Tapes of all the 911 reports obtained through a FOIL request, prove that not one of the three 911 callers mentioned seeing Sheu collapse. They all report a man “lying on the ground”. There are no corroborating police records mentioning any interview with a witness, and 109th Precinct Detective Ardisano (who was clearly not in the loop) told the BSN that according to his NYPD records, there was “no witness”. Furthermore, On September 16th, 2010, Queens ADA Laura Weinstock told the Blackstar News that there was no investigation ongoing because “there was no witness”.
The fraudulent memo also raises the question of how the NYPD knew that Sheu had suffered head injuries when ER doctor Ahmed, who tended to Sheu for four hours before his death and examined CAT scans of Sheu's skull, allegedly could not find any trace of head injuries, and that the presiding detective on the case, Chris Austin, also claimed to somehow know that Sheu died of an aneurysm with no head trauma. The medical examiner also found “lots of wounds” all over Sheu's body, which were likewise not detected or reported by Dr. Ahmed.
No Investigation by NYPD or Queens DA - Coordinated Cover-up by NYPD, Queens DA, NY Hospital, OCA, DOI, OIG for NYPD and Others
To date, there has been no investigation into the death of Mr. Sheu. Rather, the response of the NYPD to Mr. Sheu’s death indicates a coordinated effort to obfuscate and cover up the circumstances of his death.
Specifically; the NYPD:
- stated that the cause of death was an "aneurysm" with “no head trauma” and that the manner of death was "natural”- in direct contradiction to the Medical Examiner’s report.
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No Response from NYPD Commissioners Ray Kelly or William Bratton
On May 18, 2011, the Black Star News sent a certified letter to Commission Kelly, requesting an investigation and a response to FOIL requests. Receipt was confirmed, but Kelly has not responded. A similar letter was sent to NYPD Commissioner Bratton on November 17th 2014, which was likewise ignored.
Moreover, letters were written to the Chairman and President of the Queens Hospital alerting them to the fact that in the best case, their ER Dr, Zeeshan Ahmed, allowed a patient to die by failing to recognize “severe blunt force trauma to the head with skull fractures and brain injuries” (despite being told specifically to look for that condition on CAT scans), and in the worst case was coerced into ignoring these fatal wounds and lying to the patients next of kin about them. These letters were likewise ignored.
NYPD In Violation of New York Freedom of Information Law
Among the Unanswered Questions in the FOIL Request:
-who ordered the detention by complaining about a letter put in Judge Golia's mailbox, if not Golia ?
-what was the official purpose of the detention?
-who was the alleged "911 witness" who reported seeing Sunny "collapse"
-What EMT workers transported Sunny to the hospital?
-what NYPD officers identified Sunny Sheu's body, and how did they do it?
-who ordered the illegal transfer of Sunny's body eight hours after his death?
-who at the NY Hospital authorized the illegal transfer?
-why did the NYPD send a false report to the Coroner?
-why has there been no investigation of an "undetermined" death?
Despite maintaining that there was “no criminality” involved in Sheu's death, the NYPD has refused to furnish documents regarding any aspect of the case, except the recordings of the 911 calls, and a facsimile of the notebook of Detective Campuzano, who was on the scene. As noted previously, these records prove that no witness saw Sheu fall. The NYPD did not deny the requests for the other documents by citing exceptions under FOIL law. Rather, They simply have ignored the FOIL requests over the past four years.
The Queens DA Makes an Outrageous Excuse for Not Investigating the Case:In an email to retired NYPD Detective Joe Mazzilli, Queens DA spokesman Kevin Ryan stated: "With regard to Mr. Shue's death, we do not have any evidence of any criminality in his death and the case was never ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner's office.” We do not have to explain to Mr Bharara that the Medical Examiner does not need to rule a death as “homicide” in order for an investigation to be mandatory. Any case ruled “undetermined” by the M.E. must be investigated, because it could be a homicide. In fact, the Medical Examiner who autopsied Sheu stated that he could not tell from the autopsy if Sheu's injuries were caused by falling down or by “being hit in the head with a pipe”.
If the Queens DA has “no evidence of criminality” in the case, it is only because they have corruptly and illegally refused to investigate. It should be noted that Judge Golia is a close personal friend of former Queens DA Richard Brown and worked as an ADA under Brown for years. Golia's daughter is now an ADA at the Queens DA, under Brown and has represented Brown in court.
The NY Department of Investigation Continues the Cover Up
On May 12th, 2014, the case was presented as a formal complaint to the NY Department of Investigation, which was forwarded to Commissioner Mark Peters, Chief Investigator John B Kantor and others.
On May 30th, 2014 Kantor referred the case to NYPD Detective Eddie Lebron of the "NY DOI NYPD Squad". On June 12th, 2014 Lebron wrote the BSN that “The NYC Department of Investigation ( DOI ) is currently conducting an investigation into this matter.” Email correspondence and phone conversations between Lebron and the BSN, regarding the case, continued until the end of June, 2014.
On July 2, 2014, the BSN was informed that complaints to the DOI against the NYPD had not been under their jurisdiction of the NY DOI NYPD Squad since May 27th, 2014, and had in fact been being processed by the Inspector General for the NYPD since March, 2014. That day, BSN wrote a letter and forwarded to Commissioner Peters and Kantor, asking “Have you or Mr. Kantor brought the Sunny Sheu case to the attention of Mr. Eure?” There was no response from Peters, Kantor or Lebron.
When the Sheu case was formally submitted to the OIG on July 19th, 2014, the OIG said that they had no information about the Sunny Sheu case, had never heard the name, and had never been contacted about it by NY DOI NYPD Squad.
