Misinformation surrounding the investigation into the murder of 52-year-old Peter Porco and the attack on his wife, 54-year-old Joan Porco, continues to permeate the media, according to town and law enforcement officials.
Joan Porco’s condition has improved enough for her to move out of the intensive care unit at an Albany hospital, where she has been since Nov. 15, to Sunnyview Rehabilitation Center in Schenectady, according to Supervisor Theresa Egan. It is not clear whether there is a police presence at Sunnyview; there was a consistent police presence for the duration of Joan Porco’s stay in the Albany hospital’s ICU.
Egan said Joan Porco is conscious.
“There’s some movement. She’s moving around; I wouldn’t say she’s walking. She’s traversing upright,” Egan said.
The Porcos were discovered in their 36 Brockley Drive home a month ago, after Peter Porco failed to arrive at work at the state Appellate Court, where he served as Judge Anthony Cardona’s law clerk. A court officer discovered Joan Porco upstairs from her deceased husband, with trauma to her body and head. She was alert before she was taken by ambulance to the hospital, according to police, though it is unclear what, if anything, she said.
For the second week in a row, the Albany County District Attorney’s office presented evidence to a grand jury about the investigation into Peter Porco’s murder to a grand jury. Efforts to reach representatives of that office were unsuccessful. DA representatives have said they believe the attacker was known to the Porco family.
After Friday’s grand jury session, an article in the Times Union alleged that the Porcos’ younger son, 21-year-old Chris Porco, who is a University of Rochester student, is the focus of an Albany County Sheriff’s Department gambling probe.
Last week, Bethlehem Police Chief Lou Corsi said a number of other law enforcement agencies were assisting the department in its investigation, including the State Police, which had been helping since the onset of the investigation. Corsi declined to name any of the agencies specifically. Inspector John Burke of the Albany County Sheriff’s Department’s Drug Interdiction Unit, said his unit was not assisting the Bethlehem Police Department in the way the story described.
“I never said anything like that. I don’t know where he got that. It’s totally ludicrous,” Burke said of the story that Chris Porco was the focus of a gambling investigation. “There is nothing there that puts Chris (in an investigation like that).”
Mary Fran Gleason, managing editor of the Times Union, said she has no reason to believe Burke was misquoted.
“I can say with all certainty that no one has raised any questions about the story, certainly not anyone from the Albany County Sheriff’s Department,” Gleason said. “We also confirmed the information provided by In-spector Burke with a couple of different sources, and he hasn’t called, nor contacted us to complain about what we wrote, so we stand by it.”
Burke said it’s not uncommon for his unit to assist the Bethlehem Police Department in crime investigations. “Believe me, if we had anything to give (the Bethlehem Police Department), we would’ve given it to them already,” Burke said. “We just don’t have anything.”
Burke said Chris Porco has never been the focus of an investigation by his office.
Lt. Thomas Heffernan, Jr. said certain Sheriff’s Department officers are assisting as the investigation continues. He would not comment on the accuracy of Burke’s statements in the Times Union article. “As the investigation continues and broadens, outside agencies come on board,” Heffernan said. “The reason we don’t name exactly what those agencies are is because we don’t want the media to take it in a direction.”
Chris Porco and his 23-year-old brother, Johnathan Porco, who is in the Navy, were called “persons of interest” at the beginning of the investigation. Both have been interviewed by police. Chris Porco’s Jeep Wrangler was seized by police for processing after they traveled to Rochester the day of the discovery of Peter Porco’s body. Police continue to hold the vehicle. Bethlehem Police have never publicly called Chris Porco a suspect in the attack on his parents, though Corsi has noted that Chris Porco “got a lot of attention from the media because of the Jeep.”
Reports that the Bethlehem Police Department has turned down offers of help from the major crimes unit of the State Police were also false, Corsi, Egan and Heffernan have said. State Police Trooper Maureen Tuffey said the State Police’s forensics unit has been assisting the town since the beginning of the investigation, but she couldn’t say how long the Major Crimes Unit had been working with Beth-lehem police.
Last Thursday, Egan said misinformation in the media has been common from the onset of the investigation. Both Heffernan and Corsi have noted instances of misinformation, though neither has been specific about what they were referring to. “Half of what you’re reading about is wrong,” Egan said, relaying what she’s been telling residents, “but I can’t tell you which half because then you would know which way the investigation is going.”
At last week’s town board meeting, the first since the attacks, Egan and board member Thomas Marcelle, a Republican, who both knew the Porco family personally, supported the Bethlehem Police Department’s investigation. “This isn’t something that can happen overnight. It’s not Law and Order, it’s not CSI,” Egan said. “We want an arrest, but we want it of the right person.”