By David Lohr

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April 3, 2007

BUFFALO, N.Y. (Crime Library) —  There have been some interesting developments in the case of Alternio C. Sanchez, the media-dubbed "Bike Path Rapist."  Glass slides containing DNA evidence that had been long ignored by the authorities were recently found in a cabinet at the Erie County Medical Center.  That evidence has since proven without a doubt that Sanchez was responsible for two rapes that have kept Anthony J. Capozzi, an innocent man, behind bars for the last 22 years. 

Anthony Capozzi

"I am sorry, I'm sure, not nearly as much as his family is, that the existence of these slides was not made [known] earlier," District Attorney Frank J. Clark said during a press conference late last week.

District Attorney Frank J. Clark

In 1985, Capozzi, a mentally disabled man, was arrested for two rapes that occurred in 1983 and 1984.  The victims picked Capozzi out of a police line up, and it was later determined that his blood type was the same as the assailant's.  During his 1987 trial, a former police officer said he saw Capozzi in the area where the rapes occurred.

For as much circumstantial evidence as there was connecting Capozzi to the crimes, there were just as many inconsistencies.  The victims' initial physical descriptions did not fit Capozzi: he was not known to wear the type of clothes described by the victims, and victims made no mention a prominent scar that Capozzi has on the side of his face. 

Anthony Capozzi

In addition to the inconsistencies in identification, police did not assemble the line up until a year after the rapes occurred.  While those things alone may not have proven Capozzi was innocent, investigators should have taken notice when two other sexual assaults matching the same MO as the 1983 and 1984 rapes took place in the same area in 1986.  Nonetheless, Capozzi was found guilty and sentenced to 11 to 35 years. 

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Contact  David Lohr at           crimewriter74@hughes.net

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