You are listening to the Roberta Glass True Crime Report, putting the true back in true crime.

From New York City,berta glass is now on the record okay we are alive a trial 11 years in the making has been in progress in Albany, New York,

oral Nick Hillary, who was the prime suspect in the 2011 murder of his ex-girlfriend's 12-year-old son,

Garrett Phillips, is suing the Potsdam police for unreasonable search and seizure,

as well as unnecessary detainment. Hillary was acquitted by a judge of the murder of Garrett Phillips in 2016.

Thomas Mortati, who represented the town of Potsdam in the early phases of this lawsuit,

is here with me.

He's been in the courtroom and he's here to tell all welcome Tom Mortati.

Nice to be back with you roberta so i don't think i gave you a very good introduction you're a you're a civil attorney you work with the plaintiff's side now

right so i was on the defense side 26 years and five years ago. I left my old firm and I had represented the village of Potsdam and some of their police members from the beginning of the case back into the civil case back in 2012 and the early, you know, a few months after the unfortunate homicide of Garrett Phillips

all the way through when I left my old firm in September, October of 2017.

So I lived with the case for a little over five years.

So before we get into what happened to court, why did the police hone in on Nick Hillary? So interesting, Roberta. So the police didn't just

hone in on Nick Hillary. In fact, on the night of the murder, there were rumors, there was

speculation that it was possible that Garrett might have been involved in some peer-to-peer

incidents, maybe a bullying. Who knows? Nobody really knew. And they knew

two of the kids that he was playing basketball with that afternoon. Now, these are adults now,

but a young Rice boy and young Reagan boy. Well, that night, a state police investigator went to

both of those kids' houses, met with their parents and interviewed both kids, had them, they were in shorts and T-shirts, had them take their socks and shoes off to examine them for any injuries, any wounds, any signs of a scuffle, a struggle, nothing.

So that was one of the very first rumors, literally the night of the murders.

So they were able to basically effectively rule those two kids and this whole theory out of the very first rumors, literally the night of the murders. So they were able to

basically effectively rule those two kids and this whole theory out of a possible, who knows what,

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