STATE OF NEW YORK : SUPREME COURT

COUNTY OF ERIE : PART 11

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PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK,

vs. INDICTMENT NO. 02445-2018

SHANE CASADO,

Defendant.
Bail Motion
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25 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo, New York
March 6, 2019

B E F O R E:

HONORABLE JOHN L. MICHALSKI,

Acting Supreme Court Justice.

A P P E A R A N C E S:

JOHN J. FLYNN, ESQ.,

ERIE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
BY: ASHLEY M. MORGAN, ESQ.,
Assistant District Attorney
Appearing for the People.

HERBERT L. GREENMAN, ESQ.

Appearing for the Defendant.

P r e s e n t:

SHANE CASADO,
Defendant.

JILL R. DRASZKIEWICZ
Official Court Reporter
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1 MS. MORGAN: Good morning, Your Honor. The

2 next matter before you is the People of the State of

3 New York versus Shane Casado, file 02445-2018. Ashley

4 Morgan appearing on behalf of the People. The defendant

5 is present today in custody. Also present is his

6 attorney, Mr. Herb Greenman.

7 We are here today on defense counsel's motion

8 to modify bail. I received the notice of motion and

9 affidavit from counsel on the afternoon of March 1st. I

10 would like to respond orally to that motion this morning.

11 Because it's defense counsel's motion, I will turn it over

12 to defense counsel; however, I would like to be heard at

13 the appropriate time.

14 THE COURT: Of course. Thank you, Ms. Morgan.

15 Mr. Greenman, good morning, sir.

16 MR. GREENMAN: Good morning, Your Honor.

17 THE COURT: It's your application. You may

18 proceed.

19 MR. GREENMAN: Thank you, Your Honor. You

20 Honor, we have filed the motion and, frankly, a lot of, if

21 not most of, what I would say this morning is in the

22 papers, which I'm sure Your Honor has reviewed. You know,

23 on these types of bail motions, Your Honor, we always are

24 seeking the Court to take a look at a number of things.

25 And number one on a case like this, whether the

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1 defendant -- a defendant, such as Mr. Casado, is worthy.

2 There's two issues, of course, whether he's a flight risk,

3 number one, and, number two, whether he's a danger to

4 anyone in the community.

5 With respect to the second, Judge, I know that

6 you know the facts of this case essentially, and it may be

7 tried at some point in time. But the bottom line here is

8 that this was an aberration. There's no doubt.

9 Whatever it is, whatever the suggestion is about what

10 happened or whatever our defense is and the circumstances

11 which were unusual in this case leading to what took

12 place, was an aberration.

13 I can tell you, Judge, that from my

14 knowledge -- I don't know if the People have anything

15 different -- he has never been violent in the past.

16 He's -- the bottom line is that he's twenty-four years

17 old. He's the son of his mom and dad, Nanette and Juan,

18 both of whom are here, and we set out their employment

19 history. They are two of the most wonderful people,

20 Judge, I can tell you that I have met. And Justin Ginter

21 and myself and Mr. Saraceno, who is also involved in this

22 case, have spent many hours with them talking with them

23 about the case and in some ways counseling them because of

24 their grief as to the whole situation here. Not only as

25 to their son, but that's the kind of people that they are,

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1 Judge.

2 Present today is Mr. Casado's sister who is

3 present in Court and his brother-in-law, and his sister

4 and brother-in-law live in this area. They -- and I

5 believe Mr. Casado has no travel documents, so it's

6 nothing that's going to be surrendered because they don't

7 have anything. He doesn't have anything that the Court

8 would want surrendered to my knowledge. But the proposal

9 is that he would live with his sister and his

10 brother-in-law, because with their schedules -- and they

11 are both hardworking individuals. With their schedules,

12 one person is home virtually all of the time, either

13 Mr. Nguyen -- it's N-G-U-Y-E-N -- either Mr. Nguyen or his

14 wife. And I would add, Judge, I think the Court is aware,

15 that Mr. Nguyen, who is present in Court today, is a

16 Buffalo police officer. And we have talked with him about

17 this, and he's aware of the whole situation, and he

18 believes in his brother-in-law, in Mr. Casado, and he

19 believes that Mr. Casado would be appropriate to be living

20 in their home on a full-time basis.

21 We have indicated to the Court that Mr. Casado

22 has been employed by -- it's a company called Every1, with

23 a one at the end. He is a manager of a group home in a

24 very responsible position, to the point where we have been

25 contacted and have been contacted by his employers, and

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1 they have indicated that, notwithstanding their knowledge

2 of what happened here, that his job is still available.

3 That's what a good worker he was.

4 He's never been in trouble in his life, Judge.

5 His mom -- they have talked with me, and she cries, but

6 she described him as the perfect child who basically moved

7 above his grandmother at his own choice because his

8 grandmother has been infirm. His grandmother needs help,

9 and he was basically the one who took care of her when he

10 wasn't working. He took her to all of her medical

11 appointments, took care of her on a daily basis, cooked

12 for her, did everything for her, and what that's what he

13 chose to do because that's the type of person that he was.

