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Agent: Molloy’s gun couldnot have fired accidentally

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Patrick Markey

The revolver used in the death of Irishman Hessy Phelan would not have fired unless the trigger was pulled, but could have gone off if someone made a grab for the weapon while a finger lay on the trigger, an FBI agent told a Bronx court Tuesday.

The agent’s testimony came as a Bronx State Supreme Court judge continued to hear prosecution evidence in the murder trial of Police Officer Richard Molloy, who is accused of killing Phelan inside a Bronx apartment in 1996.

Molloy, a nine-year veteran, has testified that Phelan took his own life by shooting himself with the officer’s .38-caliber police service revolver while the two men were inside the apartment. But the prosecution charges that Molloy pulled the trigger.

FBI agent Paul Tangren, who conducted tests on Molloy’s handgun, testified that the weapon could not have fired without the trigger being pulled, because of built-in safety features. But, he said, it was possible that the weapon, if cocked, could discharge if an individual had his finger on the trigger and someone grabbed the gun.

Agent Tangren also tested Molloy’s holster, which he said was in good condition and securely held the handgun. Molloy’s defense attorney, however, said that there was no test to show that the holster was fastened, or that it accidentally unfastened, when the officer entered the apartment where Phelan died.

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It has been a week of often testy examinations, where personal accounts of Phelan’s past and the Catholic tenets on suicide have been interwoven with the technical jargon of police crime-scene procedures and gun-testing trials. Prosecution and defense attorneys continue to joust over witness testimony, at once trying to portray Phelan as a man depressed over a good friend’s death and the unfortunate victim of a reckless police officer.

Inside the courtroom, the Phelan family and friends line the benches to the right, some wearing badges bearing Hessy Phelan’s portrait. To the right, Richard Molloy’s father listens to testimony with a cluster of supporters and a representative from the police union.

Molloy’s defense attorney, George Vallario, has questioned the validity of witnesses who could not remember the dates and times of the events about which they were testifying, as the prosecution continued to try to build a picture of Molloy as a reckless character prone to drunken gunplay.

During testimony, the officer’s defense attorney has questioned witnesses on Phelan’s emotional state, asking how he was dealing with the death of a close friend, Barney Louge, and of his father. The prosecution sees little cause for suicide.

Early in the week, the prosecution has tried to build a credible portrait of Molloy as a man who plays with guns in bars and as a man who had tried to prevent his actions from surfacing, as assistant district attorney Brian Sullivan described in his opening statements.

On Friday, Nora Jean Hynes testified that Molloy had come into the City Island bar, where she was working hours before Hessy Phelan’s death. Although Hynes did not see Molloy drinking, she served him with two mixed drinks, she testified.

About a week later Molloy came back to the bar and, leading her into a backroom, told Hynes it would be in her "best interest" that she say nothing about his being in the bar the night of Phelan’s death, she said.

"So I was never here, right?" Molloy said as he walked away, Hynes testified.

Another witness, former Bronx bartender Sean Ruane, testified that he was working in the after hours bar sometime in February or March 1993 when Molloy and another man came into the establishment around 4:30 a.m.

Molloy asked could he shoot out a light, Ruane testified, and thinking the officer was joking, he played along. Molloy then fired his weapon once at a light, Ruane said.

"It hit right in the middle," Ruane told the court.

Asked why he didn’t report the incident, Ruane said: "I didn’t think it was a big deal."

In two other separate incidents, Molloy had drawn his weapon inside bars, prosecution witnesses testified.

Martin Murphy testified that Molloy had his gun out inside a Bronx bar. Holding the handgun in his right hand, Molloy stood by the door and said, "If he uses the phone, I’ll light him up like a Christmas tree," Murphy testified.

But asked by Molloy’s defense attorney when the event had taken place, Murphy could not remember the day, month or year it had occurred. Murphy also said he had not reported the event.

Trial highlights

Briefly, other highlights of testimony so far have included:

€ Regina Kocovic, a friend of Phelan’s, testified that when Phelan visited a mutual friend who had tried to commit suicide for a second time, Phelan said: "I never had you as a coward" and "Everyone has their troubles. You have to fight to live not to die."

€ Martin Stewart, a close friend of Phelan’s, testified that Molloy had told him that Phelan had shot himself by reaching around his back and grabbing his gun. Stewart then testified that Molloy had pulled down his ear lobe and whispered, "Hessy went hard."

Stewart said he could not believe Phelan had killed himself, and there was no reason for him to commit suicide.

The defense asked Stewart if he remembered telling detectives that he was not surprised that Phelan had killed himself and that the more Phelan drank, the more he got depressed. Stewart said he could not recall having made those statements.

€ Police officers who had been the first to arrive at the scene testified that Molloy had meet them at the door of the apartment and told them Phelan had shot himself in the head. Molloy seemed "subdued" and upset" and his breath did not smell of alcohol, they said.

€ Sergeant Dominic McShane, one of the first officers to arrive at the scene, testified that Molloy had his handgun inside his belt to the right. He lifted the gun out by its handle and passed it to McShane, while saying something like, one in five or five in one, McShane testified. Molloy told him Phelan had shot himself, he said. When McShane asked him for details, Molloy said, "Isn’t that enough?" McShane testified.

€ Thomas Finnegan, a next-door neighbor, heard someone with an Irish accent shout out, "Do you want to talk about it?" the night of the shooting. But the defense charged that Finnegan had told the police he had heard something different that night.

€ Malachy Walsh testified that while playing with Walsh’s children, Phelan had revealed that he had seen his own son only once in 21 years. Asked whether he expected to see Phelan again after they last met, Walsh said Phelan had made an offer to clean up his apartment at a later date.

€ Marie McGlinchy, who saw Phelan in the Village Pub the morning before he died, testified that Phelan had promised to visit her later in the week to pick up a Christmas present he had forgotten.

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