Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Charges rejected in Gotlib case

Stengel cites suspect's death

By Andrew Wolfson and Jessie Halladay

The Courier-Journal

Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Stengel said he agrees with the
Louisville Metro Police finding that Greg Oakley Jr. abducted and killed 12-year-old Ann
Gotlib 25 years ago.

But Stengel said yesterday that he has reluctantly rejected a request from Ann's parents to
indict Oakley posthumously, because the suspect would be unable to defend himself on
the charges.

"Regardless of the heinousness of the offense or the revulsion we hold for him or his
crime, Oakley could not do this (defend himself) because he is dead," Stengel said in a
statement.

Citing new evidence, police announced late last week that they believe Oakley, a
previously convicted child molester who died in 2002, killed Ann .

Yesterday, police said they stand by that finding, despite a letter Oakley wrote to The
Courier-Journal before his death, emphatically denying any role in the crime.

In the Feb. 26, 2001, letter, Oakley, who was then serving 30 years for attempted rape of
another child, wrote: "I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANN GOTLIB IN MY LIFE." He
added that he had "no reason to lie about this matter because I am dealing with terminal
lung cancer which has already metastasized."

Oakley was initially considered a suspect in Ann's disappearance in 1983, in part because
he lived a block north of her family's apartment near Bashford Manor Mall. But police
could never amass enough evidence to charge him.

He died in October 2002, three months after he was released from prison on a medical
parole. Sgt. Denny Butler, a Louisville homicide detective currently working the case,
said yesterday that he finds Oakley's letter unconvincing.

"I have no doubt that he did it," Butler said.

Stengel said in his statement that he believes the evidence is strong enough to indict and
convict Oakley "beyond a reasonable doubt."
But he said that even if a grand jury found probable cause that Oakley committed the
crime and indicted him, the presiding judge would immediately dismiss the indictment
because the defendant is deceased.

Stengel said that while his office has prohibited posthumous indictments for 12 years, he
and his first assistant, Harry Rothgerber, considered making an exception "in sympathy
for the 25 years of pain and uncertainty which have plagued the Gotlibs."

But he said they decided over the weekend that they could not do so.

"The first duty of the commonwealth's attorney, in fact any prosecutor, is to do justice,"
Stengel said in the statement. "It is a right of any defendant in the commonwealth of
Kentucky to ... be heard by the people who would formally accuse him."

Ann's father, Anatoly Gotlib, said in a brief phone interview yesterday that the family
suspected Oakley from the beginning, but even with the recent revelations, there are still
doubts.

"Even now, we are not 100 percent sure," Gotlib said.

Oakley moved to Louisville in 1982 from Alabama, where he had been a veterinarian
until losing his license after his conviction for assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 14, and
injecting them with powerful narcotics. One of the girls nearly died.

Unaware of his record, the U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Louisville hired him
to inspect meat and poultry, which police later would say gave him access to
slaughterhouses where a body could be buried.

Bank records showed that a couple of hours before Ann disappeared, Oakley was at a
Liberty National Bank branch at the mall, where Ann was last seen and her bicycle was
discovered.

A polygraph examiner concluded at the time that Oakley was lying when he denied
responsibility for Ann's disappearance, but he claimed to have left town after stopping at
the bank that day, and police could never tie him to the crime.

Last week, however, police disclosed that after a June memorial service marking the 25th
anniversary of Ann's disappearance, a former girlfriend of Oakley's came forward and
said Oakley had come to her house about 11 p.m. the day Ann vanished and asked her to
wash some of his clothes.

Police say that helped establish that Oakley had been in Louisville when Ann
disappeared.
Police Maj. Dave Wood also said that a former cellmate of Oakley's, who first told police
in 1992 that he had admitted killing Ann, was recently interviewed again and repeated
that assertion.

A polygraph exam showed that he was being truthful, police said.

Oakley didn't respond to a request for an interview for a 1993 story on the 10th
anniversary of Ann's disappearance, which identified him as one of several likely
suspects.

However, when a reporter wrote to him again on Feb. 23, 2001, he wrote back three days
later and said that "once and for all" he wanted to say he had had "ABSOLUTELY NO
IDEA WHAT MAY HAVE HAPPENED TO HER."

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189. Reporter Jessie Halladay
can be reached at (502) 582-4081.