Dear Ms. Wallace, 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this letter regarding my husband’s case. It’s been thirteen long years that an innocent man and his family have been suffering because of our court system’s failure to seek the truth. The truth is that my husband is not a murderer and that he is perishing in jail at the expense of a system that knows they have done wrong.

My husband has been wrongfully convicted of murder in the second degree and is currently serving his 13th year of a twenty-five to life sentence. The past thirteen years have been filled with strong hopes that appeals and motions will finally demonstrate to the court that an innocent man has been convicted. However, the justice system has failed my husband and has failed to seek the truth.  My husband is innocent and his conviction was based on the hearsay testimony that changed several times during and after the trial, of a disgruntled and incredible employee and a tape that was altered and edited by the Assistant District Attorney John Moscow.

My husband, Allan Stern was charged in November 1988 with soliciting the murder of his brother-in-law, Arthur Katz, which was committed in December 1980. The prosecution’s case consisted solely of circumstantial evidence and hearsay testimony; there was no physical evidence and no eyewitnesses to the murder. The prosecutor’s central witness was Roberto Da Silva, who had been a disgruntled employee of my husband, Allan Stern, and almost eight years after the murder, claimed to authorities to have arranged the murder of Arthur Katz at Allan Stern’s behest. Da Silva then became an undercover operative for law enforcement officers and received unlimited immunity. Under the supervision of the police, DaSilva secretly taped conversations between himself and Stern. Let it be known that the tapes used in trial were wrongfullyand illegally altered,redacted and editedby the prosecutor A.D.A John Moscow, a government official. Basically, the only evidence presented by the District Attorney was Da Silva’ s hearsay testimony that was proven to be false both during and after the trial and the altered tapes.

DaSilva was totally incredible from the day he made his original confession to date. Every major element of the crime was proven to be false either at trial or on the 440.10 motions made subsequent to trial. First of all, DaSilva alleged in his original confession dated March 10, 1988, that hit men by the names of Sam Feet and Crazy Joe went to the North Central Hospital in the Bronx, disguised themselves as New York Police Detectives, handcuffed Katz in the hospital and took him to their car and then shot and killed him. Then they removed an 18-inch gold chain with a Star of David with the letters “K A T Z” engraved on the back to give to Stern as proof that they killed him. They left Katz’s body in a stolen car on 12th avenue under the EL with two bullets in his head.

DaSilva also stated in his original confession that Allan Stern made an initial payment of $10,000 in June of 1980. DaSilva repeated this part of his story to the Grand Jury, but testified at trial that this payment was made on October 16th, 1980 (rather than June). He also testified that Allan Stern shorted the hit men $500 explaining that he (DaSilva) made the initial payment of $9500 instead of the initially claimed $10,000. He went on to allege that he went with Sam Feet to the 96thstreet Citibank Branch where he allegedly withdrew $500 from an ATM machine and gave the money to Sam Feet.

The only true fact that DaSilva states in his March 10th,1988 confession was that Katz was shot twice in the head, which he must have over heard during an illegal tape recording of a conversation between the deceased’s wife, (Allan’s sister), and Allan Stern over the business office telephone. Let it also be known that DaSilva illegally wiretapped the business office phone with A.D.A Moscow’s knowledge. Moscow hid these tapes in his vault and never produced them to the Defense. They were produced through the efforts of myself, Allan and his Attorney (Richard Yeskoo) through a Civil Lawsuit. At a 440.10 evidentiary hearing Mr. Moscow testified that he never listened to the illegal tapes even though Mr. DaSilva testified to the contrary. The DAs response to DaSilva’s testimony was that he was incredible.

At the criminal trial, Ms. Montas of the OCME (office of chief medical examiner) testified that she did not notice any handcuff marks on Mr. Katz’s body while performing the autopsy. This totally contradicts DaSilva’ s testimony that hit men handcuffed Mr. Katz while abducting and murdering him.

Police Officer Miller testified at trial that the body of Mr. Katz was found faced down on the floor in the street at Laight and West Street. Police Officer Miller alsocontradicts DaSilva’s first confession that the hit men left the body in a stolen car on 12thAvenue under the El. Additionally, Police Officer Miller’s testimony contradicts DaSilva’s second confession on March 13,1988, when DaSilva stated that the body was left in a stolen car on 23rd Street and 10thAvenue. Let it also be known that the body was not found in a stolen car as DaSilva stated in his original confession.

