Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 5

MONDAY, JULY 28 i 997 PHILADELPHIA DAfLY NEWS PAGES ZODUud Ex-state trooper to go on trial for lying about deadly night rr 'v- rr UK s. V- i p. I if 'i mm iii -----) vrixiv "-iTf ntSbWZi v.VJl"5r by Nicole Weisensee Daily News Staff Writer It's the moment of truth in the Aimee Willard murder probe, a case that has stumped investigators and transfixed crime watchers for more than a year. Tomorrow, ex-State Trooper Harold Ryan Hutchinson, 30, goes on trial on charges he lied to investigators about seeing an Upper Providence police car behind Willard's on a Blue Route exit ramp the night she was murdered. He faces up to two years in prison if convicted.

Both he and former Upper Providence Officer David Buggy who also told detectives he was on the ramp that night are expected to testify for the defense, giving the first public explanations for what they saw the night the star athlete was stopped along the highway and murdered. The Hutchinson trial's outcome is crucial to the Willard investigation. If Hutchinson is convicted of lying, questions about the professionalism of Willard investigators may finally be put to rest. An acquittal, however, would raise new questions: Could State Police really make a mistake in arresting one of their own? Could they have been covering up something else? No one connected to the case would comment because of a gag order imposed by Delaware County Judge Patricia Jenkins. Willard, 22, disappeared June 20, 1996, as she drove to her Brookhaven home from a night out with friends at Smokey Joe's tavern in Wayne.

About 30 minutes after she left the bar, an ambulance crew saw her idling Honda on the Blue Route ramp to U.S. 1 South, with blood drying on the pavement nearby. Willard's beaten body was found 14 hours later in a vacant lot in North Philadelphia. Hutchinson has said through his attorney that he was driving home after drinks with a friend in Montgomery County when he spotted Willard's car on the ramp. An Upper Providence police car was behind Willard's Honda and a cop was in the driver's seat, according to his story.

Hutchinson said he slowed and flashed his badge at the cop, who gave him the thumbs-up sign, so Hutchinson kept going. The next day Hutchinson told state troopers what he had seen. A few weeks later, after no one contacted him for a detailed interview, he again contacted investigators. In September, State Police Capt. Thomas LaCrosse announced that Hutchinson had been arrested for lying.

In October, Hutchinson agreed to go into a first-time offenders' program and resign from the police force. But he continued to maintain that he saw an Upper Prov idence police car behind Willard's Honda the night she was murdered. Later, murder investigators questioned Officer Buggy, who said he was on the Blue Route ramp, saw the ambulance, even talked briefly with ambulance crew members. His attorney, J. Stanton Miller said Buggy kept going after the crew members told him help was on the way.

The ambulance workers said they never saw Buggy, sources said. Police logs show that Buggy arrested a drunk driver a couple of miles away from the ramp around the same time Hutchinson said he saw Willard's car. That means it is unlikely Buggy-is the cop that Hutchinson said he saw. Earlier this year. Buggy quit the Upper Providence police force and agreed to cooperate fully with investigators.

In return, he was not charged with lying, sources said. Aimee Willard's mom, Gail Willard, said she intends to watch the entire Hutchinson trial. "I'm going because it concerns Aimee's last night," she said. "Any information I can find out about her last night alive I want to know." STEVEN M. FALK DAILY NEWS Flowers and cards left on Route 1 ramp as memorial to Aimee Willard last year; ex-State Trooper Harold Ryan Hutchinson's trial on charges he lied to case investigators starts tomorrow Another bogus police stop in Montco by Leon Taylor son said the three incidents "don't seem to be related at this time." He couldnt account for the spree of police impersonators.

In the earlier stops, a 21-year-old man in an unmarked car shortly before 11 p.m. She said the man gave her a warning for speeding, then allowed her to leave. She said the suspect was driving a dark-colored car Newtown Square woman was pulled over at 11:45 p.m. on Friday as she drove on the Blue Route about a mile from the Consho-hocken exit in Plymouth Township. A man wearing a T-shirt with a silver badge pinned on it and wearing a tan uni-form.

He was described as standing 6 feet, weighing about 200 pounds and in his early 30s. Mason said state police occasionally use unmarked cars "for certain traffic enforce In one of the earlier ruses, a woman was assaulted. idling, on a Blue Route exit ramp near Route 1 in Marple Township, Delaware County. The battered body of the 22-year-old lacrosse star was discovered later in a debris-strewn North Philadelphia lot Investigators believe Willard might have been pulled over by a man impersonating an officer. The case remains unsolved.

"There have only been a few similar incidents" of bogus car stops since the Aimee Willard case, Mason said. He said police are asking people to use caution when being stopped by an unmarked car. Drivers who are stopped, Mason suggested, should crack the window just enough to hear the officer and make sure he is in full uniform. Still suspicious? Tell the officer you are driving to a brightly lit public place and will talk to him there. And do not stop for unmarked cars with blue flashing lights.

Daily News Staff Writer For the third time in nine days, a police impersonator yesterday used a flashing blue light on his unmarked car to pull over a motorist on a dark Montgomery County road. In one of the earlier ruses, a woman was assaulted, and in another, a woman was given a warning and let go. This time, the suspect never got out of his car, apparently because he realized the person he had stopped was a man. The driver, a Royersford man in his 30s, told police he was pulled over about 4 a.m. on Route 422 in Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County.

He said the impersonator briefly sat in a light-colored car behind him with a blue light flashing on its roof before speeding away. The intended victim could not provide a description of the bogus cop. State Police Sgt. Wayne D. Ma ment situations." But, he said, the state troopers only use flashing red lights.

Flashing blue lights, Mason said, are used by fire vehicles. Mason said the investigators in the Aimee Willard murder "are interested in this investigation" due to general similarities surrounding Willard's unsolved death. Willard's car was discovered on June 20 last year, its engine reached inside the car and assaulted the woman after asking for her license, state police said. The victim described her attacker as a 6-foot, 200-pound, dark-skinned man, about 30, with a mole on his forehead. She said he was driving a white car.

Last Sunday, a 22-year-old woman was driving on Route 422 near the Oaks exit in Upper Providence when she was stopped by a.