OSWEGO, N.Y. (AP) — A federal public defender filed papers Wednesday seeking to overturn a man’s 1995 kidnapping conviction in connection with the disappearance of a teenage convenience store clerk.
The move by Lisa Peebles came after the discovery of new evidence regarding 18-year-old Heidi Allen, who disappeared from her job on Easter Sunday 1994.
An Oswego County jury convicted Gary Thibodeau of first-degree kidnapping, a charge that presumes the victim died. Thibodeau, now 60, has been in prison for 20 years.
In papers filed in Oswego County Court, Peebles alleges the county sheriff’s office withheld information that would have undermined the case against Thibodeau. That evidence laid out a clear motive for Allen’s kidnapping and death, Peebles wrote, and points to three other men, including one already in prison for two murders.
All three men have denied involvement in Allen’s disappearance.
During Thibodeau’s trial, the prosecution provided the defense with a list of more than 200 people and institutions questioned about Allen’s disappearance. According to court papers, the names of six people who had been interviewed and whose statements undermined the case against Thibodeau were not included.
The court filing also details how Allen had been working as a drug informant for the sheriff’s department. Before she disappeared, a sheriff’s deputy dropped a card identifying her as an informant in the parking lot of the convenience store where she worked and was last seen alive. No information about her work with police or the dropped card was turned over to Thibodeau’s lawyers.
Telephone calls to the sheriff’s office and to prosecutors’ office weren’t answered Wednesday.
Peebles’ filing came on the third day sheriff’s investigators were searching a collapsed cabin for Allen’s remains. The Post-Standard newspaper (http://bit.ly/1s4fx05 ) said cadaver dogs had alerted twice during the search, indicating they could smell human remains.