Michael Katz, Arthur Katz’s brother, and Jackie Katz, Arthur Katz’s sister-in-law, testified at the trial that Arthur did not wear or even own a “Star of David”, but did own and wear a “Chai” medal. Arthur Katz’s brother and sister-in-law’s testimony was substantiated by Police Officer Miller who testified that he recovered a yellow chain with a religious medal from Mr. Katz’s body and vouched it at the police property clerks office.

As stated previously, DaSilva told the original police investigator and the grand jury that payment took place in June 1980; however, at trial he testified that the payment was made several months later on October 16^th,1980. Newly discovered evidence which was subpoenaed during trial but received after trial (Citibank’s internal records) revealed that on October 16,1980, DaSilva made a simultaneous $500.00 transfer from his savings account to his checking account. This transaction was done as an internal bank transfer. This was supposed to substantiate the $500.00 payment made to the alleged hit man, Sam Feet. The $500.00 never left the bank. Furthermore, this transaction was not made at the 96th street Citibank branch as Da Silva testified, but rather it was made at the lower Broadway Citibank branch and not using an ATM, but was processed by a live teller.

Additionally our expert witness, Philip Rose, a retired NYC police detective for

25years and a fraud investigator for Citibank, gave us an affidavit for a post conviction motion which stated, “it is questionable whether Exhibit I (the withdrawal ticket for $500) was ever generated through or processed by any Citibank Branch”. In other words he felt that the withdrawal ticket that Da Silva used at trial to prove the $500.00 initial payment, was false. In fact from April 1980 through December 31, 1980, there was no other $500.00 withdrawal from DaSilva’s Bank Account.

In addition to Philip Rose’s affidavit, for the post conviction motion, Juror Derrick Wallace’s affidavit emphatically stated that the testimony that would have shown the $500 withdrawal to be false would have played a prominent role in determining Da Silva’ s credibility during Jury deliberations.

The court denied the post conviction motion and held that; the matter of the alleged $500 payment to the alleged hit men was collateral to the question of guilt or innocence in a contract murder case. Such crucial contradictions are very vital in a case where proof of payment is a material matter, especially in a contract murder case. Without proof of payment, no motive and no hit men, how could it be a contract murder?

During the police investigation to locate the alleged hit men “Sam Feet and Crazy Joe”, DaSilva gave detectives false or made up phone numbers and addresses (even though the alleged Sam Feet was supposedly his good friend). In fact the chief investigator, New York City Police Detective Sanchez, testified, “He did not know if the hit men Sam Feet or Crazy Joe ever existed”. These people were never produced or found, or even known to exist. Since the alleged hit men were never found or known to exist, DaSilva’s testimony is hearsay. Hearsay testimony by law must meet certain rules because of the nature of the evidence. When using hearsay testimony, thereis, or there is imagined to be, the circumstantial probability of reliability; that is, the conditions under which the statement was made are deemed such as to make its truthfulness highly probable (see Wigmore paragraph 1420). Da Silva was certainly not trustworthy or truthful. 

Could you imagine being convicted of murder based on the testimony of a liar, and altered evidence (tape recordings)? In fact in another post-conviction motion A.D.A. McGuire stated in his reply to Stern’s motion that: “DaSilva’s character is such that no sensible person could accept his unsupported, self serving testimony . . ..“. Yet it was okay to use DaSilva’s hearsay testimony against Allan Stern during trial.

DaSilva’ s trial testimony regarding the second or final payment was also false. DaSilva alleged that a co-worker by the name of Vito Amato gave the second payment to Sam Feet. Although Vito Amato was not called to testify at trial, a police interview of Vito Amato shows that Vito knew nothing about any type of payment to anyone. Please note that the police roughed up Mr. Amato and tried to threaten and intimidate him to get some sort of confession from him.

Recently my husband reviewed the trial transcript and noticed that a material witness was not called to testify at trial, the witness’s name was “Richie”.  Significantly, in ADA John Moscow’s opening statement to the jury, he alleged that “Richie” solicited the alleged murderer, “Sam Feet and Crazy Joe” for D Silva. At trial, DaSilva also testified that he called Richie to put him in contact with some one to kill his boss’s brother-in-law and the defense never even heard of this “Richie” until the trial. DaSilva also testified that “Richie” lived at 2121 Shore Parkway, where DaSilva was employed as a Superintendent prior to 1980.

