The Plain Dealer AP Has Its Facts Wrong With Regard To The Spirko Case Saturday, June 17, 2006 Thomas C. Hill, Alvin Dunn Washington, D.C. The May 30 article "Ex- deputy has doubts on death sentence," concerning the John Spirko case, states that notes of an interview by Inspector Paul Hartman "show that Spirko told him, 'Lay it all on me. I killed her.' " While past Plain Dealer articles have provided comprehensive and accurate reporting of the Spirko case, this statement from the Associated Press article, as Plain Dealer readers know, simply is not true. Bob Paynter has reported that the handwritten notes that Hartman took during that interview with Spirko contain no such statement by Spirko and that Hartman admitted at trial, "I don't believe that that is in my notes" (Jan. 25, 2005). That alleged statement by Spirko appears only in the typewritten Memorandum of Interview that Hartman prepared long after the actual interview with Spirko. One would expect that if Spirko actually had made the statement in his interview, Hartman would have written it down in his original notes of the interview. by Thomas C. Hill Alvin Dunn source Washington, D.C. Hill and Dunn are attorneys at the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, which represents John Spirko. Email: Tracy Spirko, John Spirko's Wife