Pocono News Section

Shenandoah Beating Death Prosecution 'Focus of FBI'

Shenandoah Beating Death Prosecution 'Focus of FBI' - Monday, May 18, 2009 at 11:11PM EST

Reported by: Joe Holden
Monday, May 18, 2009 @ 11:11pm EST

SHENANDOAH, SCHUYLKILL COUNTY- A division of the U. S. Justice Department is probing the Luis Ramirez homicide investigation conducted by the Shenandoah Police Department and local prosecutors, according to sources who spoke Monday night on the condition of anonymity. It's claimed investigators are specifically examining how police reports were taken from the scene the night Ramirez was found beaten on a Shenandoah street.

Eileen Burke said she heard the screams and pleas for the beating to end. That was July, 2008. Burke, a retired Philadelphia Police officer, said she ran to Ramirez' side as he lay injured. Burke said she started gathering names from some of the teens she says were nearby. She told us as many as six had already fled through a park and down a hill. Burke claims police were uninterested in tracking down the people who were responsible for beating and kicking Ramirez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico.

No one answered at the Shenandoah Police Department Monday Night. Police brass have previously refrained from making comment in published reports.

Burke says she can't lie about what she apparently saw. But her side of the story never made it in last month's trial where two teens were acquitted of charges in connection to the beating death of Ramirez. Brandon Piekarsky and Derek Donchak left the Schuylkill County Courthouse with a cheering crowd. Critics have blasted the trial's outcome. The jury was all white. Ramirez' family accuse the system of failure. Piekarsky and Donchak have not commented about the case's outcome. Both will return to court in a few weeks for sentencing.

Burke said she was deposed by prosecutors, but was never called to testify. She believes it's one more chapter in what she claims is a saga of legal corruption.

On Monday, Brian Scully was found delinquent in juvenile court. The ruling is the equivalent of guilty. Scully was spend at least 90 days in a rehabilitation program. Colin Walsh in April pleaded guilty to federal charges in exchange for the charges filed in the Court of Common Pleas to be dropped.

Burke's openness hasn't made life easy. She says she's been targeted for telling her side of the story. She told the New York Times in a story that was printed Sunday her car's been egged and she has fielded a few threats. But she's ready to take on the opposition. "What if it was one of their kids, their mother, father. I'd do it for them. I'd do it again," Burke said.

During the course of this 30 minute interview, a few teenagers heckled Burke and yelled curse words. She makes little of it, saying she has to live there.

Federal Authorities declined comment.