DA: No prosecutorial misconduct in Ashton homicide investigation

Ed Lewis, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
·2 min read

Jul. 6—WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne County prosecutors vigorously denied any misconduct in the homicide investigation of Cindy Lou Ashton in their efforts to restore critical evidence against the suspect, Anthony Dion Shaw.

Shaw, 45, of East Orange, N.J., was charged by county detectives with an open count of criminal homicide after Ashton, 39, was found deceased inside her Nicholson Street residence in Wilkes-Barre Township on May 2, 2018. An autopsy revealed Ashton died from multiple stab wounds.

Shaw's attorney, David V. Lampman II, is seeking to prohibit prosecutors from using what he says were illegally obtained knives, a notebook with a handwritten letter, store receipts and packages from Shaw's apartment and vehicle.

The alleged evidence was found by police in East Orange conducting a welfare check on Shaw, who was discovered with self-inflicted slash wounds May 3, 2018.

Police in East Orange entered Shaw's apartment without a search warrant, which factored into the ruling by Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough prohibiting prosecutors from using the alleged evidence at Shaw's trial.

Prosecutors appealed Vough's ruling with the state Superior Court, which ordered a suppression hearing.

After Vough presided over two recent hearings, the president judge offered Lampman and prosecutors the opportunity to file additional legal briefs.

Lampman filed an 86-page document and in response, District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce, First Assistant District Attorney Tony Ross, Assistant District Attorney Division Chief Daniel Marsh, and assistant district attorneys Brian Coleman and Gerry Scott filed their 73-page brief on Friday.

Lampman suggested prosecutors have been dishonest, provided false information and intentionally withheld a video.

Prosecutors called Lampman's accusations "so poor (as) to be frivolous."

"The investigators and attorneys of the Luzerne County District Attorney's Office did not commit any misconduct in this case. As the Commonwealth noted ...unrelated events led two different law enforcement agencies to (Shaw's) door. The illegal — and well-meaning — actions of one of those agencies in New Jersey should not penalize a Pennsylvania agency investigating a Pennsylvanian murder. The Commonwealth should not be put in a worse position by an illegal search that it never authorized," prosecutors stated in their filing.

Throughout recent court proceedings regarding the evidence, prosecutors maintained Shaw was a person-of-interest as witnesses encountered him being in Ashton's company hours before she was killed, and the knives, notebook and store receipts would had been discovered through the investigation.