EX-TROOPER: TINNING WENT THROUGH 'MOOD CHANGES'

Times Union, The (Albany, NY)

Author: Joe Mahoney, Staff writer

Dateline: SCHENECTADY

Mary Beth Tinning underwent a series of abrupt "mood changes" when she was questioned by police detectives about the smothering death of her 4-month- old daughter, Tami Lynne, a retired State Police investigator testified Wednesday.

"She appeared to go from being annoyed at being there to relief that it was over, that it was out," retired Senior Investigator William Barnes said at an evidence-suppression hearing dealing with statements Tinning gave police before she was arrested Feb. 4 and charged with murdering the baby.

In court papers filed by county prosecuters, Tinning is said to have admitted during police interrogation that she killed Tami Lynne and two of her other children, Nathan and Timothy, over the last 15 years. All nine of her children, including one adopted boy, died in that period, and police say they suspect she killed eight of them.

Defense lawyer Paul Callahan is asking County Judge Clifford Harrigan to suppress her statements, maintaining police failed to advise her properly of her constitutional rights to remain silent and have a lawyer present.

Harrigan's ruling on Tinning's statements is expected to have a dramatic effect on the defense strategy, if the murder case goes to trial.

Tinning and her husband, Joseph, are expected to take the stand at the hearing - possibly today.

Barnes, questioned by Assistant District Attorney Alan Gebell, said he was one of three police investigators present when Mary Beth Tinning made her statement the night of her arrest.

The other two, Schenectady Police Investigator Robert Imfeld and State Police Senior Investigator Joseph V. Karas, have also testified that Tinning was given the so-called Miranda warning - a list of her constitutional rights - before she was quizzed.

Barnes testified that before Tinning gave her statement, he met with her and her husband in a separate room.

Barnes said Joseph Tinning then indicated that "he would stand by her, no matter what she said or had done."

As Barnes testified, Tinning sat at the defense table and calmly jotted notes. The 44-year-old former school bus driver has shown considerably more composure in court this week than she did in the days following her arrest.

Also present in the interview room at State Police Troop G headquarters in Loudonville the night of the arrest was stenographer Margot Bernhardt of Loudonville, who testified Wednesday that she watched as Karas advised a tearful Tinning of her constitutional rights.

Bernhardt said that after she completed recording Tinning's statement, "I asked her if the statements she made were correct. She said, 'Yes.'"

Callahan complained that he has been "stifled" at the hearing in his attempts to find out why police "all of a sudden converged" on Mary Beth Tinning Feb. 4. Harrigan blocked most of the questions dealing with events before that date, ruling they were not relevant to the suppression hearing.

Callahan also suggested that Barnes told his client the day she was brought in for questioning that one of the medical experts involved in the probe of her baby's death was a renowned scientist who succeeded in identifying a skeleton found in Argentina as the remains of Nazi madman Josef Mengele.

Barnes said he did not recall mentioning that medical expert to Tinning. The expert involved in the Tinning case has earlier been identified by other authorities as Dr. Michael Baden, a member of the State Police Forensic Consultant Unit.

Joseph Tinning, who police say is suspected of having no role in the deaths, was also advised of his constitutional rights at Troop G headquarters Feb. 4, Barnes testified. Neither Mary Beth nor Joseph Tinning was asked to take a lie detector test, he said.

Portions of the hearing dealing with the contents of Tinning's statements to police have been closed to the public, and other parts have been open.

The hearing will enter its fourth day when it resumes at 9:30 this morning.