By Patrick Markey
The New York police officer accused of fatally shooting Irish immigrant Hessy Phelan three years ago told a Bronx court this week that he could do little to stop Phelan taking away his service revolver and shooting himself in the head.
Police officer Richard Molloy told a packed courtroom that he had just reached over to switch on the TV when he turned around to see Phelan holding his police service revolver with two hands. As Molloy reached for the weapon, Phelan fell back onto the couch where he had been lying and fired the handgun, the officer testified.
"I turned around and I saw Hessy had my gun," Molloy said. "I went to grab it. He went back down on the couch and shot himself in the head."
Through witness testimony, prosecution and defense attorneys have crafted often contradictory images of what happened in the early hours of Jan. 21, 1996. But Molloy’s pivotal testimony was the first time many in the court had heard officer’s account of the events leading to Phelan’s death.
Molloy, who is charged with second-degree murder, has always maintained that Phelan shot himself after he helped the drunken Derry native out of a Bronx bar and into a friend’s apartment. Prosecutors, however, allege that Molloy had forced Phelan out into the street and then, once inside the apartment, jammed his handgun into the Irishman’s left eye and pulled the trigger.
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Wearing the gray army sweatshirt, jeans and green jacket he said he wore the night of the shooting, Molloy took the stand on Monday morning as possibly the final witness in his five-week trial.
In low, often mumbled tones, the officer walked the court through that morning’s events, from his dropping into the Oak Bar to visit his girlfriend, Maggie McGrath, to the moment he realized Phelan had his .38 Smith & Wesson revolver in his hands. In several key areas, Molloy’s testimony conflicts directly with that of Cormac Lee, the witness who said he was in another room in the apartment when two men entered, but did not see the incident.
Around 12:30 a.m., Molloy said, he dropped into the Oak Bar and sat at the counter, where McGrath served him a Budweiser, which he declined in exchange for a glass of water. Phelan was already inside the bar, and McGrath mentioned to Molloy that she wanted him to take Phelan to her apartment.
Phelan, it seems, was willing to leave the bar, Molloy said. "He said, ‘In a few minutes,’ or something like that," he told the court. It was only after Phelan grabbed for a bottle that Molloy started to help the Irishman out of the bar, he said.
"Hessy was holding onto the rail to steady himself," Molloy said. So Molloy pried Phelan’s fingers off the bar. With his left hand under Phelan’s right arm, the officer walked him out into the street, Molloy said.
In the elevator leading to McGrath’s apartment, Molloy said, Phelan was grabbing him and trying to talk seriously about the officer’s marriage to McGrath.
But Molloy’s testimony clashed with Lee’s account as to what happened next. Molloy said he banged on the door several times as he tried to open the top lock, which he knew to be difficult. Lee, drunk and wearing no shoes, opened the door and let the two men in, he said. Lee had previously testified that Molloy and Phelan had not seen him in the apartment.
After Phelan and Lee talked, Molloy said, he was left alone with Phelan, who had asked to go for another drink. He eventually persuaded Phelan to lie down on the couch, Molloy said.
He then noticed froth on Phelan’s mustache and mouth, and worried that the Irishman would choke, he went to the kitchen and wiped Phelan’s face, Molloy said. He then reached over to switch on the TV, which was nine feet away from the couch, he said. But he believed he had hit the wrong button, and was forced to reach over again, Molloy said.
It was then, Molloy said, that Phelan shot himself.
Molloy said he did not feel a tug at his holster, nor did he hear the snap of his holster being opened.
"I didn’t feel anything," he said.
George Vallario, Molloy’s attorney, also asked his client about previous incidents during which he had allegedly taken his weapon out in bars. In only one incident did Molloy acknowledge he had fired his weapon inside a bar — to shoot a rat that the barmaid was trying to kill with a baseball bat. In other alleged incidents where his gun was drawn, Molloy either told the court his weapon had come loose and he was adjusting it, or denied the allegations were founded in any truth.
Did he know when his weapon had been removed the night of Phelan’s death, or whether his holster had been securely fastened in the bar, the elevator or in the apartment? asked Vallario. Molloy replied that he did not know.
Vallario also played tape of the 911 call that followed the incident. Through the crackling static, Molloy’s voice can be heard identifying himself as a police officer: "He took my gun off me and shot himself in the head." Molloy then asks the emergency services to hurry: "He’s a friend of mine."
Cross-examination
Toward the end of Monday afternoon, prosecutor Brian Sullivan began his cross-examination, quizzing Molloy on his testimony and drawing on the officer’s previous statements. With Sullivan combing through the fine details of his testimony, Molloy appeared calm, addressing the prosecutor politely, occasionally sipping from a cup of water on the stand and directing his gaze mainly to the defense side of the courtroom.
Questioned on how he had lead Phelan from the bar, Molloy repeatedly said he had not forced Phelan’s arms behind his back, as two prosecution witnesses had testified.
"I didn’t twist his arm up his back. I didn’t drag him out of the bar," Molloy said.
Molloy said he had only known Phelan from the Oak Bar, and had on several occasions helped him out of there before. He said he could not remember hearing McGrath call out to take it easy on Phelan as the two men left.
"I remember him waving back to Maggie. He was laughing. He thought the whole thing was a joke," Molloy said.
Asked why he had placed his handgun in his right pocket after the shooting and not in the holster which he was wearing, Molloy said he didn’t know.
Sullivan also asked Molloy about an incident in a bar during which a Belfast man had touched his police handgun, which was inside a holster — the same weapon and holster he had on the night Phelan died. Molloy acknowledged that he had noticed immediately when the man had tried to touch the revolver.
Cross-examination continued as the Irish Echo went to press on Tuesday afternoon.