Murder or self-defense? Grand jury to determine nature of Ritter's death

(adapted from The Times Herald Record, 4/8/97)

By OLIVER MACKSON, Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN - Karl Ritter could be exuberantly friendly, dropping in to visit a friend he hadn't seen in 12 years and saying they'd go "straight to the top" if they got into the used car business together. He could also be loud and obnoxious, bragging about his prowess with women while jawing with complete strangers. He sometimes dropped the name of his father, state Supreme Court Justice David S. Ritter, a former Orange County district attorney and county court judge who's revered in local legal circles.

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On March 23, a few harsh words in a bar started a chain of events that left Karl Ritter dying in a parking lot, his skull fractured.

A second chance Ritter,39, grew up in Middletown, but had been living in the Midwest for almost a decade before returning home last November. People who saw him say he was looking fit and talking about getting his life in gear again.

Days before his death, he visited a high school pal, Middletown used-car dealer Jeff Atwood. He started talking with Atwood as if they were going into business together the next day. He had wondrous stories to tell about a treasure trove of used cars out west. "He comes in here and says, 'We could do it. We could buy and sell cars - Mustangs, muscle cars, they're out there. We could buy them, turn right around and sell them. We could go right to the top with this.' He talked about a magazine he could send, pictures of cars, and I just said, 'OK, Karl, send me the magazine,"' Atwood said, the memory bringing a chuckle.

The same week. Middletown Police Lt. Lawrence G. Corkey bumped into Ritter at a supermarket. Corkey had known Ritter since he was a child. back in the days when his father was Orange County district attorney.

"He said he'd give me a call some time and we'd get together," Corkey said, recalling that Ritter's hands had a working man's callouses and that he looked as if he was in good shape. "He was a well-built kid. Rugged's a good word," Corkey said. About two months before that fateful weekend, Ritter had moved in with Jo Lee Leake, a 52-year-old woman who lived on Laddie Road in the Town of Wallkill.

"He was good to my mom. He treated her well," said one of Leake's children, who didn't want to be named. But while Ritter may have found a place to get back on his feet, he had also found trouble. Weeks before he died, witnesses said he argued with a court officer who told him he had to walk through a metal detector before entering Middletown City Court.

The witnesses, who didn't want to be named, said Ritter mentioned that his father was a judge. He argued, unsuccessfully, that he was exempt from having to walk through the metal detector. On March 20, two nights before his death, Ritter was in the Cove, talking up a storm and getting on peoples' nerves. "He was very badly drunk. He was by himself, walking around and telling people he was Judge Ritter's son and that he had an IQ 12 below Einstein," said a woman who was in the bar that night with her husband and didn't want to be named. "He said he was better-looking than Mel Gibson."

That account didn't surprise Atwood, who said Ritter had been prone to mood swings in high school. ''There was that part of me that said he could push somebody right to the limit," Atwood said. The following night, March 21, Ritter was stopped on Route 211 by a state trooper, who charged him with driving while intoxicated. The charge was later dismissed because Ritter died. Angry words, a bitter end.

The night Ritter died, he and Leake had been to a comedy club in New Paltz. After they got home, they decided to go to the Cove to play a lottery game, according to Leake's statement to police. "We went to the Cove to play Quick Pick because Karl thought that I would win," she told police.

The game ended at midnight, and the couple got ready to leave. First, Ritter went to the men's room. Minutes later, Leake saw him arguing with a man she later learned was Thomas M. Browne. They were cursing each other, she told police. She didn't know why, and police would later say it wasn't clear what started the argument. Browne appeared to be outmatched: Ritter was about six feet tall and 220 pounds, six inches taller and 20 pounds heavier than Browne. Leake heard Ritter invite Browne to take the fight outside. The bartender stepped between them, and then Leake and Ritter started to walk out.

But then someone pushed Leake away from Ritter, and she said "a mob of people, all men, at least five or six or seven, including the short fat man (Browne) then pushed Karl out the door. I stood there and did not go outside because I thought I might be in danger if I did."

Court papers show that Browne told Town of Wallkill police Officer Steven Walsh he punched Ritter four or five times. Other witness accounts had Browne throwing only one punch.

Either way, police say Ritter toppled over backward and fractured his skull. Leake went outside while the "mob" was on its way back into the bar. When she noticed a pool of blood near Ritter's head, she tried to get back inside the bar and call for help, but the front door had been locked.

Two or three men eventually came out of the bar and helped load Ritter into Leake's car. After her six-mile drive to home and then to Circleville, Leake brought Ritter to Horton Medical Center, where he died without regaining consciousness.

Murder or self-defense?

Browne was charged with first-degree assault, a felony. After a hearing in which a judge was told Browne had no significant brushes with the law, he was released on $15,000 bail.

Some time this week, an Orange County grand jury is likely to decide if Karl Ritter's death was a crime, as prosecutors contend. Browne's lawyer says his client was defending himself from an angry man whose fists were cocked.

Browne took the unusual step of testifying before the grand jury last week, which meant his answers couldn't be coached by his lawyer, Benjamin Ostrer of Chester. He also had to give up immunity from crimes he might mention during his testimony.

It's a tactic that worked last year for Edward Bach, a Middletown cabby- who was cleared of murder charges after he told a grand jury how he was menaced by a drunken passenger last summer.

The jury in Ritter's case also has heard testimony from Leake, who drove around with Ritter before taking him to the hospital. She told police she didn't immediately realize how badly her boyfriend had been hurt.

Leake wouldn't discuss the events of that evening with a reporter, nor would her lawyer, former Orange County Distinct Attorney Joseph Brown.

Regardless of whether Ritter was doomed from the time he hit the pavement, Leake's actions could complicate the case. said Bruce E. Menken, a Manhattan criminal lawyer. "It's definitely an issue if the DA's office is looking to get a manslaughter conviction in this case," he said.

But before anyone's convicted of anything in the death of Karl Ritter, the grand jury will decide if the parking lot of the Cove Clam Bar on Route 211 was the scene of a crime or an act of self-defense that led to a tragic accident in the early hours of March 23.

Assistant District Attorney MaryEllen Albanese, who is presenting the case to the grand jury, declined to say what charges Browne might face if he's indicted.

She said recently, ''The grand jury will be the ones who decide."

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