BOSTON—After Joanne Presti and her 12-year-old daughter were found dead in January 2004, police interviewed the fathers of Presti's three children, her landlord and other people she knew.
Police didn't begin to consider Michael Bizanowicz, a convicted child rapist who lived off-and-on just down the street with Presti's close friend, until they developed film discovered at Presti's house and found an image of Bizanowicz.
Bizanowicz was later convicted of raping Presti and stabbing Presti and her daughter, Alyssa, to death.
In an appeal filed with the state's highest court, Bizanowicz argues, among other things, that police never thoroughly investigated the killings and should have looked more carefully at Presti's landlord as a suspect.
The Supreme Judicial Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the appeal Friday.
Bizanowicz served prison time after a conviction for drugging and raping a Lawrence boy and had been classified as a Level 3 sex offender, considered the most dangerous and the most likely to re-offend. But his neighbors in Woburn, including Presti, had no idea about his past.
Under state law, Bizanowicz was required to register as a sex offender at his primary residence in Lowell. But he was not required to register in Woburn, where he sometimes stayed with his girlfriend, Bobbi Jo Miller, Presti's close friend.
After the murders, Presti's family pushed for changes they believe could have alerted her about Bizanowicz's history as a sex offender. The state Legislature later passed a law that requires sex offenders to list secondary addresses, defined as a places they live for 14 or more days in any given year.
In his appeal, Bizanowicz argues the trial judge should have allowed his lawyer to present evidence that Presti was having an affair with her landlord, Harinder Singh, and that police did not thoroughly investigate him as a suspect. The judge rejected the defense's request.
"Mr. Bizanowicz should have been permitted to show that police were informed that Mr. Singh and (Presti) were having a relationship that could have provided motive for Mr. Singh to commit the offenses," Bizanowicz's appellate attorney, Jeffrey L. Baler, wrote in a legal brief filed with the Supreme Judicial Court.
Baler declined to comment on the appeal.
A spokeswoman for Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone also declined to comment.
In their legal brief, prosecutors said Bizanowicz's lawyer was allowed to present evidence at the trial that police had interviewed Singh and searched his basement. They said the judge was correct in ruling the defense couldn't question witnesses about what kind of relationship Presti had with Singh.
Singh told police he had a simple landlord-tenant relationship with Presti, and he reiterated that recently when asked about Bizanowicz's claim that he'd had an affair with Presti.
"That's totally not true. Her kids and my kids loved playing together," Singh said in a brief telephone interview.
"There was not an affair, nothing at all, it is totally wrong," he said.
Presti and her daughter were found on Jan. 7, 2004, after Miller didn't see Presti for several days and became concerned. Miller called Presti's parents, who discovered the bodies. Joanne Presti's 2-year-old son was found in his crib, dehydrated and hungry, but unharmed.
Police began investigating Bizanowicz after they developed film found in Presti's house and noticed him in a photo taken eight months earlier at a first birthday party for Miller's baby's. Bizanowicz was the baby's father.
DNA profiles from sperm found on Presti were matched to Bizanowicz's DNA. Police also found a suicide note written by Bizanowicz and a rope in his truck that matched fibers found on Presti's wrists.
Bizanowicz initially told police he knew Presti through his girlfriend, Miller, and had only been in her home a year earlier to hook up her cable television. He later claimed he had had consensual sex with Presti several days before the killings.
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