JUSTICE FOR MANNY MAYI
It’s been sixteen years and many broken promises since 18-year-old Queens College honor student, Manny Mayi, was murdered in a racist attack on March 29, 1991.
The young Dominican man was walking home in, what was then, the Italian section of Corona Queens when a gang of white youth chased him down 108thstreet. Manny’s life ended 16 blocks later when he was beat with pipes and baseball bats. The medical report listed as the cause of death: fracture of skull, and contusions of the brain due to blunt force impact.
A report released by the Justice Committee found that police refused to drive around witnesses who wanted to identify the gang members who allegedly committed the violent act. The report also says police failed to secure a key witness and allowed her to flee the country; in addition, the D.A. postponed the case 47 times and did not keep the family informed about any developments. Of the three arrested, Joseph Celso was the only one who stood trail, but was soon acquitted.
Amid much pressure from Manny’s mother, Altagracia Mayi, the Justice Committee, and Queens City Council member, Hiram Monserrate, in 2002 NY’s Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly instructed the Cold Case Squad to open and reinvestigate the case. In response to investigators requests DA Brown at first said the case records had been “misplaced.†But after Altagracia Mayi held a press conference in October outside the DAs office, the records were made available. However, evidence is still lacking, and it’s still missing from the official custody of Queens DA Richard Brown’s office.
What happened to the physical evidence in this case? Initially Brown’s office had possession of the bats used to beat Manny and the sleeves, which had been cut off the jacket he wore that tragic night. But after the trial it seems that much of the physical evidence was “signed-out†by the ADA in charge of the case, John Scarpa. Apparently it was never returned.
Altagracia Mayi says she will never stop fighting for justice for her son. She is seeking to have the case transferred to the NYS Attorney General’s office and that the murder will finally be classified as a bias crime.
Please join this family’s fight for EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW. If you want to get involved please contact the Justice Committe through the information below or through our myspace page.
Justice Committee P.O. Box 1885 New York, NY 10159-1885
(212) 614-5343
[email protected]
