By By Maurice Tamman
Florida Today – September 10, 1999
Private investigators who claim death-row inmate Crosley Green is innocent ended two days of meetings with state investigators in Chicago on Thursday.
On Aug. 19, Brevard-Seminole State Attorney Norm Wolfinger asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to review their claims.
“I’m very happy,” said Joe Moura, a private investigator working for free on Green’s behalf. “The rapport between our groups was tremendous and they were eager to learn what we have.”
In 1990, a jury convicted Green, now 41, of first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of Charles “Chip” Flynn in a Mims orange grove. A judge sentenced Green to death in 1991.
Wolfinger contacted the FDLE after Moura, a Boston-area private investigator, and Paul Ciolino, a Chicago private investigator, told trial prosecutors they had evidence that four prosecution witnesses lied on the stand during Green’s trial.
Wolfinger has said he turned the case over to an outside agency in order to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. FDLE spokeswoman Liz Hirst refused to comment Thursday.
Moura, Ciolino and San Diego private investigator Michael Newman met with three FDLE investigators for about eight hours Wednesday and about three hours Thursday.
Moura said they reviewed the statements of the four trial witnesses and others who might establish an alibi for Green the night of Flynn’s death.
Moura, Ciolino and two other investigators were persuaded to look into the case by Nan Webb, 57, a part-time computer science instructor from Viera. She has been visiting and corresponding with Green since 1996. The investigators collected the statements during two trips to Brevard County in August.
Wolfinger’s second-in-command, Wayne Holmes, said he was aware of the meeting.
“This is (their) opportunity to turn over what they’ve got,” he said. “We’ll see.”
It is unclear what the FDLE would do with the evidence, but, Holmes said an attorney representing Green eventually must ask a judge to consider what should be done with it.
So far, the private investigators have not shared any of it with Green’s state-appointed defense attorneys.
Ciolino says he has Green’s permission to screen offers from private attorneys who have offered to represent Green for free.