What is this charge about? Good question.
The tampering with evidence charge against Adam Costello has long confused many people. The first assumption was that the pack of motorcycles and the Dodge Ram 1500 with the Camper Top identified by witnesses and others passed by the house on Dabney Street where the DVR was.
Dabney is a dead end street, particularly on the 6840 end. So, they didn’t ride past the house.
The second assumption was that the pack of motorcycles or the Dodge Ram 1500 with the Camper Top left from there.
Wrong again. The pack of crotch rockets assembled at Dick Sporting Goods on US41, about 5 hours after Dick’s closed. This spot is popular spot for packs of crotch rockets to gather before they tear up and down Colonial Avenue at speeds ranging from 120 mph to 200 mph.
The Dodge Ram 1500 with the Camper Top was not spotted near Dabney Street, so that is confusing.
Adam Costello was reported to be at the house with the DVR approximately 10 hours prior to the accident. He went to lunch with the owner of the house. There was a post confirming they were eating lunch at a restaurant. However, there are some issues with that theory:
- Costello was not involved in the accident with the motorcycles that were involved the Dodge Ram 1500 with the Camper Top
- FMPD did not ask any of the neighbors if they saw the motorcycles or any of the trucks on Dabney, nor did they ask the owner of the house
- One of the neighbors had at least one camera on their system pointing directly at the house FMPD claimed the DVR came from. That neighbor confirmed to private investigators, and to the owner of the house in question, that no one from FMPD or any other agency ever asked for footage.
- FMPD have proof from the manufacturer that the DVR had not been able to record for at least two years prior to the date of the accident, and it was known that the owner of the house was shopping to replace the DVR prior to the accident, for this reason.
- Even when on the most conservative setting, running for the longest time possible, the DVR would run for between 7 and 8 days, writing over itself. It wasn’t until nearly 30 days after the accident that FMPD served a search warrant for “devices that record” at that address. They never actually asked the owner of the house for the DVR. When they served the warrant, as the attorney for the owner of the house confirmed on camera, the owner of the house fully cooperated with FMPD and let them into the house. The officer lied to reporters and lied in a sworn statement to the judge, the probable cause affidavit, about the search warrant and about the DVR
- There were eye two witnesses to the fact that the DVR could not record. One of witnesses is a daughter of a police officer that used to work in traffic homicide along side the investigators for this case. That police officer admitted to tampering with at least one witness.
- The DVR had nothing to do with the accident. One cannot tamper with “evidence” that does not exist.
So, we are as confused as you are. What evidence was there that could have been tampered with?
This leads to other questions:
- Where is the footage from stores along the route of the accident?
- Where are the GPS units and data from the motorcycles involved in the accidents?
- Where is the accident reconstruction, at all?
- Why were FMPD investigators spreading rumors through the media that the owner of the house was driving the truck involved in the accidents, when
- They knew the owner of the house was 5 miles away sitting on the couch in his house
- The owner never met either any of the members of the motorcycle pack involved in the accident OR anyone in the truck that the motorcycles made contact with during the accidents
- How many accidents were there?
- The initial motorcycle striking the Dodge Ram 1500 with the Camper Top
- The initial motorcycle striking the sign post, while attempting to flee the scene of the first accident
- The rider of the motorcycle striking the palm tree creating the third accident scene
- The other motorcycles fleeing the scene and what they hit, including the ones that returned later
- The Dodge Ram 1500 with the Camper Top striking other vehicles while fleeing the first accident scene, creating fourth and more accident scenes.
- How many vehicles did s/he strike?
- Did he strike a Toyota Tundra?
- Did he strike any of the other members of the pack of motorcycles?
What is really interesting is that the Tampering charge originally requested from one of the investigators was relating to a Facebook account. The officer claimed that Costello deleted his Facebook page. She wanted to charge him with Tampering with Evidence for doing so. A few problems with that:
- Costello never deleted his Facebook page. In fact, the page is still up. You can find the page here
- Facebook doesn’t delete anything, they just hide it. You can go back years later and subpoena information. It is all stored, whether you can see it, or not. Any investigator should know this.
- The State Attorney’s Office told the officer to pound sand when she originally submitted the request for the charge, hence part of the reason for the DVR circus.