AP News, November 21st, 2007
A judge dismissed an assault complaint Tuesday against a handyman once investigated in the deaths of four prostitutes after another woman who accused him of trying to strangle her failed to show up in court.
But it turns out she had a good reason: She was in state prison on a drug charge.
After learning of the woman's situation, the municipal prosecutor pursuing the case said he will recommend Wednesday that the judge reopen the case against Terry Oleson.
The complaint, filed by Melissa Bishop last summer, was dropped a year to the day after the bodies of the four women were found in a drainage ditch. Bishop had previously told the Press of Atlantic City that she had been working as a prostitute and that Oleson tried to kill her after admitting that he killed four women.
Oleson denied involvement in the killings and the assault case, and his lawyer, James Leonard Jr., said Bishop had no credibility.
Prosecutor Howard Freed told Judge Bruce Weeks of efforts to contact Bishop at her last known address, as well as the homes of relatives — all of whom told Freed they believed she was still in jail.
Part of the search involved a check of whether Bishop was being held in the Atlantic County jail. But Freed conceded that no one thought to check the state prison system. The Press located her there Tuesday by checking an online database.
"I'm an old man," Freed said. "When you say someone's in jail, that's one thing. Prison is another thing. Maybe I was too literal."
Oleson, 35, had been staying at the Golden Key Motel just before the bodies were discovered behind it Nov. 20, 2006 — barefoot, with their heads facing east toward the casinos of Atlantic City, just a few hundred yards away.
While authorities were searching his home, which was rigged with hidden video cameras, they discovered nude images of his then-girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter.
Oleson pleaded guilty to invasion of privacy charges last month and is due to be sentenced next week.
Prosecutors never explicitly named Oleson a suspect in the prostitutes' deaths, but during a bail hearing, a judge in Salem County remarked that Oleson's bail had to be high because Oleson was "a suspect or person of interest in four homicides" and was therefore a flight risk.
Prosecutors asked Oleson for DNA samples to compare with evidence taken from the bodies, and he complied. Authorities still won't say what the June tests revealed, but Leonard said the fact that his client was allowed to plead guilty on the videotaping charge and was released on a drastically lowered bail shows that prosecutors are no longer interested in him in the four homicide cases.
No charges have been filed in the prostitutes' deaths. Prosecutor Theodore Housel said last week the case was still being investigated.
Bishop has until Jan. 2 to file the complaint again if the judge declines to reopen the case Wednesday. Freed said he will ask a city police officer to visit her in state prison to offer her the chance to sign a new complaint.
