Charges Dropped in Cop Sex Murder Case

Prosecutors drop murder charge against David Superville

The South Florida man charged with murder whose wife had a fling with the detective investigating his case is off the hook after the charges against him were dropped Tuesday.

"Right now, I'm just relieved, just happy," said David Superville as he walked out of court a free man.

Prosecutors in Miami-Dade dropped the charges against Superville after a prosecution handwriting expert agreed with a defense expert that Superville's signature on a Miranda form had been forged.

"I hope there are some really serious consequences in this matter," Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Jorge Cueto said.

Superville had been facing second-degree murder charges in the 2001 killing of James Duarte, who was gunned down outside his North Miami Beach office. Police say the hit man behind the shooting and the man who hired him fled the country, and that Superville led the hit man to Duarte.

But at a hearing last week to dismiss the case, a handwriting expert testified that the Miranda rights form Superville was alleged to have signed was forged.

Superville's attorney, Andrew Rier, claimed he was previously told there was no Miranda form, and it wasn't until earlier this year that the form was turned over. Superville says he never signed the form.

"I'm not an expert and that looks forged to me," Cueto said at last week's hearing. He had given prosecutors until Tuesday to have their own handwriting expert give an opinion on the signature.

Superville was arrested in 2007 but it wasn't until after his arrest that much of the drama began.

The lead detective in Superville's case, Ed Hill of the North Miami Beach Police Department, admitted in depositions and in an internal affairs investigation that he had an affair with Superville’s wife, Ana Gulevitskaya.

Rier says Hill showed up five days after the arrest and made contact with Gulevitskaya, and the two carried on a sexual relationship from 2007 to 2008.

Superville claimed the two entered into business together and that Gulevitskaya was even forwarding emails he sent to her on to Hill without Superville's knowledge.

"I'm actually the one who figured it out originally," Superville said. "When I got out of jail, she said, 'Just clear your legal problems, we'll be back together.' And then boom, I found out they were in business together, traveling together, seeing each other while I was still in jail."

The relationship between Hill and Gulevitskaya raised a possibility that Hill may have had an ulterior motive to putting Superville behind bars, Rier claimed.

"I would be shocked if the investigation ended here," Rier said after Tuesday's hearing. "The facts speak for themselves, we're not here to get people into trouble, we're here to help people when they're in trouble and get them out."

Prosecutors had said the emails and Hill's affair with Gulevitskaya had no bearing on their case. The State Attorney's Office will now request the North Miami Beach Police to investigate any possible wrongdoing within its department.

Hill is still on the force, despite two internal affairs investigations that sustained allegations against him of conduct unbecoming an officer. Superville and Gulevitskaya are now divorced, and he says he wants nothing to do with her.

"I don't want to say anything to my ex-wife, I don't, that's just a bad situation," he said. "A couple of years ago I moved to Charlotte, I actually moved so I wouldn't run into my ex-wife in Walmart. Now I don't care, I'm moving back to Miami this weekend."

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