Last month, I interviewed Destiny Marcy.
When Destiny was very young, her testimony put away her father, Joe Marcy, for molesting her. She has since recanted.
Joseph Marcy was convicted in 2012 of molesting his daughter, who was six and seven at the time of the alleged incidents and sentenced to twenty to forty years in jail.
In 2015, his daughter recanted, and the trial judge overturned the conviction, noting in his decision, “A complete recantation by the victim raises the question of whether a crime was committed at all.”
Destiny, who recently turned twenty, told me that not only did her father not molest her, but someone else did and when she tried to tell authorities at the time, caseworkers and police manipulated her into continuing to point the finger at her father.
“Every time I would tell her {the CPS caseworker} that this Jason Wolf person would hurt me, she would tell me ‘No, I got confused, it’s my dad, it’s my dad,’ and every time I would say it was my dad to like tell court officials and in general, she would reward me, she would give me like teddy bears.” Destiny told me.
Both Destiny and I have said that this whole thing started when the local social services started investigating alleged physical abuse of Destiny.
In the latest update, I spoke with Cassandra Turner, Destiny’s mom.
She said this is not completely accurate.
Cassandra explained that when she was young, she was taken from her home and placed into foster care.
She was then molested, before being removed and placed with relatives.
Cassandra was fourteen when she got pregnant and fifteen when she had Destiny, but this was not the reason that social services entered her life.
When she was nineteen, she found out that the family who molested her still had a foster care license.
She reached out to social services, and she demanded her records.
Days later, two caseworkers were at her door.
They were there to investigate her. Here is what happened next.
That started the ball rolling on what would wind up being physical abuse. Initially, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania social services investigated Joe for physical abuse, but that went nowhere. Here is part of my article for The Daily Caller.
Marcy was originally investigated by Luzerne County Children and Youth Services (CYS) for physical abuse of his daughter, after a bruise was found on her buttocks.
That investigation lasted several months.
Marcy’s daughter testified against him in a juvenile court hearing but the case was thrown out after a judge determined that Marcy’s daughter was susceptible to coaching.
Cassandra even told me that the caseworker who was investigating her also investigated her mom. Cassandra said she eventually had him removed for conflict of interest.
Only after the physical abuse charges fell apart did CYS come up with sexual molestation charges. Cassandra told me she is certain that Joe is innocent.
“He wasn’t home enough,” she told me.
Joe did have his conviction overturned, but it was reinstated due to a legal technicality.
On July 1, 2016, the Pennsylvania Superior Court, in an unpublished opinion, reinstated the conviction, but the court did not issue a decision on the merits.
Instead, the court argued that the PCRA was not submitted in time.
“After careful review, we conclude that the PCRA court improperly grated Appellee’s PCRA Petition because Appellee had knowledge of the victims’ recantation in 2012 and did not raise it until 2014,” the court stated.
That decision is now appealed, and a decision from the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals is due soon.
I previously spoke with Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney James McGonagle, who is handling the appeal. Here is what he said.
The Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office- which prosecuted the case- is being represented by James L. McMonagle, Jr.,
McMonagle told me that based on the evidence it is the position of his office that Destiny’s original testimony is the credible testimony, and besides that, Joe did not submit his appeal in time, so it is defective.
I will continue to follow this case.
Postscript
Check out the previous free articles in this series. Find the first, second , third , fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth article.
Check out the fundraiser on wrongful convictions.
Michael Volpe Investigates Update: an Interview with Cassandra Turner