SUMMARY OF MICHAEL RIVERA CASE

Eleven year old, Staci Jazvac left her Lauderdale Lakes home on a bicycle at 5:30 pm. on January 30, 1986, to purchase poster board at a nearby shopping center. A cashier recalled having waited on her between 6:30 and 7:00 pm. At 7:30 pm. after her mother started looking for Staci, the mother encountered a deputy who had found Staci=s bicycle abandoned in a field alongside the shopping center.

Starr Peck contacted the police to report that a man who had made around thirty obscene phone calls to her beginning in September, 1985, had claimed in his last call on February 7, 1986, that he had abducted Staci, dragged into a van, raped and killed her. The man identified himself as ATony@. The police were able to determine that Michael Rivera was responsible for these obscene phone calls.

On February 13th, Detectives Richard Scheff and Phillip Amabile of the Broward Sheriff=s Office arrested Michael Rivera on unrelated outstanding warrants for misdemeanor charges of lewd and lascivious acts. When they told him they wished to speak to him, they claimed that he responded AIf I talk to you guys, I=ll spend the next 20 years in jail.@ They then told Rivera that someone had advised them that Rivera had information about the disappearance of Jazvac. According to the detectives, Rivera admitted making the obscene phone calls to Starr Peck but denied having abducted or murdered Jazvac.

In subsequent interviews, Rivera admitted that he liked exposing himself to girls between ten and twenty years of age. He would often borrow a van belonging to a friend, Mark Peters, and look for girls to expose himself too. He admitted two incidents. He acknowledged exposing himself to a girl pushing a bike. When pushed for more info, Rivera purported said AI can=t tell you. I don=t want to go to jail. They=ll kill me for what I=ve done.@ As for the other incident, Rivera said he grabbed a girl from behind and pulled her into some bushes.

A polygraph examination was administered by Detective Eastwood. During the polygraph Rivera was advised he was doing poorly. Eastwood asked if Rivera was holding back information. When Rivera said yes, Eastwood told him that he Acould care less@ about the exposures, and that his assignment was the Jazvac case. Rivera then began describing the exposure incidents, how they bothered him, but he couldn=t stop. When Eastwood reported to Scheff and Amabile, Amabile recalled a July, 1985, incident involving Jennifer Goetz. Amabile had hypnotized Goetz in order to try to obtain a description of an assailant. Scheff and Amabile resumed questioning Rivera, and got Rivera to admit to the incident involving Jennifer Goetz. All told, Rivera was questioned for eight days and given 16 polygraph tests, according to a June 24, 1986, Miami Herald article..

Meanwhile on February 13th, the police located and talked to Mark Peters and learned that Rivera had his van on January 30th, but Rivera had picked Peters up at work at nearly 6:00 pm. Peters dropped Rivera off at his home between 6:15 and 7:00 pm. The van was impounded.

According to a booking slip, Rivera was arrested on the charge of first degree murder on February 13, 1986, at 2300 hours. Jazvak=s body was discovered on February 14, 1986, in an open field, several miles from the shopping center. The medical examiner concluded death was caused by asphyxiation. The body was clothed, although the jeans were unzipped and partially pulled down, and the panties partially torn. The m.e. indicated that this could have occurred during the decomposition process and thus could reach no conclusion about whether Jazvak had been sexually assaulted.

Rivera was first charged with the attempted murder of Jennifer Goetz on July 10, 1985. Edward Malavenda was appointed to represent Rivera. Rivera was tried and convicted on November 6, 1986, on the basis of his statements to the police. Judge Ferris presided over the trial. Rivera v. State, 547 So.2d 140 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989). Meanwhile on August 6, 1986, Rivera was indicted on first degree murder charges in the Jazvac homicide. The capital case was also assigned to Judge Ferris who also appointed Malavenda as defense counsel.

After the conviction in the Goetz case, Judge Ferris was quoted in the Sun-Sentinel on November 21, 1986, as saying: AI believe this man has committed crimes many times in the past, and I believe he has resisted many attempts at rehabilitation. * * * I don=t think society should permit him to visit this conduct on anyone else.@ Malavenda made no motion to disqualify and thereby waived any objection Rivera had to AJudge Ferris=s newspaper interview.@ Rivera v. State, 717 So.2d 477, 481 (Fla. 1998)(this the FSC opinion affirming the denial of guilt phase relief in post-conviction, but ordering an evidentiary hearing as to penalty phase IAC).

