NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) – A former suspect in the unsolved serial killings of nine women said he’s disgusted that a newly elected district attorney sent police this week to dig through his old yard, almost two decades after another prosecutor exonerated him.
Kenneth Ponte, 57, said he’s innocent and accuses Bristol District Attorney Samuel Sutter of playing politics with an unsolved case.
“It’s obvious they’re not looking for the highway killer, which isn’t me and never was,” Ponte said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “They put on a media event instead of searching for the truth.”
In New Bedford, the former lawyer’s name has been long linked to a series of murders known as the highway killings. In 1988 and 1989, the remains of nine women – drug addicts and suspected prostitutes were discovered along nearby highways. Two other women reported missing at the same time were never found.
Law enforcement officials considered Ponte a link between several of the victims. Ponte has said he had a relationship with one victim, Rochelle Clifford Dopierala, and served as an attorney for three others.
Ponte was indicted in 1990 for the murder of Dopierala, and then cleared the following year by an independent prosecutor who dropped the charges because he said there was a lack of evidence.
Since then, prosecutors and police have quietly sent evidence out for DNA testing or followed up on tips without getting a major breakthrough.
Last year, voters in Bristol County elected a new district attorney, Samuel Sutter, who promised during his campaign to reopen all unsolved murder cases, including the infamous highway killings.
On Thursday, investigators arrived at Ponte’s former home and dug through the yard with a backhoe. Witnesses said they loaded bags of dirt into police cars.
Ponte and his attorney said they don’t know what prompted police to dig. No one has contacted them about the investigation. But the one-time suspect said he knows what the police will find: nothing.
“They’re pretending to have evidence and all they have is eight bags of dirt, and they know it,” he said.
Gregg Miliote, a Sutter spokesman, would not talk about why authorities were digging, although the father of one victim said he received a phone call from State Police officials telling him it was part of the highway killings probe.
“We’re not accusing anyone of anything, including Mr. Ponte, right now,” Miliote said. “We’re not going to play politics with this case or any other unsolved homicide case.”
Ponte has said he feels like a pariah in his home town. He has long been unable to make a living as an attorney, he said. Children once mocked him in the street. His defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, said Ponte is ill and lost his job this week in a real estate management firm when his employer heard about the digging.
He remained in New Bedford after the first investigation and had several run-ins with police since. He’s been accused of possessing cocaine, even neglecting a cat. Last month, during a fight over money, he allegedly threatened to kill his mother and sister then himself, according to an affidavit filed by his sister.
Reddington said he hoped the excavation will allow prosecutors to finally rule out Ponte as a suspect in the killing.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous. They’re not going to find anything. The guy didn’t kill anyone,” Reddington said. “He’s just been in a spiral. He’s come out of it. Now he’s back in again.”
Investigators have searched Ponte’s old home before. Years ago, police scoured the property using dogs trained to smell cadavers, said Robert St. Jean, who handled the case while an investigator for the district attorney’s office.
They never found anything there linking Ponte to the killings.
Police also considered several suspects during the probe and St. Jean said he believed more than one killer was at work. New Bedford detectives even compared notes with their counterparts in Lisbon, Portugal, when that city had a spate of prostitute killings.
Another local suspect, Anthony DeGrazia, committed suicide around the time prosecutors decided to drop the charges against Ponte. Voters kicked former District Attorney Ron Pina out of office in 1990 as the case stalled.
“The current ‘investigation’ is going to end in disaster for the district attorney, the same way it did for Ron Pina,” Ponte said.
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