Megan McDonald case: Next court date pushed

WALLKILL − The special prosecutor in the Megan McDonald murder case has asked for more time to build her case against Edward Holley, and she's gotten it.

Julia Cornachio was due in Wallkill Town Court on June 7 to update Judge Peter Green on the case, but asked Green to adjourn that appearance to Aug. 23, a date agreed to by Holley's lawyer, Paul Weber. Green granted the adjournment.

"We have 20 years worth of stuff to go through," Cornachio said last week.

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The 42-year-old Holley faces a second-degree murder charge in the 2003 bludgeoning death of McDonald, whose lifeless body was discovered in a field off Bowser Road in the town of Wallkill on March 15, 2003. If convicted, he faces 25 years to life in prison.

Holley, who lost the use of his legs in a 2007 car crash, declared his innocence after his April 20 arrest as he was wheeled from the State Police barracks in Middletown.

For decades, McDonald's murder was the highest-profile cold case in Orange County, and the focus of Route 17 billboards, at least two reward offers, and endless discussion and conjecture. A New York State Police investigation ran for 20 years before Holley's arrest.

A police case file with hundreds of interviews and exhibits takes time to pore over and digest, Cornachio said.

"This is actually par for the course," she said. "We're new on the case and it's a lot of work."

'There's something more going on here'

The dramatic case — a vibrant young woman, the daughter of an NYPD detective, found beaten to death — hasn't lacked for drama since Holley's arrest. If anything, it's taken even more twists.

Minutes after the arrest and Holley being whisked away to his arraignment at City of Middletown Court, State Police held a press conference at which McDonald's sister and brother-in-law spoke. Missing from that press conference was Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler.

Hours later, Hoovler issued a press release blasting the State Police for not looping his office in on the arrest. In fact, in a break with the typical, Holley's case had not been presented to an Orange County grand jury. Holley was arraigned without being indicted.

Less than a week later, Holley was in Green's courtroom for the required preliminary hearing. Instead of reporting that an indictment had been handed up, Assistant District Attorney Jessica Dovico read a letter from Hoovler: The preliminary hearing would not go forward.

Green then ruled that Holley, who was in county jail on a drug sentence that was due to expire, should be released. Within hours, he was.

“There's something more going on here,” Weber, Holley's attorney, said outside court the day of the aborted preliminary hearing. “I don't know if it's the DA and the State Police are butting heads, but there's something going on here with this case.”

Within days, the "something more" came to light.

A recusal

Hoovler recused himself and his office from any role in the county's biggest case in years. It turns out that before being elected district attorney, Hoovler had represented someone with a connection to the case, a fact that was kept from the public until after Holley's arrest.

With no district attorney attached to an arraigned suspect, someone had to be named to take on the case.

Enter Julia Cornachio and Laura Murphy, veterans of the Westchester County District Attorney's office, though no longer working there.

James McCarty, supervising judge of the Ninth Judicial District, assigned Cornachio as special district attorney to lead the prosecution, and Murphy to assist. Murphy was chief of the Westchester DA’s cold case bureau until she retired earlier this year. McCarty was a longtime Westchester prosecutor who worked with Cornachio and Murphy for years.

Cornachio said the massive case file requires due diligence, an effort that will take time, as well as an adjournment of the June 7 court date. But even the new court date, Aug. 23, isn't written in stone, she said.

"I requested an August 23 date just because in conversations with the defense, that date was good for him," she said. "It's kind of artificial, the court dates right now, because nothing precludes us from going to the grand jury before that or anything like that."

As special prosecutor, Cornachio has the power to use the existing Orange County grand jury or to empanel one of her own. The benefit of a special grand jury, she said, was time and attention.

"We may empanel a special grand jury, when we're ready to go, because we may need some extra time and we don't want it to interfere with other cases that are going on," she said. "There's a lot of things to take into consideration."

With Green's adjournment, time is something Cornachio has more of.

Reach Peter D. Kramer at pkramer@gannett.com.

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This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Megan McDonald murder case: Special prosecutor asks, receives more time