At Rivera=s capital trial, Starr Peck testified regarding the statements made by ATony@ during the February 7th phone call. Scheff testified regarding Rivera= statement about if he talked he would spend 20 years in jail and the admission that he was ATony.@ The evidence from the Goetz trial was admitted including Rivera=s statements which were the basis of the conviction.

Howard Seiden, a forensic examiner with the Broward Sheriff=s Office, testified that a hair was found in Mark Peters= van which he Ascientifically concluded as being from the victim.@ (R. 1305).

Finally, the State also presented Frank Zuccarello who testified that while he was incarcerated with Rivera, Rivera confessed that he killed Jazvac.

The defense was precluded from presenting evidence that on February 20th, a week after Rivera=s arrest, Linda Kalitan, age 29, was abducted and murdered. Her body was found a few feet away from where Jazvak=s body had been found. And like in the Jazvac case, the same brand of pantyhose was found nearby. In post-conviction proceedings, it was learned that the Sheriff=s Office actively investigated a connection between the homicides because of their similarity.

The jury convicted and recommended a death sentence which Judge Ferris imposed. It was affirmed on appeal. Rivera v. State, 561 So.2d 536 (Fla. 1990).

In post-conviction, Mark Peters was located. He had not been called by the defense at trial because the defense attorney was not able to find him. Peters testified that after Rivera picked him on January 30, 1986, at around 5:00 pm., the two of them were together until he dropped Rivera off at nearly 7:00 pm. At that point, Peters retained possession of the van. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the denial of post-conviction relief because his testimony did not Aprovide[] Rivera with an alibi for the crucial time after 7:00 pm.@ Rivera v. State, 717 So.2d at 483 (the Court affirmed the denial of guilt phase relief, but remanded for an evidentiary hearing on penalty phase IAC). Of course, this overlooked the fact that the State=s case was premised upon Rivera having custody of the van at the time of the abduction and murder. Peters also testified he had left Ft. Lauderdale by the time of trial because the police were also hassling him and he was afraid they were trying to implicate him in the murder.

In October of 1998, new information surfaced regarding Frank Zuccarello. As reported in the Miami Herald on October 1, 1998, Zuccarello had testified in many cases in Dade and Broward Counties in 1986 and 1987. One of the cases, lead to the murder conviction of Joyce Cohen in Miami. A Miami detective admitted to a television reporter that Joyce Cohen had been convicted by false testimony. On December 17, 1998, the Miami New Times reported that Broward officials had failed to reveal that Zuccarello in 1986 gave Captain Tony Fantigrassi of the Broward Sheriff=s Office false information regarding another supposed jailhouse confession. On May 16, 1999, the Miami Herald reported that Joyce Cohen=s attorney, Alan Ross, had obtained an affidavit from Fantigrassi (the then homicide chief in Broward County) saying that Zuccarello Ais an untrustworthy witness who should not be believed under oath.@

Rivera filed a second motion to vacate his conviction on September 29, 1999, relying on the new information regarding Zuccarello. Included in this motion was a request for the Court=s permission for DNA testing of all evidence.

Judge Bachman did conduct an evidentiary hearing in 1999 on the penalty phase IAC claim, and denied that claim in September of 2001. Judge Bachman did not rule on the second motion to vacate or upon the motion for DNA testing. Mr. Rivera appealed to the Florida Supreme Court.

In 2002, the Florida Supreme Court granted Mr. Rivera=s request for a relinquishment to permit consideration of the second motion to vacate and the motion for DNA testing. However, the Court kept jurisdiction over the penalty phase ineffectiveness claim. Oral argument was held on April 2, 2003. In circuit court, DNA testing has been ongoing. In March of 2003, mitochondrial testing established that the hair that Howard Seiden testified was consistent with Jazvak=s hair was in fact NOT Jazvak=s hair.

A motion to vacate is also pending in the Goetz case.