(upbeat music) - A young mother of two killed by her ex-boyfriend and a dozen Nassau cops charged with misconduct that may have contributed to her death.

Hello, I'm Ken Buffa.

It happened back in 2009, but the story of Jo'Anna Bird still echoes across Long Island.

Newsday was first to reveal an extensive internal affairs report onto the case, a report buried for years.

It showed Nassau police officers ignoring state law, police procedures, and court orders as Bird was stalked and eventually killed.

Our investigation also found the cops involved received little or no punishment.

The case raises questions about police accountability and has wide-ranging implications for those terrorized by domestic violence.

The question, what happens when protectors fail to protect?

Newsday's Pat Dolan traces the path of our investigation and its aftermath, which is still unfolding today.

This is Jo'Anna's story.

(music) She was funny and she cared about people.

She always had a smile, a smile that just lit up everyone's life.

JoAnna Bird was the third oldest of nine kids, a tomboy turned into a popular, ambitious and determined young woman.

Always studying, always trying to do better.

A good student, she held several part-time jobs while still a teen, all while harboring big dreams, including a career in law enforcement.

She was going to be a correctional officer.

But law enforcement would play a disturbing role in the chain of events that eventually cost her life.

I just don't think they did their job.

Jo'Anna's life takes a big tun for the worse at age 18, when she starts dating this man.

The minute that I seen Jo'Anna, I was caught off track.

She was just glowing.

Leonardo Valdez-Cruz, who friends call Pito.

One year younger, he was already a gang member with a hefty rap sheet.

But Pito was struck with Jo'Anna when he met her while hanging out with her brothers.

He turned up the charm.

He's so nice.

He was buying her flowers.

Yeah.

And he was buying her teddy bears.

Jo'Anna was skeptical, but she was soon to be a teenage mom.

The father, a soldier assigned to Iraq and out of the picture.

Pito made it clear he wanted to be a dad to her new daughter, Nana.

Within two years, they had a child of their own, Leo.

This is me, Jo'Anna, little Leo, and Nana.

We took a family photo together.

Love, though.

It was really built on love.

Once she became his girl, he started getting possessive.

But according to Jo'Anna's family, Pito, a PCP addict, soon showed his dark side, growing possessive, asking jealous questions.

He began stalking her.

He would be hiding behind her car, hiding in the bush or hiding on the side of the house.

And it got worse from there.

And he had a taser, and he used to tase her and tell her how much he was gonna kill her.

- Pito's anger leads to even more violence.

At one point, he tries to force her into the trunk of her car at gunpoint, then begins choking her.

To save her own life, she falsely tells him what he desperately wants to hear, that she wants him back as her boyfriend.

Back at home, Jo'Anna's mom notices something is very wrong.

- And I saw strangle marks.

She had strangle marks on her.

And then she started crying and I said, "Joanna, tell me what happened."

And then she showed me her hip.

All the skin here was ripped up.

- Joanna's mother drives her to the NUMC emergency room where she meets police.

Astoundingly, Pito also shows up.

Cops immediately arrest him, but Pito is released in a week after Jo'Anna fails to appear at a court hearing.

You know, we could not prove, you know, that he either intimidated her or threatened her or did anything to her in the face of her silence and uncooperation.

I think she probably was scared.

He probably told her something.

Maybe he would harm someone or somebody if she testified.

Pito is now back on the street and in a jealous rage, suspecting that Jo'Anna is seeing other men.

In dozens of letters and phone calls, he has already threatened to kill her.

And Jo'Anna and her family are frightened by something else.

They have heard Pito is a police informant, which they believe gives cops a reason to cut him slack.

She said, "Mommy, they're not going to arrest him.

They're going to let him go.

They're going to let him go," because he was an informant.

Next, what police did and did not do as Jo'Anna's ex gets even more out of control.

She said that numerous of times.

She said, I know he's going to kill me.

JoAnna Bird has endured months of abuse and menacing letters from her gang member ex-boyfriend, Leonardo Valdez-Cruz, known on the street as "Pito."

Terrified, she begins sleeping in her mother's home in Westbury.

But Pito continues to stalk her.

We'll keep her tied to the radiator.

To the radiator.

Lock her in her room.

Where?

