Kevin Miles, Central Ohio Crime Stoppers President attacked with Baseball bat … Implication was made “Joe sent him”

The story just gets more bizarre. Kevin Miles, the President of the Central Ohio Crime Stoppers, is presently locked in a heated law suit with Philadelphia philanthropist Joe Mammana over reward money in the Julie Popovich case. Now it appears that Kevin Miles has been attacked by a man with a baseball bat las Sunday. Now accusations are being made by Kevin Miles and his attorney, Kinsley Nyce, that Joe Mammana may have been involved. Please note that Kevin Miles of Central Ohio Crime Stopper’s will be Dana Pretzer’s guest tonight on Scared Monkey’s radio at 9:00 pm EDT to tell his side of the story.

Miles said that a man with a similar description to his attacker approached Crime Stoppers attorney Kinsley Nyce over the weekend and told him that “Joe sent him.”

Miles wouldn’t say if he believed there was any connection.

“I don’t want to jump to conclusions or make things worse,” he said. (Columbus Dispatch)

Seems that it has already been made worse by the comments. It is a shame that the reward issue has even been made public and that dirty laundry is being aired in this manner. In an interview previously with Joe Mammana, he stated that he would make payment on the reward in the Julia Popovich murder when the suspect was convicted. To date that has not occurred.

(Popovich agreement, click on doc to enlarge)

document 1

We have talked with Joe Mammana recently regarding the latest allegations that he had something to do with the attack on Kevin Miles. Joe Mammana stated that  “it was a joke and that Kevin Miles made this up in the same manner as he did the signed contract.” In typical Joe fashion he asked, “whether any girl scouts had their cookies stolen recently, maybe they should be looked into.” Mammana also made the following comments:

He mocked Miles’ allegation, ridiculed his weight and suggested the beating was deserved.

“If he was able to talk, it wasn’t me,” Mammana said in an interview this week with The Associated Press. “Where was he, at Wendy’s?” (Washington Post)

Joe Mammana states he never signed an agreement with Central Ohio Crime Stoppers and that his signature is a forgery.

It is unfortunate that the reward issue with the Central Ohio Crime Stoppers, Kevin Miles and Joe Mammana has gotten this far out of hand and is being aired in the press.

The head of a crime tipsters group was attacked by a man with a baseball bat and told to drop a lawsuit against a philanthropist over an unpaid reward, the man’s attorney said Monday.

The attack near Kevin Miles’ home Sunday morning left him badly bruised, said Kinsley Nyce, Miles’ lawyer. Miles, who was treated at a hospital and released, said he was “pretty beat up” but declined to comment further. (SF Chronicle)

There are a couple things that are most bizarre and do not make much sense. Maybe too many episodes of the Soprano’s have been watched.

• 1. Why would Joe Mammana not pay this reward when he has paid others?
• 2. Why would a law suit be filed when one party claims that they will pay as soon as the suspect is convicted?
• 3. Was the contract ever signed by Joe Mammana or is it a forgery?
• 4. Why would Joe Mammana threaten either Kevin Miles or his attorney when he would have been the first people that police would have looked at?

One thing is for certain, the publicity from all this does not do any favors to Crime Stoppers or rewards for missing persons or unsolved crimes. This has been handled so poorly and made so public that future donors may just shy away.

If the question in play here is over semantics as to whether a reward should be paid over arrest and indictment or arrest and conviction then one should keep the following in mind. We will not even use the Aruba revolving carousel of arrested suspects, but one closer to home. Imagine having to pay rewards for tips in the arrest and indictments in the Duke Lacrosse Case? Three suspects have been arrested and indicted by the DA in North Carolina in the much publicized Duke Lacrosse Rape case. Yet, there hardly seems like their is any evidence, any communication with the suspects or accuser by the DA and may never be a trial. What if the three Duke Lacrosse players are never trial and are released? Should a reward be paid for doing nothing that furthers a case? The answer is “NO”. So what’s the difference here?