Crime & Safety
Lawyer Claims Police Compromised Evidence
Wayne resident gave birth in 2009 to a baby later found dead in a garbage bag outside her home a few days later, authorities say.
A defense lawyer representing a Wayne woman charged with murdering her newborn infant claims police compromised evidence in the case, a report on NorthJersey.com states.
The Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office previously said in a press release that Keri Barry, then 22, gave birth to a full-term, live baby in her Wayne home on Dec. 11, 2009.
Barry’s family took her to Chilton Hospital in Pequannock where staff realized she had given birth. The family was concerned about the baby, who could not be located. Barry never informed either her family or hospital staff that she had given birth.
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Wayne police searched Barry’s home, with her consent, and collected garbage bags where the afterbirth was alleged to have been placed, the prosecutor’s office said in the press release.
Attorney John Bruno cited Thursday that an internal affairs report by the Wayne Police Department states police “compromised evidence” in Barry’s case.
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Bruno told the website that the report suggests that police might have found the baby alive if they had looked inside the trash bags sooner.
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