'Hillside Strangler' files claim for wages

Bianchi, serving a 118-year term, claims evidence withheld

Thursday, June 27, 2002

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BELLINGHAM -- Kenneth Bianchi, convicted in the "Hillside Strangler" serial murder case, has filed a claim against Whatcom County seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars for lost wages and emotional distress.

Bianchi claims that police and prosecutors withheld key evidence, leading him to plead guilty to the murders of seven women in 1979.

Two of the victims were students at Western Washington University, and the five others were women strangled and left on open hillsides in Los Angeles in late 1977 and early 1978. Bianchi is serving a term of more than 118 years in the Washington deaths at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla. He also was sentenced to five life terms in California.

Bianchi sent his claim to Whatcom County Executive Pete Kremen earlier this month. A motion to withdraw his guilty plea based on the allegedly withheld evidence was rejected in March by Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Steven Mura. The judge ruled that Bianchi had produced no new evidence.

Bianchi's claim seeks up to $100 per day for 23 years of lost wages, in addition to punitive damages and damages for emotional distress.

Bianchi alleges that Bellingham police withheld proof that two Washington victims were seen alive by officers on the night of their deaths, after Bianchi had returned to his home.

However, the police report cited by Bianchi does not give a time for the women's sighting. For that, Bianchi relies on a report filed by a friend of the victims.

Bianchi also claims that a police officer took a hair from him and took it to an investigator at the cul-de-sac where the women's bodies were found in a car.

Bianchi says that he developed a false impression of the strength of the prosecution's case because of the allegedly withheld evidence, and thus decided to plead guilty.

Whatcom County Prosecutor Dave McEachran dismissed Bianchi's claim.

"It's absolutely ridiculous, as is everything else that he has sent to us and moved for in the past 23 years," McEachran said. "Kenneth Bianchi was just guilty as sin."

McEachran said he would move for dismissal of any lawsuit that follows the claim.

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