ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 23, 1996 TAG: 9602230067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CLEVELAND
SOURCE: Associated Press
The notorious murder case against Dr. Sam Sheppard, accused of beating his wife to death in 1954 in a crime that helped inspire ``The Fugitive,'' took another odd step Thursday: Prosecutors' files are gone.
``I'm not saying there was a cover-up,'' said Terry Gilbert, a lawyer representing the late Sheppard's family in its attempt to vindicate him. ``This whole thing may be innocent. But everybody would like to see what's in those files.''
Officials said the missing files may have been taken by a former prosecutor who now has Alzheimer's disease.
Decades before the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the Sheppard case was labeled the ``trial of the century.''
Sheppard, a socially prominent osteopath, was convicted in a sensational trial of killing his pregnant wife, Marilyn, at their home in suburban Bay Village.
He spent 10 years in prison before his conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, which denounced the circuslike publicity surrounding the trial. He was acquitted at a second trial, and died in 1970.
The missing prosecution files were not mentioned in court Thursday at a hearing on the family's motion to have Sheppard declared innocent and wrongly imprisoned. Another hearing is set for next week.
Such a declaration is necessary before the family can file a wrongful imprisonment lawsuit with the Ohio Court of Claims. The missing prosecution notes and witness statements are not believed crucial to the family's motion. They have already outlined their case and transcripts of Sheppard's trials and appeals are still available.
Gilbert and Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Carmen Marino have speculated that former Prosecutor John T. Corrigan may have accidentally taken the files when he retired in 1991.
Corrigan, 75, has Alzheimer's disease and probably could not help find the files, said his son, Common Pleas Judge Michael Corrigan.
Gilbert said in court that the family's request is bolstered by evidence of misconduct in the investigation and first trial, evidence of Sheppard's innocence, and evidence that another man, Richard Eberling, might have killed Marilyn Sheppard.
The misconduct allegations include mishandling of blood evidence from the crime scene, failure to consider such things as a cellar door that a killer could have used, and evidence that was never introduced at the trial.
Eberling, imprisoned on an unrelated murder conviction, denies involvement in the case.
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