14 He's a high school -- obviously he's a lifelong

15 resident of the Buffalo area. He graduated from high

16 school here. He graduated from ECC, Buffalo State, and

17 after he graduated, he's either been in high school,

18 college, or working full-time his entire adult life.

19 I know that the People will talk about the

20 seriousness of the crime, and obviously that is a

21 circumstance that the Court will always take into account,

22 and we understand how serious the charges are. We have

23 advised the Court -- and I, as an office of the Court, I

24 will indicate the we have been able to reclaim the text

25 messages from that day. I don't want to get into that,

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1 Judge, because, you know, I know that the family is not

2 here, and I think it's maybe not the right time to go

3 through the whole thing, but there's no doubt that he was

4 threatened with physical violence. She came to his home.

5 She was very serious about how she was acting with him.

6 She tries to cause some damage to his vehicle, came

7 around, and he came back to her, and then this incident

8 took place.

9 In a perfect world, we wouldn't be here,

10 because he's not the kind of guy who you normally see and

11 who you would normally represent. And I will tell you

12 this, Judge, that for the most part in my career I have

13 chosen pretty much not to take homicide cases as I have

14 grown and evolved and maybe gotten a lot older, but this

15 is one case that I agreed to take, and the fact that I was

16 willing to take because of who -- and I spent a lot of

17 time with him at the jail, and Mr. Ginter spent even more

18 time with Shane over at the jail talking with him. And

19 he's an honest, forthright young man, you know, who

20 understands the situation.

21 We understand, you know, the complicated nature

22 of this case and what's behind it. We believe that to

23 some extent it may be triable; although, our investigation

24 continues. But on the other hand, at this point in time

25 we do ask Your Honor that under the unusual circumstances

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1 of this case leading to what happened here, and what the

2 Court maybe doesn't see on a regular basis is a person

3 such as Mr. Casado who has such a stellar background, has

4 never hurt anybody in the past, and, frankly, his mom and

5 dad and what they are to the community. And as the Court

6 can see, Mr. Casado himself has donated a lot of his time

7 to charities. Because, again, that's the kind of person

8 he is.

9 But to me, what tells the tale, Your Honor, is

10 the fact that a Buffalo police officer who knows about

11 these facts and knows about the circumstances of this case

12 feels in his heart of hearts, together with his wife, that

13 Mr. Casado can and should stay with him while this case is

14 pending. They do not see him as a risk of flight or a

15 risk of danger to the community.

16 We have a couple of properties, Your Honor.

17 We're not a hundred percent sure of the value of them, but

18 we believe that even a substantial bail of like

19 50,000 dollars, if the Court would make it a property or

20 if the Court made it cash or bond, we would strive to post

21 that as well, but we believe that that's sufficient,

22 Judge, under the circumstances. As I said, that would

23 secure him for purposes -- he's not going to hurt his mom

24 and dad. His relationship with them is way too close, so

25 it alleviates or eliminates any risk of flight. And as I

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1 said, Judge, given the aberrant nature of this act, I

2 seriously do not believe that he is a risk of any danger

3 to the community. As a consequence, Judge, we do ask the

4 Court to set a reasonable bail under the circumstances

5 here.

6 THE COURT: All right, sir.

7 MR. GREENMAN: Thank you, Your Honor.

8 THE COURT: Thank you. Ms. Morgan?

9 MS. MORGAN: Your Honor, just so the record is

10 clear, the defendant was arrested on November 28th of 2018

11 and charged with murder in the second degree. He was

12 arraigned and remanded at that time. The defendant was

13 then indicted on one count of murder in the second degree

14 and arraigned before Your Honor on February 1st of 2019,

15 and bail continued at that time.

16 The proof in this case is very strong. After

17 shooting the victim, Rachael Wierzbicki, who was a

18 twenty-two-year-old unarmed female, the defendant called

19 911 and admitted to shooting her claiming that his

20 property had been struck so he opened fire on someone.

21 The defendant then gave a full statement to homicide

22 detectives admitting that he pointed the rifle at her and

23 shot her. There were also two eyewitnesses which

24 confirmed that the defendant shot the unarmed victim.

25 By all accounts, I think we're all in agreement

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1 that the victim and the defendant were having a verbal

2 argument over breaking up. The defendant didn't want to

3 be in the relationship with Rachael anymore, and Rachael

4 was crying and upset. I submit this conversation probably

5 takes place every day in Erie County amongst

6 twenty-year-olds. The defendant, however, in this

7 situation amped up the encounter when he exited his home

8 with a rifle. He didn't lock his door. He didn't call

9 the police. It sounds as though he could have called his

10 brother-in-law who is a police officer. He met Rachael in

11 the driveway with a loaded rifle. The two had a verbal

12 argument. He raised the rifle, and from less than ten

13 feet away, aimed it at her, and shot her directly in the

14 middle of her abdomen. This was not an accident.