- Courts grant her three orders of protection, which require cops to arrest Pito if he comes near her, but the family says she knew a piece of paper would not save her life.

She knew it was at the point where he really was going to end up killing her and the order of protection wasn't going to stop it.

On January 9, 2009, Bird goes to the 3rd Precinct and asks cops to arrest Pito for coming to her house in violation of the court order.

Police wait three days before sending a detective to her home.

But by then, Jo'Anna has backed off her story after Pedo threatens her.

Anything.

I'm trying to control her, scare her.

Can she rescue you?

Scared for her life.

Former prosecutor Melba Pearson says domestic violence victims are often afraid to press charges, especially if they think police will not protect them.

They can go get an injunction, but if the police aren't going to do anything about it, they've now endangered themselves further by angering their abuser, because now their abuser knows they went to court.

The stalking continues.

On the night of March 14th, police are called to the Bird family home three times.

Pito has barged in, threatened Jo'Anna with a knife, and tried to smother her with a pillow.

Each time, officers refuse to arrest him.

Instead, they simply tell him to leave.

- And all the cops would ever say was, "Take a walk, Pito.

"Go take a walk.

"Get outta here."

- They should have clearly made an arrest here.

- Author and retired NYPD Captain John Eterno says cops had a legal duty to arrest Pito for violating Jo'Anna's order of protection.

- There was a number of incidents where the officers did not do proper paperwork, they didn't do an investigation.

They looked like they were trying to attempt to not make an arrest when an arrest was absolutely required.

- A few days later, police do arrest Pito after he makes an illegal U-turn while driving without a license.

But Pito has a get out of jail card.

According to a confidential police disciplinary report, he offers a detective tips on drugs and guns in Westbury, including a robbery involving Jo'Anna's brother, Jonathan.

- I just wanted to go home.

So I was telling Raymond and the detectives who locked me up what they wanted to hear.

I do that all the time.

There's nothing wrong with that.

- Pito's strategy works.

Cops release him with only a summons, but before they do, they give him back his cell phone.

While still in custody, he uses it to make dozens of calls to Jo'Anna, each one of them a direct violation of her order of protection.

It violates the law, it violates policy, it violates common sense.

Meanwhile, Pito is free again, driven by rage, and determined to make good on his threats.

Cops have missed yet another chance to put him behind bars, and even helped him torment his victim.

Jo'Anna Bird has only days to live.

[ Music ] [ Radio Chatter ] >> JoAnna Bird is desperate to avoid her violent ex-boyfriend, Leonardo Valdez-Cruz, also known as Pito.

Cops have repeatedly failed to arrest him for violating her order of protection.

And she is convinced that at any moment, he will make good on his promises to kill her.

When we arrived past the cemetery, she would tell me that she was going to be there one day, very soon.

Jo'Anna tells friends she's about to move to North Carolina, far from Pito's reach.

She was ready to leave him.

She was ready to go on with her life.

But the plan comes too late.

On March 19th, it is a cold, rainy day.

Jo'Anna calls her mother, who is at home with Jo'Anna's sister, Melissa.

Jo'Anna is terrified.

"My mommy, help me, help me.

He's in the house.

I can't get out.

He's going to kill me.

Help me, help me."

Melissa calls 911.

"My sister's boyfriend is at our house and he won't let her come outside."

Melissa and her mother race to Jo'Anna's house in Newcastle, blowing every stop sign.

Jo'Anna's door is locked and there is no answer.

Police arrive, but to the family's total horror, cops refuse to enter the home.

"We're telling the officers, 'We know she's inside and we know she's hurt.

If you could just open the door, if you could just kick down the door and go in there.'

And he's like, 'It's protocol, I can't go in.'

'You can't do that.'

With no answer from inside, police decide it's a possible hostage situation, so they wait for a SWAT team and a hostage negotiator.

Minutes seem like hours as the family begs police to take action, but the officers don't go in.

'A huge mistake,' says former NYPD Captain John Eterno.

There's not even a need for a warrant in this case.

The officers should have taken down the door and done their best to save her.

But according to the family, cops don't seem to be concerned at all.

None of them took it seriously.

They were laughing, they were cracking jokes.

Police deny there was joking, but the mood changes when Pito suddenly calls his sister, Auria, who was at the scene.

And the police was standing right there and she said, "Pito, what did you do?"