Incredibly, for over six weeks, with the full knowledge of Commissioner and Chief Investigator of the DOI, the DOI NYPD Squad had:
- never told the complainants that the case was not under their jurisdiction
-pretended to run an investigation on the Sheu case, despite the case not being under their jurisdiction,
-failed to alert the complainant that the OIG was now in charge of complaints against the NYPD
-failed to alert the OIG about the complaint, or to transfer their files to them.
Thomas Mahoney, the Chief of Investigations at the OIG admitted on the record that the DOI NYPD Squad has never had jurisdiction over complaints against the NYPD
A detective from the DOI NYPD Squad, who wished to remain anonymous, also confirmed that the squad has no jurisdiction over complaints because of the obvious conflict of interest that would entail.
After the complaint was accepted by the OIG, the corruption and cover up continued unabated. On January 16th, at the DOI Headquarters,BSN Publisher Milton Allimadi and reporter Will Galison met with OIG Investigator Edward Sanchez and Chief Investigator Carhina, a 28 year veteran detective of the NYPD. From the outset, Carinha was defensive of the NYPD and even implied that Sheu had brought the illegal detention and death threats upon himself. During the interview, in fact, neither Sanchez nor Carinha asked Allimadi or Galison a single question regarding the case. The only questions were asked by Allimadi and Galison, and while most answers were vague and evasive, some were extremely revealing that:
-The OIG had never subpoenaed the CAT scans made by ER Doctor Zeeshan Ahmed, who falsely told Sunny's friends and the NYPD that they showed no indication of head trauma. When asked if Ahmed would be interviewed, Carhina responded: “if he's willing to come in, obviously we can't force him to come in...”. That statement is patently untrue, as the OIG is empowered to subpoena a statement and all medical records from Ahmed, who is a critical witness - if not perpetrator- at any time.
- The OIG never investigated the disposition of Sheu's computer after his death or its whereabouts. The computer would hold evidence of the NYPD's illegal hacking of Sheu's emails before his murder, which Sheu reported to the BSN and, under oath, to the FBI.
- The OIG never interrogated ER Dr. Zeeshan Ahmed, who allowed Sunny Sheu to die by either failing to recognize "blunt force trauma with skull fractures and brain injuries" (negligent homicide) or - more likely- by being compelled to allow Sheu to die and to lie about it by the people responsible for his death (first degree murder).
- The OIG had never investigated the identity of the critical “witness” that the NYPD told the M.E. had seen Sheu fall, whose existence would exonerate the NYPD and whose non-existence would prove an NYPD conspiracy to mislead the M.E. They promised to look into this, but have never updated the BSN on the case, and have ignored every communication since the interview.
- The OIG never investigated the documented obfuscation by their DOI colleagues at the DOI NYPD, Squad, including the Squad's attempt to hijack the case from the OIG and bury it. In a letter to Philip Eure, the BSN wrote:
DOI Chief Investigator Finds “Nothing Suspicious About the Sunny Sheu Case”
When BSN Publisher Allimadi cut to the chase by asking Carinha : “Do you see [anything in the Sunny Sheu case] that looks suspicious?” to which Carinha answered without hesitation: “No”.
In summary, the things that do not look suspicious to Chief Investigator Cahrina include:
- Illegal detention/ kidnapping 2 by Queens DA NYPD squad and no investigation thereof
- Illegal suppression by the NYPD of information requested by FOIL
- Unlawful failure to investigate death of manner ruled “Undetermined” by the M.E.
- NYPD memo to the Medical Examiner citing a witness “saw [Sheu] collapse”with zero corroborating evidence or documentation, in violation of basic Police procedure.
- Lying to victim's friends regarding cause and manner of death and no investigation thereof
- Official files of the 109th reflecting that Sheu died of a “seizure” with “no head trauma”, weeks after the M.E. determined that he died of “Blunt force trauma to the head”.
- Illegal removal of unidentified body and no investigation thereof influencing a witness in felony case and no investigation thereof
- Cremation of the body by a person falsely claiming to be the executor of Sheu's estate
- No response the NYPD Commissioner to a certified report of the above
- deception of the complainant and the OIG by the DOI NYPD Squad
Letters sent to OIG Chief of Investigations Thomas Mahoney, Inspector General Philip Eure and DOI Commissioner Mark Peters, complaining about the flagrant bias and dishonesty of Detective Carinha have all been ignored.
The New York Department of Investigation Violates FOIL Law
The OIG also prevaricated about the status of the case, and, like the NYPD, flagrantly violated NY FOIL law by refusing, illegally to furnish a single document pertaining to the case or to abide by FOIL procedure in denying them. Their delinquency was confirmed by COOG Commissioner Robert Friedman who wrote a stern admonition to OIG legal Counsel and FOIL director Asim Rehman.
The Sunny Sheu Complaint, Including Allegations Against Commissioners Kelly and Bratton, is Now in the Hands of the NYPD's Bureau of Internal Affairs.
In a 3/31/15, Newsweek story entitled: “NYPD Inspector General Passes on Majority of Complaints, Closes Most Others” the OIG had only seven pending investigations as of that date. Presumably the Sheu case was one of those seven, as no transfer of the case to any other authority had been communicated to the BSN before that time.
On April 14th, 2014, the OIG finally announced that they had transferred the case to the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau. The IAB will not not confirm or deny whether any investigation is ongoing or whether the OIG actually referred the case to them or not.
Every fact in this complaint is documented with evidence, which we will make available to your office at your request. Your failure to request this evidence will be understood as a disinterest in this case.
An in-depth account of the Sunny Sheu case, with limited links to documentary evidence can be found at: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/10943-the-death-of-sunny-sheu and elsewhere on the internet.
An account of the DOI's corrupt handling of the case is attached.
I swear under penalty of perjury that every fact stated in the above is true to the best of my knowledge.
Will Galison,
on behalf of the Blackstar News
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