Autopsy leak outrages father of Pace University student

Autopsy leak outrages father of Pace University student
By Jessica Fargen  |   Sunday, October 24, 2010  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

Photo by Ted Fitzgerald (file)

The father of slain Easton college student Danroy Henry Jr. said the leak of sensitive autopsy information has escalated his concerns about the impartiality of the investigation into his son’s death.

Information based on a toxicology report leaked to the media on Friday showed that Henry, a Pace University student, may have been drunk last Sunday when police shot him as he drove away from a bar brawl outside a pub in Thornwood, N.Y. Henry, 20, later died of his injuries.

“It makes me even more concerned that this investigation may be compromised,” Henry’s father, Danroy Henry Sr. of Easton, told the Herald yesterday. “We are just looking for truth.”

He said that neither Mount Pleasant police nor the Westchester District Attorney’s Office contacted the family after the leak. Police have stonewalled the family’s request for the same autopsy information that was leaked, he said.

“I would have expected there to be some outrage that this was released. We have no way of verifying its truth,” he said.

Family attorney Michael Sussman yesterday said police are refusing to provide a sample of body fluids or blood used in the toxicology analysis.

The leak “demonstrates that those conducting this investigation either are intentionally seeking to align with those who killed D.J. or are not in control of the information being generated as part of their investigation,” he said.

Mount Pleasant Police chief Louis Alagno has said the department is reviewing the shooting.

Alagno did not return phone calls or an e-mail yesterday. A spokeswoman for the Westchester District Attorney’s Office did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

The case has drawn national attention and sparked a war of words between police and Henry’s friends and family.

There are conflicting of accounts of the shooting. Henry was parked in a fire lane outside the pub and drove off amid the chaos. Police said he ignored their commands to stop and tried to run an officer down. A friend of Henry’s said he was simply trying to follow police direction to move his car.

Witnesses said police failed to provide medical aid to Henry for 15 minutes after he was shot, and that they were brutalized by police for trying to help Henry, according to attorney Bonita Zelman.

Police have said they took just 3 minutes to come to his aid.

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