Mangione

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County defense attorney for Luigi Mangione is claiming that Altoona police were unjustified in describing the CEO murder suspect’s red notebook and writings as a manifesto.

In a court document filed this week in Blair County to supplement objections filed in February, defense attorney Thomas M. Dickey is asking a Blair County judge to bar references to Mangione’s red notebook and notes as a manifesto.

“The use of this characterization of the defendant’s alleged personal experiences and writings is incorrect, improper and without justification and has no probative value,” Dickey argued in the latest filing. “Defendant believes that this characterization was done so solely for the purpose to prejudice the defendant and put him in a negative light before the public, all in an effort to prejudice any potential jury pool.”

Mangione, who faces state and federal charges in the Dec. 4 shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, is currently incarcerated in New York with a proceeding slated for Wednesday in federal court.

Blair County, meanwhile, currently has no scheduled court hearings for Mangione on his charges of forgery, firearms not to be carried without a license, tampering with records, possessing an instrument of crime and providing false ID to law enforcement officers, filed after his Dec. 9 arrest at the McDonald’s on Plank Road.

During that arrest, officers seized Mangione’s belongings, including what Altoona police listed on an inventory sheet as “red notebook manifesto and multiple handwritten notes.”

By definition, a manifesto is a written statement of intentions, motives or views.

The red notebook, which has been referenced in news stories about Mangione, described plans for going to a conference and killing a CEO, according to the New York Times, as published in a Dec. 11 story reflecting information law enforcement officers provided.

“What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention,” the story reported as a passage in the notebook. “It’s targeted, precise and doesn’t risk innocents.”

Thompson was fatally shot outside a Hilton hotel where the UnitedHeathcare investors were meeting.

In this week’s supplemental court filing, Dickey reiterated challenges he offered in February as to how Altoona police approached and questioned Mangione prior to a Miranda rights reading.

But the defense attorney’s supplemental filing also goes a step farther and claims that Altoona police confronted Mangione without any corroborating evidence that he was the suspect sought in New York.

“Prior to the stop, arrest, seizure and investigatory detention of (Mangione), APD officers had no objective grounds for said detention, other than a hunch or unparticularized suspicion,” Dickey said in his motion seeking to suppress Mangione’s Blair County charges and influence the ones pending in New York. “APD lacked reasonable suspicion for any stop, arrest, seizure and investigatory detention.”

The supplemental filing also challenges DNA evidence Altoona police allegedly collected from Mangione while in their custody.

“While illegally seized, arrested and detained, (Mangione) was provided food and soda while at the Altoona Police Department station. The purpose for the same was to obtain DNA from the defendant for further investigatory purposes,” Dickey said.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.