BIO:
? I was born and raised on Long Island, N.Y.
? I received a scholarship for soccer from George Mason University, in Virginia.
? After graduating there in 1981, I went back to NY, but eventually applied for Prince William County Police who was offering pay incentives for College Graduates.
? I was hired January 10, 1983 at the age of 24 and have just finished 25 years with the department.
? I worked 7 years as a Patrol Officer and then was promoted to detective.
? I worked 10 years as a detective, first in General Assignment, then Burglary, then finishing in the Violent Crimes Unit.
? I was promoted and sent back to Patrol as a supervisor for 5 years and was promoted again to the rank of First Sergeant.
? In April of 2005, I was transferred back to Criminal Investigations to supervise the Crimes Against Children Unit where I am still currently assigned.
? I have been married for 18 years and have three kids, two boys ages 14 and 16 and one girl age 11.
? I have experienced the rare and ultimate ordeal of being involved in a fatal shooting of a suspect armed with a rifle back in 1989 which was ruled justified.  What made it even more noteworthy was the fact that it occurred 5 days before my wedding and just 2 blocks away from where my wife was living.  It occurred in the middle of the night and she was awakened by the helicopter flying low over the area of her house looking for the fatally injured suspect which made her shades abruptly fly up!  She didn't know what was going on until I told her in the morning.  It sure gave her a glimpse of what she was getting into in 5 days.
Hilt Case observations:
 
An image etched in my memory occurred when we executed the search warrant at the Hilt residence in Wake Forest, N.C. after she confessed to punching, shaking, and stomping on her daughter and then putting her to bed.  The neighborhood was upscale and the home was large, well furnished, and neat.  It had the look of any well kept upscale family home that had kids.  As we carefully entered Nina's [victim] bedroom there were noticeable small fluid stains on the floor in the middle of the room.  Along with the stains were numerous strands of hair.  More than should ever be in one small area.  Upon looking into the bed there was a considerable amount of what appeared to be blood stains on the pillow.  For the first time I truly realized just how severe the assault was on the victim who wasn't even 3 years old yet.  For a brief moment, I was caught up with images in my mind of what went on there just a few days before.  I then had to clear my mind from the troubling images and focus again on what we were there for.  We even found blood in the other daughter's bed on a pillow where Nina was placed by Peggy when she wouldn't go to sleep in her bed.
 
A Noteworthy Case Since Hilt:
 
I got called out along with Detective Elba Roldan Gill and Detective Ben Grantham in August of 2006.  There was a 4 year old girl who was flown to Children's Hospital with severe injuries to her torso and was unresponsive.  They decided her brain functions were non-existent so they pulled the plug on her 3 days later.
 
From the start, our investigation revealed the mother's boyfriend as the suspect. He would not confess to the vicious battery of the child, but did admit he was alone with her in a walk-in closet in the apartment when he had to discipline her.
 
The boyfriend who was in his mid 20's as was the mother had a 1 year old child in common with the mother.  The 4 year old victim was the mother's child from another boyfriend.  The suspect had no emotional ties with the 4 year old.  One day the 4 year old took scissors and cut the hair of the year old.  When the suspect got home and learned of it, he told the mother in the kitchen he would take care of it.  The mother stayed in the kitchen cooking something while he took the victim into a bedroom closet.  Several minutes later, the boyfriend called the mother into the bedroom and said there was something wrong with the 4 year old.  The victim was vomiting a brownish substance and was unresponsive but breathing.  We do not know exactly what was said or done by them at this point, but they did not contact rescue or take her to the hospital for close to 3 hours!  When they did, they hospital flew her out.
 
The mother claimed she did not hear anything going on in the closet and did not know if her boyfriend hurt her child.  She denied doing any harm to the child.  She basically had no answers for us and was not totally forthcoming during our interviews.  The Medical Examiner who did the autopsy said it was clear multiple organs were bruised from trauma that was equivalent to car crash victims.  A doctor at Children's who examined x-rays advised the child's pancreas was severed in two from the trauma inflicted which was the only time she has ever seen such an injury to that organ!
 
The boyfriend was charged with 2nd degree murder and felony neglect [delay in taking child to hospital] and the mother charged with felony neglect.  After 2 mistrials on the murder charge on the boyfriend due to the mother's lack of credibility on the stand, a plea agreement was reached in a third proceeding and the boyfriend pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.  He had been found guilty in the second trial for the neglect charge.  Sentencing is next month.  He is facing 10 years on the neglect charge with 8 years to serve and 5 years on the manslaughter charge with 2 to serve making it a total of 10 years to serve if the judge agrees in April.  The jury had issues with the mother's involvement and her testimony and could not all agree on whether she had a part in on the murder.  This was the reason for the plea agreement after two mistrials.  Charges were dropped on the mother for her testimony in the trial, but charges are being considered on her again since she did not stand trial on them before.
 
Examples of unbelievable behavior in cases we have investigated:
? A woman in her 30's got pregnant by her new husband.  Her 17 year old daughter wanted a baby as well so her new stepfather got her pregnant too.  Both mom and daughter are carrying this man's baby and none of them feel this is disturbing.
? A well known offender to the system gets released from prison after serving 25 years for attacking someone years before.  Upon release, he hooks up with his new girlfriend and moves in with her and her 14 year old son and 11 year old daughter.  One night he rapes the daughter and a SANE medical exam confirms evidence of trauma to the child supporting her claims.  The son even has some testimony that lends suspicion to the boyfriend.  The boyfriend denies the rape but makes it known that he cannot survive if he goes back to prison.  Before trail, the mother makes several attempts to get her daughter to recant her claims so her boyfriend can be released.  Even though there was clearly enough evidence to suspect her boyfriend, the mother would rather he not go to jail and come back to live with her and her children.  Fortunately, he was found guilty and given a long sentence.
? A mother of a 15 year old girl was casually looking at text messages the daughter had on her phone.  The mother discovered numerous messages that were exchanged between her daughter and her husband, stepfather to the daughter.  The messages talked about in detail sexual relations the two were sharing over the course of the past year and what they wanted to do in the near future.  The father admitted to the relations and was charged.  Throughout the time before trial, the mother expressed her wishes that the charges be reduced to misdemeanors and that her husband not have to go to jail.  At the trial sentencing phase, she submitted a letter to the court complaining that the police did not listen to her desires and that she wanted, now, to have her husband locked up in jail for the rest of his life.
? In a case that came in this week, a 17 year old female reported that her father had been touching her vagina at different times since she was in the fourth grade.  She said there was a frequent joke in her home between her brothers at bedtime where they would remark out loud to the mother and father, how "dad" never tucks them in at night, only their sister.  Her Mom and Dad would laugh at this and the brothers thought it was funny.  The female victim recalled it wasn't funny to her since he did so only so he could fondle her.  When confronted with the accusation, the father told the detective that he did not touch his daughter, and that if she said he did, it must be true since she does not lie, however, the touching would have been by accident.