NORTHAMPTON — Jurors in the trial of Christopher Conley, accused of trying to kill his ill daughter by poisoning her with drain cleaner in April 2015, heard the first full day of witness testimony Thursday.
Assistant District Attorney Linda Pisano recalled Massachusetts State Police Trooper Geraldine Bresnahan, who along with Northampton Police Detective Peter Fappiano had interviewed Conley when he confessed the following month to poisoning the girl.
Bresnahan said Fappiano obtained time cards for the day of the alleged incident from Conley’s employer, as well as records of the whereabouts of his noe ex-wife, Julie Conley, and various biological samples.
During his cross-examination, defense attorney Mark H. Bluver of Greenfield pressed Bresnahan over whether she had fully investigated every lead and tried to corroborate every statement she was given while working on Conley’s case. Bluver has said that Conley made a false confession to police after the state Department of Children and Families took custody of his daughter in May 2015, and that his daughter’s injuries were the result of a rare medical condition, not drain cleaner.
Bluver asked Bresnahan if police had ever tried to link, by testing, one of the medical plungers found in Conley’s home during execution of a search warrant with his later statement that he had used one to inject the drain cleaner.
“I don’t know all of the investigative steps that were taken. Some were not taken by me,” Bresnahan said.
Later, under questioning by Pisano, Bresnahan said Conley had told her he threw away the medical plunger he used to inject drain cleaner.
Though she had interviewed some doctors who treated Conley’s daughter, Bresnahan told Bluver she could not recall interviewing or did not interview some of the doctors he named who had treated the girl when she was admitted to Yale New Haven Hospital in the days after the alleged drain cleaner incident in April 2015. Bluver said in opening statements Tuesday that the girl was in good condition after being admitted to the hospital.
Bresnahan said she did not know if investigators requested hospital admission notes or medical records for Conley’s daughter from April 15, the day she was admitted, and April 16.
Under questioning by Pisano, who said the girl was in the hospital for a year after the alleged poisoning, Bresnahan said she had spoken to the doctors who had performed surgeries on the girl after she was admitted.
Later in the day, prosecutors called Dr. Cody Meissner, a pediatrician who specializes in infectious disease, who had treated Conley’s daughter in March 2009 at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. In his confession, Conley had admitted to dipping his daughter’s central line into her feces to kill her when she was in the hospital at that time.
Meissner said the girl was admitted for signs of infection which were corroborated by blood tests. However, Meissner said these infections were caused by “extremely unusual” organisms usually found in the gastrointestinal tract that kept showing up despite rigorous antibiotic medication. He said these bacteria could have shown up in her blood through a hole in the GI tract, but that Conley’s daughter did not have such an issue.
“Our strong suspicion was that the tip of the catheter was being dipped in stool,” Meissner said. “Pretty disturbing.”
Another of Conley’s defense attorneys, Jack Godleski, asked Meissner about previous testimony in which the doctor said that he had no opinion on whether the seven different types of bacteria found in her blood had been deliberately inserted through the catheter.
Meissner repeatedly told the jury he did not remember what he said during his testimony over a decade ago but that he stuck by the transcript — causing the court to go into recess so he could review a copy.
“The important point here is that we might see a line infection with one organism, but we don’t see line infections with this multiple array of bacteria,” Meissner said after the recess.
Meissner told Pisano that there was a higher likelihood of infection for the type of catheter Conley’s daughter had, but maintained that her case was “unique” to him in his 35 years of practice and that there was no medical explanation for the infections other than outside manipulation. He also said that he meant in his previous testimony that he had no opinion about who may have tampered with the central line, reiterating that he believed the catheter was “in the proximity” of feces or spit.
“We were very worried that something was going on with this family,” he said. “And the line infections stopped when the child was separated from the family.”
Also testifying Thursday was Northampton Detective Sgt. Corey Robinson.
Conley, 37, is on trial in Hampshire Superior Court on attempted murder and other charges. Judge Richard Carey is presiding over the trial, which resumes Friday.
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.