Lawyers for a Northland couple pushed back hard against police Thursday for saying their clients have stopped cooperating in the search for their missing 11-month-old daughter.
Police also have pushed Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin unreasonably for a confession, their lawyers contend.
“To (police), refusing to cooperate means not wanting to sign a confession,” said Sean O’Brien, one of the attorneys.
“That’s ridiculous,” said police spokesman Steve Young. Officers merely want to get the truth and a fresh interview with the couple would be a good start, he said.
In an interview with The Star, O’Brien and attorney Cyndy Short said they have begun to set boundaries for how Bradley and Irwin deal with investigators.
But they said the parents still answer questions from investigators and are prepared to continue cooperating.
Short is local counsel for New York attorney Joseph Tacopina, and O’Brien works with the Innocence Project at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Just two days after Lisa Irwin disappeared from her Northland home on Oct. 4, a police spokesman announced that her parents had stopped cooperating with investigators. The family then released a statement to reporters disputing that.
Since then, police and the family and its attorneys have sparred over what constitutes cooperation.
Short, a veteran criminal defense lawyer, said Bradley and Irwin have continued to have regular and productive contact with investigators, have permitted numerous searches of their property and have willingly provided DNA, fingerprint and hair samples to investigators.
They stand ready to do more for police, said Short, who is working on the case pro bono.
“We’ve told them, if you need anything we can provide it,” Short said.
Police spokesman Young responded that the last time the couple consented to an “unrestricted” interview was Oct. 8.
“What we need from them, and what we are not getting, is for them to sit down with our detectives and get answers to the questions we need answered,” Young said.
O’Brien, a law professor who briefly represented the couple during the Oct. 8 interview, said Bradley and Irwin’s strained relationship with police stems, in part, from investigators’ pursuit of them as suspects. Police also have not kept the family informed about the search for Lisa, which has been a strain on the family, he said.
“They read the newspaper to hear about progress in the investigation,” O’Brien said.
He said police clearly have concluded that Bradley and Irwin know more than they’ve told about Lisa’s disappearance.
During the Oct. 8 interview, O’Brien said, police advanced theories that perhaps Lisa had died in a simple accident at the home, or that one of the parents had shaken the baby to death in a fit of irritation or anger.
“I’m sure if I wouldn’t have been there, it would have been more heavy-handed,” O’Brien said.
Young rejected O’Brien’s suggestion that investigators pushed unreasonably for a confession.
“I’m sure all reasonable people understand that finding out what the parents in the home know is a crucial step in finding the girl,” Young said.
Although Short has been on the case for only a few days, she already has begun cataloging the contact that Bradley and Irwin have had with investigators since they first called the 911 dispatcher.
Thus far, according to Short, the couple has allowed police to:
Take their computer; call an Amber Alert, knowing that it would bring federal investigators into the case; take their other two children for forensic interviews; have the complete run of their home, their vehicles, a shed and a pop-up camper; take DNA and other biological evidence; obtain Lisa’s medical records, including those for well-baby visits; and conduct a polygraph examination on Bradley.
The couple also receives five or six calls a day from investigators, said Short, who estimated that Bradley and Irwin each have spent about 40 hours answering police questions since Lisa disappeared.
Young acknowledged that the parents have been helpful.
“They’ve done other things, but when I say we’re not getting full cooperation, I’m saying we’re not getting what we need,” Young said.
The family was particularly perplexed by the need for investigators to obtain a warrant to search the family home on Wednesday. Weeks ago, Short said, Bradley and Irwin gave police permission to do anything they wanted at the house.
Short said she was told that officers wanted to use “more invasive procedures” at the house. Media reports had investigators hauling off carpet and using a portable X-ray machine to study the walls.
“There was no reason to use the search warrants,” Short said. “The only reason they did it was to isolate (Bradley and Irwin) and present an image in the community that was unfair and inaccurate.”
Short said she and the couple are weighing a request from police for a new interview with detectives and are considering the terms under which they might agree.
Young said the terms are clear and on the table.
“We’re talking about sitting down with our detectives separately … to learn the things that only the adults, only the parents of this child, might know,” Young said.
