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Murder Charge Against Charlie Tan Dismissed

TWC News

A stunning development Thursday morning in the Charlie Tan murder case.

The murder charge was dismissed by Judge James Piampiano saying there is not enough evidence. Tan, 20, was accused of fatally shooting his father Jim inside their Pittsford home in February.

Lawyers originally met Thursday to set a new court date for the Pittsford man. Tan's first murder trial ended with a hung jury last month. He was charged with second-degree murder in the February shooting death of his father.

The prosecution was expected to re-try Tan, a former Cornell University student.

Monroe County Assistant District Attorney William Gargan loudly opposed the move by the judge, at one point yelling in a microphone and asking the court if it had "suffered amnesia."

Judge Piampiano at one point threatened to put Gargan in handcuffs if he disrupted the court again. Later, Gargan told reporters he stands by his actions in the courtroom and was willing to be put in handcuffs if necessary.

Gargan told reporters he wasn't expecting this dismissal: "Nor, can I proudly say in my career have I had something as absurd as this. So it's not something in which there's a normal path in which we'd say, 'ok, this evidence was suppressed, we can appeal this if need be. That occurs, this is something without precedent."

Doorley says that she was "shocked" by the judge's decision, and worries it will reinforce a perception of the court system not providing equal justice, and she wonders if a young person from the city would have had the same outcome.

“ I think if you look at it factually, there is a disparity, it’s unfortunate. This may sound cliché but Lady Justice is blind and everyone should be treated equally and fairly in the criminal justice system,” Doorley told WXXI News.

Defense lawyer James Nobles was not surprised by the judge's decision, saying that what Piampiano said in court "was absolutely right, there was no forensic evidence that connected our client to this case and all the other evidence was equivocal at best and even in the light most favorable to the people I thought this was a weak case , it was certainly frustrating that we had such a long deliberation but I think that points to the fact that it was a weak case and that  they had a hard time deciding, we're certainly pleased."

 

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.