Tom Monfils - 6 men went to jail for his murder - may have been suicide...

[Arnold_OldSchool]

This is a layered case. A crime is reported to police by Tom Monfils - the police let the man who the crime is reported against find out who reported him - The man then confronts Tom at work and shortly thereafter Tom disappears. His body is found in a paper pulp vat near where the confrontation took place.

The police tie together some evidence that is sketchy and some apparently just plain made up - then tie 6 men to the crime and manage to try all six men for the murder at once in a single trial.

The men are convicted via the police's speculated out line of events and the lead investigator resigns soon after to avoid scrutiny. Only one of the six men have had their conviction overturned as of this day, but they all still try. A book on the whole mess was written 2 years ago.

If Tom didn't commit suicide (as some suggest he did after he got scared by the men confronting him) there is another suspect who gave (apparently false) accounts to the police. This suspect was in the same area as Tom's death site and the suspect would later go on to kill a person a few years after this event.




http://articles.latimes.com/1999/dec/02/news/mn-39836 Reporting a Crime, Then Dying for It

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http://monfilsconspiracy.org/

On November 21, 1992, Thomas Monfils, an employee at the James River paper mill in Green Bay, Wisconsin, left his work station and disappeared. After an intensive search, his body was found the next evening, submerged in a paper pulp vat. There was a rope wrapped around his neck and, on the other end of this rope, a fifty pound weight. The police called it murder.

At a single trial almost three years later, six of Monfils’ coworkers were wrongfully convicted of his death; the result of a preordained police theory, a one-sided investigation, and a reckless prosecution. With a six person joint trial that had no solid evidence of guilt, a lead homicide detective admitting to altering official police documents during the investigation, the repressed memory finger pointing alibi testimony of the States’ star witness (who shot and killed his own unarmed brother during the investigation), the use of uncorroborated double hearsay jailhouse testimony, and other key witnesses for the prosecution recanting their testimonies, justice demands a closer look at the tragic outcome of these six guilty verdicts.

In a scathing decision almost six years later, in 2001, the U.S. Federal Courts exonerated one of the six defendants, stating “no reasonable jury” should be allowed to convict by piling “speculation on top of inferences drawn from other inferences”. “This…, like so much else in this case, is conjecture camouflaged as evidence.” requiring “a leap of faith” that no ”rational jury” should be allowed to take.

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1992:

Nov. 21 - Monfils, 35, disappears at James River Corp. paper mill after several fellow union members, including Keith Kutska, confront him with a tape-recording of an anonymous telephone call he made to police. The call informed on Kutska's plan to steal electrical cord from the mill. Police had released a copy of the tape to Kutska at his request.

Nov. 22 - Monfils' mangled body found with a 50-pound weight tied to his neck in a two-story vat of paper pulp, a mud-like substance used in paper-making. Autopsy finds he was beaten but died of suffocation.

1993:

Oct. 19 - Legislature passes "Monfils Law," to protect identities of police informants.

1995:

April 12 - Kutska, Michael Hirn, Reynold Moore, Michael Piaskowski, Dale Basten and Michael L. Johnson arrested, charged with being party to first-degree intentional homicide.

Oct. 28 - All six defendants found guilty of being party to first-degree intentional homicide, carrying a mandatory life term. Jury for trial was selected in Racine County because of pretrial publicity in Green Bay area.

1997:

June 2 - Judge rejects motion of Piaskowski for retrial; similar requests by Baston, Johnson and Moore were denied earlier.

June 16 - Trial begins in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee in civil lawsuit filed by Monfils' widow, Susan, accusing Green Bay officials, including several police officers, of negligence in the death.

June 27 - Jury awards more than $2 million to Monfils family. Susan was awarded $638,000 and her two children were awarded $650,000 each.

Sept. 23 - Kutska's request for retrial denied.

Oct. 31 - Hirn's request for retrial denied.

Nov. 28 - Federal court upholds $2 million damage award against Green Bay.

1998:

Feb. 17 - State appeals court upholds convictions of Basten, Johnson and Moore.

April 23 - State Supreme Court declines to hear requests for new trials by Basten, Johnson and Moore.

Sept. 22 - State appeals court upholds convictions of Kutska and Piaskowski.

Dec. 23 - Federal appeals court upholds $2 million in damages awarded to Susan Monfils.

1999:

Oct. 4 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds $2 million damage award.

2001:

Jan. 9 - Federal judge orders release of Piaskowski, finding there was insufficient evidence to convict him. State attorneys said they planned to appeal and seek a stay of release.

Read more: http://www.journaltimes.com/news/sta...#ixzz1hC66sv1M

[Arnold_OldSchool]

http://wislawjournal.com/tag/tom-monfils/ Marchers: Flawed prosecution led to ‘92 slaying convictions

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http://community.seattletimes.nwsour...5&slug=1726192

This seems to be the best blow by blow of the day of Monfils death