SYRACUSE, NEW YORK - New York state officials said Wednesday that a lawsuit accusing state police and prosecutors of covering up the improper handling of their investigation into the 1989 slaying of a family of four has no merit. <br>
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In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Shirley Kinge claimed that state police and prosecutors violated her civil rights by concealing thousands of pages of previously undisclosed documents that revealed the cover-up and contradicted the findings of a special prosecutor. <br>
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Kinge's son, Michael, was fatally shot by state police in February 1990. He was the primary suspect in the December 22, 1989, slayings of the Harris family members, who were each bound and shot in their Dryden home during a robbery. <br>
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Shirley Kinge, now 67 and living in Atlanta, was later convicted of helping her son cover up the slayings by burning the bodies. She spent 18 months in state prison before two state troopers admitted they had planted her fingerprints on a gasoline can to falsely place her at the crime scene. Kinge was freed but pleaded guilty to forging the Harrises' signatures on stolen credit cards. <br>
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Shirley Kinge also has a 1992 lawsuit against the state that is pending in the state Court of Claims. <br>
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Special prosecutor Nelson Roth found widespread evidence-tampering by state police, although he concluded that the shooting of Michael Kinge was justified and proper. As a result of Roth's findings, five state police officers were convicted of fabricating evidence. <br>
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Assistant Attorney General Winthrop Thurlow declined Wednesday to respond to specific claims in the new lawsuit.