It is significant that Richard Cannizzo, an alleged accomplice to the murder, was not arrested; and he was not granted immunity to testify against my husband. Recently, (12/22/01) I located Richard Cannizzo and he gave me a sworn affidavit stating that he did not know or ever heard of Roberto DaSilva or Bob DaSilva. He was never questioned by the police, and he never lived at 2121 Shore Parkway. He also never heard of anyone named Crazy Joe. Basically, Richard Cannizzo’s affidavit proves that DaSilva falsely made up this whole story to frame my husband and that this crime never occurred.

On the taped conversation of April 14th, 1988 DaSilva is describing a fellow by the name of “Tom Sanders” as one of the contract killers. However, in Da Silva’ s original testimony to police and trial testimony, DaSilva never mentions “Tom Sanders”, however he did testify at trial that “Sam feet and Crazy Joe” were the hit men. According to the police investigation reports (DD-5’s), Tom Sanders was a black tenant living with his son at 2121 Shore Parkway, where Da Silva was employed prior to 1980. Mr. Sanders was not involved in the case.

DaSilva also claimed on the April 14th, 1988 taped conversation that “Tom Caputo” was Crazy Joe’s Mafia boss. However, a police investigative report (DD-5’s) stated that Tom Caputo was another tenant at 2121 Shore Parkway and not one of the killers, or their boss. From the above mentioned it seems Da Silva was just picking names of people he knew that lived at 2121 Shore Parkway to include them in the alleged crime.

DaSilva testified at trial that he killed and tortured over 50 people during the Brazilian Revolution in the 1960’s, while he was in a military death squad. He claimed that he did such a good job of killing men, women, and children that he was promoted to First Sergeant. David Cohen, Stern’s Private Detective, filed a complaint with the US Immigration Department regarding the fact that DaSilva never included the above-mentioned murders in his application for naturalization. The US Department of Immigration began their investigations immediately, but a few weeks later when Cohen called to see how the investigation was going, the agent told him that the higher ups stopped the investigation for some unknown reason!

DaSilva also testified that while working for Central Elevator in the 70’s, he brutally beat up the dispatcher and burned the company’s van, because he didn’t want to drive that day. A freedom of information request to the NYC fire department revealed no record of a van fire in that particular area. A number of people who worked for Central Elevator in the 70’s all said they never even heard of DaSilva, and no employee ever burned the company van nor beat up a dispatcher.

On February 5,1993 Stern’s private investigator visited Central Elevator Corp. which is located at 460 West 34thStreet. He interviewed Mr. Thomas Husband, Executive Vice President of the Company, who worked for Central Elevator for forty years and Mr. Munoz, who worked for Central Elevator for thirty years. Both Mr. Husband and Mr. Munoz could not recognize DaSilva from a photograph. Neither Mr. Husband nor Mr. Munoz remembered DaSilva, his name or any incident relating to any arson involving any Company property including any vehicle. Mr. Moscow’s trial strategy was to show that Mr. DaSilva was a horrible person and since he worked for Allan Stern, then Stern must be just as bad.

This man, Mr. DaSilva is now working as a NYC Elevator Inspector. A job he got right before Stern’s trial. How does a man with his background and admissions to killing over 50 innocent people, get to work for the City of New York? We believe Mr. Moscow got Mr. DaSilva this job before the trial. Yet he did not want to reveal this fact so he withheld it from the defense. A subpoena to the Personnel Dept. of the Elevator Bureau revealed that Mr. Moscow gave a recommendation to Mr. DaSilva 2 years after he started his Elevator Inspector’s job. This appears to be incredible; it was probably done so the jury would not know that DaSilva was working as a New York City Elevator Inspector.

These are just a few of the many lies that took place in my husband’s case. It is hard to mention everything.  It has been too long. Prison is no place for an innocent man. My family is seeking the truth to prove my husband’s innocence. We have fought over thirteen long years through the legal system and yet the justice system just seems to find ways to look the other way and not admit there was any wrongdoing. Thirteen years in prison is a long time and it is even longer when you are innocent. Life and freedom is the most precious gift given to us and it should not be taken away unfairly. I am sure you have heard this repeatedly, but my husband is innocent and that is why I am begging for your help.

