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Kelly: Tracking a cop-killer's every move
Monday, March 3, 2008
Last Updated Monday March 3, 2008, EST 5:12 AM

Mike Kelly

Convicted cop-killer Joanne Chesimard may enjoy political
sanctuary in Cuba, but for years she has been secretly monitored by a
web of New Jersey State Police contacts that includes Cuban citizens.
The disclosure by state police investigators of their clandestine
tracking of Chesimard comes as Fidel Castro recently turned over
control of the Communist government to his brother, Raul.
In the wake of the Cuban power shift, state and federal authorities
hope to extradite Chesimard and about 70 U.S. fugitives protected by
Cuba.
For New Jersey, the big prize is Chesimard, a gun-toting member of
the militant Black Liberation Army. She was caught after a 1973
turnpike shootout that killed one state trooper and wounded another --
and left Chesimard wounded, too.
Chesimard, who changed her name to Assata Shakur, was sentenced to
life in prison for the murder of Trooper Werner Foerster. With the
help of fellow militants, she broke out of a New Jersey women's
prison in 1979 and turned up four years later in Cuba -- celebrated
as a revolutionary heroine by Fidel Castro.
In 2005, New Jersey authorities increased the bounty for her
capture to $1 million.
"We are not going away," said state police Lt. Kevin Tormey, the
chief detective on the Chesimard case since 1989.
State police officials have made no secret of their three-decade
desire to catch Chesimard, now 60 and allegedly living in the Havana
area. But this is the first time officials have publicly agreed to
describe how they have spied on New Jersey's most notorious, yet
elusive, fugitive.
Tormey and others stress that their monitoring of Chesimard does
not include covert U.S. agents or undercover state troopers on the
ground in Cuba. But their system of contacts nevertheless offers a
window into the murky world of tracking international fugitives and
underscores the tenacity by the state police to bring Chesimard home.
State police say that for a brief time in the mid-1990s, they
considered going beyond just monitoring Chesimard and arranging to
kidnap her in Cuba or lure her to another country where she could be
arrested and returned to New Jersey.
"We explored that but we never moved forward," Tormey said.
For Tormey, 45, and his 37-year-old assistant, state police
Detective Michael Rinaldi, a graduate of Bergen Catholic High School,
the Chesimard case has become a high-tech collection of information ?
including monitoring YouTube, where videos about her have been
posted. At the same time, it's an old-fashioned police case that
involves legwork and personal conversations with sources.
In his 19 years on the case, Tormey has traveled to almost a dozen
nations to interview people who met Chesimard in Cuba or knew about
her. He and Rinaldi also work on the Chesimard case with agents from
the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Newark.
In an interview at his office in the intelligence division of state
police headquarters in West Trenton, Tormey said some of the most
reliable information on Chesimard comes from Cubans who are
potentially risking their lives by cooperating with American law
enforcement.
The system of passing the information back to New Jersey is
complicated, though.
Even though the U.S. government restricts travel to Cuba, phone
conversations and e-mails are not as limited. Nonetheless, Tormey
said, most Cuban informants fear calling him directly to talk about
Chesimard.
"A lot of them don't want to talk over open lines," Tormey said.
One method, he said, is to pass morsels of information to relatives
in America, who then relay it to the state police. Another is to pass
information to foreign diplomats who then give it to U.S. contacts --
and then to state police.
Back in West Trenton, Tormey and Rinaldi then try to connect the
dot-like snippets on Chesimard -- her comings and goings and
observations on her health. Some is rumor; some is fact.
What results is a pointillist-like portrait -- with notable holes.
Detectives know, for example, that Cuban authorities are keeping a
close eye on Chesimard now, especially since the reward for her
capture was increased to $1 million. But detectives don't know
whether she is under some sort of house arrest or has to ask
authorities before she can go anywhere.
"She doesn't seem to have the same freedom on the island she once
had," Tormey said.
Before 2005, Chesimard was seen strolling through Havana or driving
a Volkswagen. Her phone number was even listed in a Havana telephone
directory -- under the name Assata Shakur.
Chesimard also reportedly worked as a translator for a radio
station. In some cases, she courted attention from the media ?
notably an interview on a New York television station.
But Tormey said she has not been seen in public as much in recent
years. After the $1 million bounty was announced, Fidel Castro
renewed his support for Chesimard and publicly accused the United
States of portraying her "as a terrorist, something that was an
injustice, a brutality, an infamous lie."
One of the more tantalizing contacts, Tormey said, involved a
secret operative in Cuba who was working with U.S. authorities to spy
on Robert Vesco, a Boonton Township embezzler who fled America in
1970s after contributing to President Richard Nixon's reelection in
the hope of shutting down a federal investigation of his finances.
After living in Costa Rica and the Bahamas, Vesco was
granted "humanitarian refuge" in Cuba in 1982 and reportedly placed
under the personal protection of Fidel Castro -- a status Chesimard
received, too.
By the mid-1990s, Vesco fell out of favor with Cuban authorities
and was eventually jailed in a fraudulent scheme to make an alleged
miracle drug for such ailments as cancer and arthritis.
With Vesco in prison, the undercover Cuban operative working with
U.S. federal agents contacted the state police about Chesimard.
"We started talking to this guy," said Tormey, who declined to say
whether the operative was a Cuban citizen -- or where he is now.
But plans never went beyond the talking phase.
Tormey said he hopes Raul Castro will revoke Chesimard's protected
status and send her back to New Jersey. But he has no illusions that
will happen anytime soon.
"It's been a roller-coaster ride," he says. "But there is still a
hole in the state police. We want to bring her in."
E-mail: kellym@northjersey.com. Read Mike Kelly's blog at
northjersey.com/freshjerse

[XXPANTHAXX]

asante sana, but our Warrior Queen is in the most Revolutionary spot on the Planet right now, Im confident she is safe.. fuck that propaganda from them nj pigs...

[shakim1969]

Originally Posted by XXPANTHAXX

asante sana, but our Warrior Queen is in the most Revolutionary spot on the Planet right now, Im confident she is safe.. fuck that propaganda from them nj pigs...

You said right brother, fuck them NJ pigs.