Brother-in-law says judge's 'big mess up' wrongly linked him to Megan McDonald case

Jason Rivera wants to make one thing clear: He had nothing to do with the Megan McDonald murder case, and the only reason his name has been connected to it was because his brother-in-law, Orange County Judge Craig Stephen Brown, made a mistake.

Rivera, 45, of Scotchtown, told his side of the story in a message sent to the Justice for Megan McDonald Facebook page and the USA Today Network New York. The news outlet this week published a series called "Bad Blood," looking deep into the McDonald murder investigation, long Orange County’s highest-profile cold case, and exposing an acrimonious relationship between State Police and District Attorney David M. Hoovler.

An internal police report reached a stunning conclusion: that Hoovler's role representing an alleged killer in the McDonald case led him to tamper with the investigation. Hoovler has denied hindering the investigation in any way, calling it "as categorically false as it is offensive."

The series also revealed that, according to the same report, in March 2019, Judge Brown called State Police investigator Kevin Chorzempa to ask if Rivera was a suspect in connection with the McDonald case. Brown explained to the USA Today Network that he made the call to learn if he needed to recuse himself from considering a wiretap application, and “no one asked me to recuse.”

Brown later rejected the wiretap warrant sought by State Police, saying it lacked probable cause. A year later, the judge rejected a second search warrant on similar grounds.

'A big mess up on my brother-in-law's part'

But the judge had gotten it wrong when he made that phone call to Chorzempa, his brother-in-law said. Yes, Rivera had been questioned by State Police, but not in the McDonald case.

In his message to the Facebook group and the USA Today Network, Rivera wrote: "I’m not sure if this is the right avenue to go, but I really needed to share with the family or investigators and whoever is doing the Bad Blood stories that I had nothing to do with this case whatsoever and my name being involved, believe it or not, was a big mess up on my brother-in-law’s part.”

Rivera continued: “I’m extremely upset with my brother-in-law involving me in this case ‘by accident’ and I’m sorry this might hurt his position, but I care about clearing my name more than anything and I most definitely don’t want people to think I’m some sort of monster or that I knew something or that I was hiding something. I absolutely knew nothing and have nothing to do with this case.”

Wrong place, wrong time

In an interview Tuesday, Rivera said it was late November 2006 when he dropped in for “a final beer” at KJ’s Restaurant and Tap Room in Scotchtown. He said he was there for about 15 minutes when a fight broke out that spilled into the parking lot. While sitting inside, Rivera said, he heard what sounded like fireworks, which sent him and other patrons ducking for cover. He later learned that 28-year-old Jamar Nelson had been shot dead in a gunfight.

Rivera’s car was parked inside the perimeter of the police-tape cordon and could not be moved, so a friend drove him home. State Police investigators later wanted to speak to Rivera as a witness to what had happened, and Brown, an attorney and his brother-in-law, took him to the Middletown barracks for an interview. (Brown was elected a county judge in 2016.)

That interview was brief, Rivera said, as he hadn’t seen the shooting and had little to add to the investigation. He called it an instance of his being “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

And that was that.

Another police interview

It wasn’t until years later, Rivera said, when another State Police interview took place, under much different circumstances that have only become clear to him in recent days, since the “Bad Blood” series was published.

For years he has wondered why investigators showed up at his home on March 18, 2019, asking him about the Megan McDonald case. Like anyone who has spent time in Orange County in the past 20 years, Rivera knew well the story of the 20-year-old whose lifeless body was found in a field off Bowser Road.

“I grew up in Scotchtown, so I've always paid attention and read the newspapers the same way everyone else did,” he said. But he had no idea why police would think he knew anything about the case.

“I was always thinking, 'Who of my friends could have said that I was somehow a part of this?'" he said.

“I'm not friends, not in the least, with either one of the guys,” Rivera said. He was referring to Edward Holley, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the McDonald case (and has declared his innocence), and Andre Thurston, who died in 2010 and was identified by police as “Suspect #2” in the felony complaint against Holley. “I never hung out with them ever in my lifetime, besides seeing one guy at the basketball park.

“He played basketball in my neighborhood,” Rivera said of Holley, who lost the use of his legs in a 2007 auto crash. “Everybody at the time used to play basketball at Square Park in Town of Wallkill. That's the only time I've ever interacted with that guy, never as a friend or never anywhere outside of seeing him at the basketball court.”

‘Bad Blood’ brings a revelation

It was only after the publication of the USA Today Network New York series that Rivera learned how his name became linked to the case. The stories broke what Rivera indicated was a wall of silence Brown maintains when it comes to legal cases.

“My brother-in-law has never talked to me (about a case) because he's literally ethically just like that, a judge that will never divulge things to even family members about things,” Rivera said. “Even if I was supposedly going to be a witness or something. We never talked about this, until I read this newspaper thing.

“Because he never talked to me about it or never said anything about the Megan McDonald case, we never got to clear it up until literally when I had to talk to him (about the ‘Bad Blood’ series) and he was like, 'Wait, so it wasn't that case?' And it wasn't. It was totally a different case. It's literally an accident that he brought me into this.”

Rivera, in the interview, got emotional when he spoke about Brown and the case’s impact on his family.

“I feel so bad for my brother-in-law because it's his life,” Rivera said, apologizing as he broke down in tears. “He literally is a follow-the-book type of law guy. He is about as moral and ethical as anybody could be.

“It just sucks that he did this,” Rivera continued. “He is normally a guy that is so super on his P's and Q's and he knows what not to do. He teaches everybody that in the courtroom. He teaches all the ADAs, all the young guys, all the investigators. He teaches courtroom procedure. He teaches all the mock trials at all the schools. Like, this guy is like A-1. It sucks that it's been almost tainted in a way because of this case and also that he actually by accident brought me into this.”

Rivera rebuts an assertion made in the internal police report, which quotes him as saying Brown asked him what police were "fishing for" in their March 2019 interview.

"Never did I say that Craig asked me what were they 'fishing for,'" Rivera said. "That’s been something that sticks out to me, too. It’s not even verbiage I would use. And Craig would never ask me a question like that."

In his note to the Facebook group and the USA Today Network New York, Rivera wrote: "I have always wondered what happened to Megan for as long as this case has gone on and hoped they’d find the murderer."

An email seeking comment from Brown, asking him if Rivera's characterization of events was accurate, was not returned. Chief Clerk Lyn McKelvey forwarded the request to the Office for Public Communications, which had not responded.

David Hoovler's words echoed in indictment

The indictment that landed Edward Holley in Orange County Jail last week on a second-degree murder charge in the 2003 death of McDonald was terse, just six lines. But it held yet another tantalizing detail in a case that has had more than its share. Holley didn't act alone, the grand jury concluded.

"The said defendant, on or about March 14, 2003, in the Town of Wallkill, County of Orange, State of New York, while being aided and abetted and acting in concert with another did with intent to cause the death of Megan McDonald cause the death of Megan McDonald."

The scenario is consistent with comments made by Hoovler years before he was elected district attorney, when, as a defense attorney, he was seeking a plea deal for an unnamed client (later identified by Hoovler as Andre Thurston).

According to notes taken by Assistant District Attorney Maryellen Black Albanese, Hoovler — when asked during a July 30, 2008, phone conversation with Albanese whether his client would be considered a principal or an accomplice to the crime — said: “Principal or accomplice, there’s very little distinguishing that here. They were all acting in concert."

Reach Peter D. Kramer at pkramer@gannett.com. Support this kind of reporting by subscribing, at subscribe.lohud.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Brother-in-law: judge's 'big mess up' tied him to Megan McDonald case