Jane Doe No More (22 page)

Pudgie and Neil were startled by Donna’s request.

“That’s Connelly’s call,” Neil said.

“It’s very important to me that I be there when the arrest is made.”

“We understand, but . . .”

“Who would arrest Jeff?” Donna wanted to know.

Neil pointed to Pudgie and then back at himself. “The two of us.”

After a few moments of goodbyes and promises of staying in touch, Neil and Pudgie said they would do their best to solve the case.

“Thank you,” Donna said.

She had tears in her eyes. Her fear of being arrested finally lifted—at least for the time being—and now there were two tenacious investigators on the case who truly cared about her feelings and finding the person responsible for her attack.

John and I were grateful that Neil and Pudgie met with us at our home. We wanted to divulge as much information as we could and take them back to the night of the crime all those months ago—with the hope of closing the gap as if they could somehow go back in time and recapture what had been lost: the fingerprints and photos never taken, the neighbors never talked to, whatever else they could find. Precious time had slipped away. We were anxious and appreciative, and we wanted them to know how important it was to us that they continue the investigation. We wanted answers. We needed answers. When they left, John and I felt that these were the guys that could get the job done. They believed us. They felt our pain. And they wanted to right a wrong. They filled us with hope and made us dare to believe that we might someday know who the man was behind the mask. All those months had gone by and finally . . . finally, there was a glimmer of light that the investigation would get back on the right track.

About ninety minutes after Pudgie and Neil left Donna’s and went their separate ways, John Palomba took a call from Neil, who admitted he was feeling the gravity of the situation created by the WPD. What Donna had gone through bothered the investigator, he explained. John could sense Neil’s sincerity and pain. Neil said he felt the department owed Donna answers.

“I’m in shock that this could have happened the way it did and been mishandled the way it was,” Neil said.

“Thanks, Neil. We appreciate that.”

“I stopped at the mayor’s office and spoke to him.”

This got John’s attention. “You did?”

“The mayor said he was going to call the head of the FBI in Connecticut and ask him to try to push the DNA through. Both the mayor and the superintendent want to meet with you and Donna, John.”

Waterbury’s mayor was Edward D. Bergin Jr., and while he shared a name, he had no relation to Edward Bergin Sr., the superintendent of police, who had named his own son Edward.

“They do?”

“I told him, however, that if you were going to be filing a lawsuit against the city, it might not be in your best interest to meet. If you want me to set something up with the mayor,” Neil suggested without pushing, “let me know.”

“Thanks, Neil.”

John told Donna about the call when she returned home from going out. Donna called Maureen right away and relayed the conversation.

Maureen told them not to meet with the mayor, and if they ever wished to, she needed to be present. The mayor’s office was on damage control detail now, Maureen explained. They were going to try to pacify Donna, with the hope of sweeping it all under a rug.

Donna was torn. On the one hand, she did want it all to go away. Maybe a sit-down with the mayor was the best resolution. It appeared that Pudgie and Neil were actively and aggressively investigating the case, and Jeff was a good candidate for being her perpetrator. It would all be over soon, and she could move on and wait for the justice end of the case, preparing to face her attacker in court.

If Jeff wasn’t her attacker, there was now some new information that might lead to an arrest. As Pudgie and Neil continued sifting through the case, they revisited an event that had taken place in town on the evening of Donna’s assault. A stag party. Perhaps someone at the stag party found out John was away and Donna was home alone. John Palomba had known about the party, and it bothered him. He had told the WPD about his feelings long ago, but his theory had not been looked into thoroughly. John wondered why every male at the stag was not being asked to submit a blood sample. John’s feeling was that because he had not gone to the stag and his brothers were there (undoubtedly mentioning that John had gone away for the weekend and Donna was alone), someone knew he was out of town and decided it was an opportune time to attack Donna. John had a gut feeling that the perpetrator had attended the stag, overheard someone talking about him being away, and made plans to rape his wife—maybe someone, in fact, who had developed a secret obsession with Donna long ago.

“John had talked about that stag party right from the beginning,” Maureen Norris later said, “and that stayed with me. The stag and the missing key from the Palomba family home. John was saying that he did not believe it was a freak coincidence that he had gone away for the first time in his marriage, there was a stag that night with everyone from town, that a key was missing, and Donna was raped.”

Maureen and John felt strongly that somehow all those factors fit together.

Meanwhile, Maureen was in the process of filing a Notice of Claim, a prelude, effectively, to a lawsuit. (In most municipalities, you cannot file a lawsuit without first filing a Notice of Claim.) Although they had not decided on filing a lawsuit yet, Maureen was not one to proceed unprepared.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

An Internal Affair

If there was ever a doubt that Neil and Pudgie were assiduously working Donna’s case from many different angles, it was washed away by a call Donna received on Thursday, March 31, 1994. She was at the office, trying to go about her day. Life went on, with or without a resolution. It was near five o’clock. A source (neither Neil nor Pudgie) from within the WPD called Donna and mentioned “some information,” but that Donna was to “keep [it] in the strictest of confidence.”

Donna dropped what she was doing, sat down, promised, “Yes, yes. Of course. What is it?”

“Doug Moran has gone out ‘on illness’ . . . Also, there is some sort of high-tech surveillance equipment missing, and the department’s new surveillance vehicle, a black Toyota Camry, is also missing. Nobody is talking about why the stuff is missing or who has it. Doug has been knocked off of Vice . . .”

“My goodness,” Donna said. She had no idea what it all meant, but the fact that Moran was not officially part of the investigation any longer had to be a good sign.

“This whole thing about you and your case has the department rattled.” Then a warning: “Listen, since Moran believes that you had an affair, he may be tailing you.”

Was that why the equipment was missing? Moran had taken it?

Donna was perplexed. Would Moran go to such lengths?

“Be aware, Donna. Doug would be wearing black sunglasses.”

It seemed to Donna as if she were involved in some sort of Hollywood thriller, not her life. What was she to make of it all?

The thought of Lieutenant Moran actually using surveillance equipment to monitor my whereabouts was unnerving. It made me feel vulnerable and scared. It also angered me. What length was this guy willing to go to see his theories proven? Why did he still not believe me? Why was he hell-bent on “catching” me in some sort of nonexistent affair? Did he know the perpetrator? Was there some connection to the department or personally to Moran?

Then part of me thought,
Wow, is he ever going to be bored following me going to work, the grocery store, the children’s school, and over to my mom and dad’s house.

So now there were two enemies I had to look out for: the perp and the lieutenant. I never felt comfortable or at ease. Just stepping into the outdoors opened up all kinds of unsettling feelings—a heightened form of anxiety on top of what I was already experiencing. But it wasn’t going to deter me from doing everything I normally did. I was just more cautious.

On April 14, 1994, Donna stopped at an intersection in town, looked across the street and spotted Jeff Martinez in a car driving toward her. Jeff seemed to be everywhere Donna went these days.

This time Donna stared Jeff down, but he looked away and never made direct eye contact with her.

A deep breath and Donna was back on her way to a meeting with Pudgie.

John met Donna at the restaurant where Pudgie was already sitting, drinking a cup of coffee. The purpose of the meeting was to catch up on her case’s developments. Donna wanted to give Pudgie a copy of notes her sister had made of the ordeal she’d had with Jeff. Maria had written out the entire episode so Pudgie and Neil could get a clearer picture of what had actually happened. There was probably a charge or two in there somewhere, but apparently Maria wasn’t interested in prosecuting.