15 When defense counsel speaks of the defendant's

16 character to be considered for bail, I ask Your Honor to

17 consider that shooting an unarmed twenty-year-old female

18 in the center of her body was this defendant's way of

19 problem solving that night. It was extreme. It was

20 violent. It was completely unnecessary.

21 MR. GREENMAN: I'm sorry.

22 MS. MORGAN: In regards to his employment,

23 while I read the submission by defense counsel, they

24 mention a company named Community Services for Every1 is

25 willing to continue to employ the defendant. There is no

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1 affidavit from them. Having that would clarify that a

2 company which cares for the disabled is actually going to

3 take the risk of continuing to employ someone under

4 indictment for murder.

5 In regards to housing, defense counsel has

6 mentioned the sister and the brother-in-law. It's unclear

7 if they are asking to be required to monitor the

8 defendant's whereabouts. They did mention something

9 regarding an ankle monitor. I just wanted to clarify that

10 it's my understanding the monitors provided through RUS or

11 from probation, those are different from parole. The

12 probation monitors only indicate whether the defendant is

13 at home. They do not have GPS capabilities, and the

14 defendant has every incentive to flee. If convicted, he's

15 facing a minimum of fifteen to life and a maximum of

16 twenty-five years to life. And so for all of those

17 reasons, I would ask that bail remain as remanded.

18 THE COURT: Some follow up, Mr. Greenman?

19 MR. GREENMAN: Juge, very, very short.

20 Your Honor, one of the reasons that Courts set a bail and

21 in many cases set a financial bail has to do with the risk

22 of flight issue. And as we have indicated here, his mom,

23 dad, his family is willing to post whatever they have,

24 anything that they have, for him to be released. They

25 wouldn't take that chance. But I can tell you, Judge --

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1 and I said it before, and I'm trying not to be

2 redundant -- but there's no way that he's going to flee

3 and run away from the circumstances when his mother and

4 father's property is at stake. We're not asking that he

5 be released on his own recognizance, Judge. If you want

6 to set a financial bond, that really should take care of

7 the first part of it.

8 I don't think that the People really are

9 arguing that he is a risk of danger to anyone. I think

10 that this was an aberrant act. But so that the Court is

11 aware -- and I know that what Ms. Morgan says is what she

12 believes the facts to be. First of all, I know that

13 Mr. Ginter has double checked this in terms of the

14 employment. It's his affidavit, and I know Mr. Ginter way

15 too well to know that he would not put that in his

16 affidavit if he didn't know it of his own nature. If the

17 Court wants us to get something from them, we will be

18 happy to do it, but I don't think it's necessary.

19 As far as the circumstances here, Judge, again,

20 I'm not going to go through it, but I can tell you that

21 there were threats that were made to him by this young

22 woman, physical threats which she was going to do, and she

23 also said and indicated that, pretty much while she's at

24 it, she's going to "F" up his car, which she started

25 doing. So there was something to what she was saying with

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1 him as far as he was concerned, and then she shows up to

2 his home -- he didn't want her to come. He begged her not

3 to show up. He begged her not to come to the house. He

4 was concerned about his grandmother, what might happen to

5 her or what she might see and how that might impact. So

6 he comes downstairs so she won't come upstairs. And this

7 incident unfortunately takes place, but I can tell you

8 that she threatened him with physical violence when she

9 came over there.

10 And, you know, I understand that she's a woman

11 and he's a guy and all this other stuff, but no one is

12 incapable of doing something bad to somebody else, and

13 it's verified by the text messages as to what she said to

14 him, and she followed through on it, and she had to a

15 point in terms of the nature of the physical violence that

16 she had threatened him with, and she was walking in his

17 direction when this happened.

18 It's a sad set of circumstances, Your Honor,

19 all the way around, but I don't believe that, under the

20 circumstances, given everything that you have here, that

21 he should be precluded from at least being released under

22 whatever conditions you deem appropriate, Judge. If you

23 want an ankle bracelet on him, fine. We don't have any

24 problems. Whatever conditions you think are appropriate

25 are fine with us. Thanks, Judge.

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Official Court Reporter
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1 THE COURT: Anything further, Ms. Morgan?

2 MS. MORGAN: No, Your Honor.

3 THE COURT: Okay. I will set bail at

4 175,000 dollars A or B. We have a return date scheduled

5 for next week. We stand adjourned until then.

6 MS. MORGAN: Thank you, Judge.

7 MR. GREENMAN: Thank you very much, Your Honor.

8 We appreciate it.

9 (Whereupon the proceedings concluded.)

10 * * *

11 C E R T I F I C A T I O N

12
I certify that the foregoing pages are a correct
13 transcription of the proceedings recorded by me in this matter.

14
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Official Court Reporter
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JILL R. DRASZKIEWICZ
Official Court Reporter