He said, "You know what I did.

I told you what I was going to do."

Remember when he said that?

I told you what I was going to do.

He said, "The body's in the house."

Hearing that, cops finally rush in and break down the front door.

They find Jo'Anna dead on the stairway, lying in a pool of blood with deep stab wounds to the head and neck.

I just keep thinking they could have saved her if they would have just kicked in the door, instead of standing outside cracking jokes.

They should have done more.

He shouldn't even have been on the streets.

Took an innocent life for nothing.

For nothing.

It still hurts that she's gone.

Yes, to this day, like I think about her every day.

Next, the internal affairs investigation into the cops involved in the case of Jo'Anna Bird and the all-out campaign to keep the results secret.

[ Music ] [ Radio Chatter ] >> And she always said the police weren't going to help her.

She always said-- >> Like they-- >> A popular young woman with two kids and a bright future.

>> She did everything for us and she like loved us.

>> Fatally stabbed in her own home after being stalked for months by her ex-boyfriend.

A year after Jo'Anna Bird's death, Leonardo Valdez-Cruz is convicted of first-degree murder.

But questions remain.

Why did cops repeatedly fail to arrest Valdez-Cruz when he violated her order of protection?

The police were called every day, every day, and all they did was tell him, "Why don't you take a walk and don't come back?"

You had a mother of two young children who was screaming out for help, was screaming out for support, was screaming out for protection, and that as a result of those screams, she was treated as though she were a doorstop.

At least one juror says she can't comprehend why cops failed to arrest Jo'Anna's violent ex before it was too late.

What stuck with me was how Jo'Anna was so terrified by the third time he tried to break into the house, that she was sleeping between her stepfather and her mother, that just stayed with me, and the terror, and I could never understand, why did they let him go?

The Bird family wins a $7.7 million settlement in a lawsuit against Nassau County.

And police launch an internal affairs investigation, eventually producing a 781-page report on how officers mishandled the Bird case.

- This report, for the first time, tells us what really happened in the case of Jo'Anna Bird.

It tells us what the police did and what they didn't do.

- But the details of that report remain officially secret.

The county and its police unions argue that under state law, police disciplinary records must be kept confidential to protect the privacy of the officers.

- They're supposed to protect and serve, not to keep secret.

If you don't have accountability and you do things in secret, you can't expect change.

- Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!

- In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, the New York State Legislature votes to change the law and allow public access to police internal affairs records.

Even so, Nassau police brass continue to deny Newsday's request for the records in the Bird case.

Many of the documents they do supply are heavily blacked out.

- I don't think they want people to know how many times they failed.

- Finally, the secret disciplinary documents are revealed in a strange way.

Under freedom of information laws, USA Today requests records for a different law enforcement story.

And the Nassau DA's office attaches the entire Bird report.

USA Today shares it with Newsday's investigative team.

- And I couldn't believe it.

I still shake when I think about it.

- 14 officers are involved, twice the number previously admitted by the county.

Among the dozens of charges, failure to do even the most basic investigative work, such as identifying people on the scene, failure to complete domestic violence reports, falsifying notes, and failure to verify Bird had an order of protection, which, had it been enforced, might have saved her life.

But the accused cops catch a break.

The county and the PBA cut a deal for at least 13 of the 14 officers.

Only one charge is upheld, failure to perform their duty or violating department rules.

The department blacks out its decision on Officer Thomas Shevlin, who later becomes president of the Nassau PBA.

Sources tell Newsday all but one of the other cops were punished with loss of paid sick and vacation time from 24 days to just four hours.

One officer was retrained.

None were fired or demoted.

The fact that nobody lost their jobs in this case, and that nobody was prosecuted in this case, shows how invalid the process is when you have the police investigating themselves.

I think it would help if people knew what was going on.

Jo'Anna Bird's family says they hope exposing Jo'Anna's full story will send a message.

There's good cops and there's bad cops.

You know what I mean?

I believe that.

And I think it would make police officers think twice.

Meanwhile, Jo'Anna's son, Leo, just four when his mom was killed, has blossomed into a high school athlete.

His older sister, Nana, named after Jo'Anna, is now studying cosmetology, a profession that reminds her of a mother she had all too little time with.

Yeah, she always liked doing my hair.