UPDATE AFTER SARAH WALLACE’S INVESTIGATIVE REPORT OF MARCH 2003

There was newly found evidence for Allan Stern during the Sarah Wallace interview, which has pointed our investigation for the truth in another direction. It was our contention based on a police report DD-5 dated October 28, 1988 that “Richie” Cannizzo was the alleged “Richie” who was the middleman that put Da silva in contact with the alleged murderers (Sam Feet and Crazy Joe).  The DD-5 dated October 28, 1988 states that DaSilva “was able to get in touch with Sam by calling 718-855-7672.”  The police investigated this phone number and discovered that no one by the name of “Sam’ lived at that location.  They did discover that this phone number was listed to a Richard Cannizzo who lived at 279 Carroll Street, 3^rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY. 

Since Richard Cannizzo was the only Richie in the police reports that were actually turned over to us at trial we were under the assumption that this was the “Richie” that the police investigated.  At that time, before the Sarah Wallace interview, it was still thought that Richard Cannizzo was the alleged middleman that DaSilva and ADA Moscow told the jury connected DaSilva to Sam Feet and Crazy Joe.  After Mrs. Wallace completed her investigation we realized that Richard Cannizzo was not the Richard that ADA Moscow and the police investigated, rather it was a man named Richard Fricano.

During Sarah Wallace’s interview of Roberto C. DaSilva, also known as Bob DaSilva, he mentioned that he met “Richie” at a warehouse and the police detectives wired him during this meeting.  DaSilva also states that… “The investigators spoke, then recorded the conversation with Richie”.  The Defense did not receive these two taped conversations (most likely they were exculpatory) as of this present date.  After reviewing the transcripts of the Wallace / DaSilva interview, we discovered that one of the police notepad entries obtained through the Freedom of Information (FOIL) request states, “ Rich – BRF Moving Bklyn”.  My husband and I asked his private detective to investigate BRF Moving to see how this pertained to the investigation.  The investigation revealed that BRF Moving was also a warehouse and the only Richard that worked there was Richard Fricano, the owner.  After this information was given to us, we then had my husband’s private detective try and locate Mr. Fricano.  His private detective and I were finally able to locate Mr. Fricano, who was very cooperative with us.  Mr. Fricano provided a notarized affidavit to our private detective to use in Allan’s case.  The affidavit states:

“At one time I had been a tenant at 2121 Shore Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11214 and I do recall there was a Brazilian superintendent there by the name of Bob (please note that Bob DaSilva was the superintendent of 2121 Shore Parkway).  At one time I did own BRF Moving Company.  I was never interviewed by the N.Y.C. Police Department or any other Police Department regarding the homicide of Arthur Katz or any other homicide for that matter.  I was never contacted by Roberto DaSilva also known as Roberto Carmo DaSilva or Bob DaSilva regarding the murder of Arthur Katz.” Dated – December 18, 2003

Based on the investigation, the police note pad entries (received on FOIL requests) and the affidavit of Richard Fricano, We are now sure that the “Richie” whom is allegedly the middleman that put DaSilva in contact with the murderer’s is Richard Fricano and not Richard Cannizzo who I refer to in my original letter to Sarah Wallace. 

Mr. Cannizzo was never a tenant of 2121 Shore Parkway, he never owned a warehouse, and never heard of Bob DaSilva.  In fact the two taped conversations previously mentioned in the Wallace / DaSilva interview will prove that Richard Fricano is the alleged middleman that ADA Moscow and DaSilva speak of.  Additionally since the police did not arrest or grant Mr. Fricano immunity to testify at trial should be a tell tale sign that these two secretly taped conversations were exculpatory for Mr. Fricano and Allan Stern.  These tapes (if ever turned over to the Defense) will prove that my husband (Allan Stern) and Mr. Fricano had no involvement in this murder and that Mr. DaSilva made this elaborate story for some unforeseen circumstance.

If Sarah Wallace had not investigated and interviewed DaSilva none of this information would have been known because nothing was ever turned over to the defense.  Allan Stern would have never known about Richard Fricano.

You can help Allan Stern by sending an email or mailing a letter to the following government officials in support of his innocence:

                        New York State Governor

                        New York State Attorney

                        U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer

You can do this by clicking on the link in the upper right hand corner or going to the Helpful contacts page.

It would also be greatly appreciated if you send a copy of your e-mails to info@allanstern.net.  Thank you so very much and we appreciate your time and interest in our quest for the truth and Allan Stern’s freedom.

Allan Stern’s Federal Habeas Corpus has been pending since December 15, 2005; in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York