Edit to add: My question was "
who is currently refusing to investigate"?
Tierney took office Jan 2022 as the District Attorney and supervises an enormous staff of prosecutors. His job is overseeing prosecutions, he does not do homicide investigations or follow up on tips, from Crimestoppers or elsewhere. He doesn't dictate what follow-up the homicide detectives do or don't do. He is not in their chain of command.
Last month, Tierney said the DA's office would be interviewing Rays' witnesses. They have already been interviewed by detectives and Harrison. We don't even know what the results were. I would say adding 2 additional detectives to look at tips is a substantial commitment.
So again,
at this time, who is not doing their job regarding Rays' witnesses or anything else to do with these homicides?
From the link article, dated Nov 2023:
"District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office immediately responded with a statement saying it had been blindsided by the announcement of new information in a case he was prosecuting after years of
investigative dysfunction."
"Mr. Tierney’s office will nevertheless speak with Mr. Ray’s witnesses, who have already been interviewed by Suffolk detectives and by Mr. Harrison himself, who said he has added two more detectives to field Mr. Ray’s leads and other tips."
John Ray held news conferences championing the victims for years as law enforcement dragged its feet. Now, he’s a magnet for information.
www.nytimes.com
Yes. I understood your direct question and answered it directly.
Tierney has expressed outright hostility to important new evidence; his delivery method was gaslighting.
What you have posted above does not indicate that I misunderstood your question. It only shows why his behavior was so deeply disappointing after those statements. He made a promise and broke it.
It is impossible to believe Tierney was blindsided in any way by this information. He knew it, knew of the tipsters who approached LE first with no response, knew everything that John Ray and Harrison told him or his staff directly. To lie and say he was blindsided confirms that he took no actions on that information in the past, IMO.
Commissioner Harrison seemed extremely uncomfortable delivering this information by press conference, but he politely as possible said that approaching LE and having the tips taken seriously was not an option for these witnesses. It's both sad and creative that the heroic commissioner took that action to patch a broken LE investigation. I'm sure he wished as much as anyone that these leads would be taken every bit as seriously by LE if he did not have that conference. By having the conference and not doing the more comfortable thing, Harrison showed us that the more comfortable thing could not be done. Obviousl, Harrison concluded it was not possible to just taking the info from the witnesses and incorporate it into the task force investigation quietly.
At the risk of being too didactic, that one announced one would not do a thing does not make it true that someone has not done said thing. Only not doing the thing makes that true. Then to claim without credibility you were blindsided adds deception.
Tierney could undo the damage at any time. He could announce that he welcomes tips. He could say that he is addressing issues that made these particular tips come through John Ray, which is because of SCPD problems. John Ray was just there willing to fill the gap left by LE.
What is not helpful is Tierney's gaslighting announcement that he is not trying the case in public. No one is asking him to do that, To express thanks and respect for tips, to promise the tip line will take the public seriously, and mention that the investigation continues is saying nothing about the case in public. He Is being deceptive by claiming he is not trying the case in public, as If respectfully taking tips is the same thing as trying the case in public.
MOO
Edited to add: The blather about the prosecutor not overseeing the the investigation is not exactly untrue, but it is again, disceptive. Tierney claimed to be blindsided, as if he should be in the know. If he has no stake/information in the investigative part of LE, why is he chiming in hostility to the witnesses and information? Why is he saying the information should come through LE? Why is he commenting on additional detetectives finally assigned? He can't have it both ways.
(incidentally, his initial reaction to Harrison and Ray was released impossibly quickly, virtually during the Ray/Harrison presser, further showing how unbelievable it is that he was blindsided. It appeared he was well aware of what was going to happen, and timed his gaslighting go to LE comments to share the breaking news wave.)
MOO