She would do like little designs in my hair with the flat iron and like stars and hearts and stuff.

The hardest part of it is she was never able to see her daughter grow up.

She's never going to see her get married.

She's never going to see her have kids.

Do you think your mother is looking over you, watching you?

She is.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Nassau police, the accused officers, and the Nassau PBA all declined comment on this story when we first published it.

Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder did release this statement.

Following the murder of JoAnna Bird, the department conducted an extensive internal investigation.

As a result of that investigation, several officers were penalized with loss of pay.

They were retrained and transferred.

The department also reviewed and revised its existing policies regarding domestic incidents and created and implemented new procedures to further enhance those policies to enforce the law and protect our victims.

I'm joined by Newsday's own Pat Dolan and Sandra Peddie, along with civil rights attorney Frederick Brewington.

Now, Fred, could Jo'Anna's death been prevented?

There is no question in my mind that the tragic death of Jo'Anna Bird could have been prevented, and it should have been prevented.

Instead, she was failed terribly by the Nassau County Police Department situation that they had every capability of making sure that didn't happen.

Each time what they did was they gave the would-be killer in this situation support.

They allowed him to run loose among the streets, and they even got to a point where they assisted him after picking him up directly after a complaint that was made.

Now, Sandra, let's talk about that nearly 800-page report.

What stood out most to you?

Well, government records tend to be dry and terse, but there were two things that really stood out about this internal affairs report.

One was the almost clinical description of these terrifying incidents, these terrifying threats that Jo'Anna Bird faced.

And the other thing that stood out was what was missing.

It was over and over again, there would be a call and there'd be no response, no referral to supervisors, no referral to services.

It was really shocking.

Under the law, her assailant should have been arrested at least six times, but he never was.

The other thing that stood out about this case, and I want to mention this because it's not about the report, it's about the family.

We interviewed the family 12 years after JoAnna Bird's murder, and what became very clear very fast is that murder never leaves a family.

It was as if the murder had happened yesterday.

Their grief was so fresh and so raw.

Now Pat, you covered this case closely.

What has stayed with you after all these years?

Well, you know, I think it's really just what happened.

I mean, Jo'Anna Bird was a woman who was subject to a terrifying assortment of physical abuse over a number of years.

She was punched.

She was tied to a radiator.

She had a gun held to her head.

She was subjected to a stream of death threats.

And eventually, she took out not one, but three orders of protection.

But as Newsday's reporting has shown, time after time, cops responded to 911 calls, but did nothing.

- Now, we understand that this is not the only domestic violence here on Long Island.

Actually, Fred, we have some numbers we wanna show you.

Pat, what you told me, it's double digits numbers.

There it is, Nassau County up 44%, Suffolk County 28%.

So Fred, has there been any real legal changes as a result of this case?

- Let me just say that orders of protection are pieces of paper.

They're supposed to provide action if indeed orders of protection are violated.

I see over and over again that orders of protection in Nassau and Suffolk County are just words on paper.

There has been, as far as I'm concerned, no real emphasis by the police departments in Suffolk and Nassau to train their officers in a way where domestic calls, which are difficult calls, where domestic requests are made on orders of protection, where calls are made, where officers have to come and intervene, where there really has been action taken.

Senator, how are police handling domestic violence cases on Long Island?

You heard a little bit from Fred.

What other insight can you share?

Well, as we know, police see the worst side of society.

And as Fred said, domestic violence cases are complicated.

But the department did make an effort to make changes after Jo'Anna's death.

They have changed the reporting process so that all domestic violence cases go up through the supervisory chain, all the way up to the chief of department, because they want to ensure that there's increased oversight.

They've also named a domestic violence liaison to make sure that there's follow-up to try to give these victims services.

And they are victims, and that's important to say.

Now, it sounds like this is, unfortunately, something that's going to be gone in a day.

So what comes next for Newsday's coverage?

How are we staying on this?

What's next when it comes to the reporting for this?

I think we'll continue to carefully monitor how the number of domestic abuse cases and what policies the police are putting into place.

Well, thank you so much, both of you, for joining us.

Our own Pat Dolan, Sandra Peddie, and civil rights attorney, Frederick Brewington.

Thank you so much.

And of course, you can read the full investigation into this story on our website.

That's at Newsday.com.

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