By Tom Eldred,
Delaware State News
DOVER - Gov. Ruth Ann Minner said Thursday that it's OK an internal probe of the abduction and rape of a prison counselor is being released to the public six days later than she expected.
The governor pledged Sept. 20 that the results of a Department of Correction investigation into the July 12 incident at the Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna would be released by the end of September.
That day came and went Thursday.
DOC spokeswoman Elizabeth Welch said Commissioner of Corrections Stanley W. Taylor feels the report still needs some fine-tuning and that it would be released instead on Wednesday.
"The commissioner said at the onset that this report would be thorough and an extensive review of what occurred on July 12,'' Gov. Minner said in a prepared statement Thursday.
"If a few more days are necessary to finalize and complete the report, I am satisfied that the time is well invested.''
Lawyers for the victim, Cassandra Arnold, had a different response. They questioned why it has taken more than two-and-a-half months - and more than six weeks since DOC interviewed Ms. Arnold - for the report to be completed.
"I'm not going to quibble over a day or two,'' attorney Herbert G. Feuerhake said. "I'm more troubled that it wasn't done a month or more ago.
"When DOC interviewed our client Aug. 18, it seemed the state was suggesting to the press that the only hold-up then was her interview.
"One would have thought they could have finished (the report) in 10 days. Our fear is that this is going to be a sanitized report or possibly a corruptive report. This 11th-hour delay is not going to allay our suspicions.''
Mrs. Welch said Mr. Taylor made the decision to release the report Wednesday. She said he was not available for comment because he had staff meetings to attend Thursday and had "several pending matters that need immediate attention.''
She said she had not seen Mr. Taylor and that she did not know what the matters requiring immediate attention were.
In a press conference two days after inmate Scott A. Miller adducted Ms. Arnold, 27, at knifepoint and raped her, Mr. Taylor said DOC's Internal Affairs unit would conduct an administrative review of the incident.
Miller, 45, a serial rapist serving 699 years in prison for multiple crimes, took Ms. Arnold hostage after he attended a stress-management counseling session for about a dozen inmates she had conducted in a medium-secure housing area at DCC.
Accounts vary as to how Miller was able leave the counseling session, pass by a manned control booth and then through two security doors to the non-secure office hallway where he accosted Ms. Arnold.
After threatening to kill Ms. Arnold and anybody who attempted a rescue, Miller barricaded a small office where he kept her hostage for nearly seven hours before correctional officer Lt. Keith Hoffer shot and killed him through a false ceiling in an adjacent room.
Ms. Arnold told the Delaware State News in an interview that Miller raped her shortly before he was shot.
She said the security doors were propped open and that she had complained to a correctional officer supervisor about similar security breaches two weeks before she was attacked.
Ms. Arnold's other attorney, Jeffrey K. Martin, said DOC Internal Affairs investigators interviewed Ms. Arnold on Aug. 18. He said that one of the investigators told him then that "35 to 38'' people had already been interviewed as part of the probe.
"They said the investigation could not be completed until our client was interviewed,'' Mr. Martin said. "We expected it would be wrapped up in early September.''
Mr. Martin said he and Mr. Feuerhake are concerned the DOC report may not tell the full story of what occurred July 12 and who was responsible.
Mr. Martin cited a trial he litigated several years ago in which a DOC Internal Affairs investigator testified that he was ordered to dilute portions of an investigative report because higher-ups were displeased with it.
"The $54,000 question about the report is who is writing it and who is influencing the writing of it,'' Mr. Feuerhake said.
"We would not like to see our client's interests compromised for political reasons. Our client has a strong interest in nothing but the truth coming out of this situation.
"Frankly, that's why we called for an independent investigation from the start.''
Gov. Minner has repeatedly said she has full confidence in Mr. Taylor and that she would decide if an independent investigation is needed after she receives the results of DOC's internal probe.
Mrs. Welch said Thursday that Mr. Taylor would be delivering the entire contents of the DOC report to Gov. Minner in advance of Wednesday's public offering.
She said DOC intends to release as much of the report as possible to the public but that certain portions identifying individuals by name or sections dealing with "extremely sensitive security matters'' might have to be deleted.
She also disputed the lawyers' allegations that DOC's investigation is two-and-a-half months old and counting.
She said a state police probe into the use of deadly force to kill Miller was not completed until mid-August, and that DOC did not start its review until after that investigation was finished and sent to the state Department of Justice.
The Department of Justice determined the deadly force Lt. Hoffer used to shoot and kill Miller was justified.
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Senior writer Tom Eldred can be reached at 741-8212 or teldred@newszap.com.
