Brian Piszczek

The Crime

At 3 a.m. on July 29, 1990, a man knocked on the door of a 21-year-old woman’s apartment in Brook Park, Ohio. When she asked who was there, the man said he was a friend. The woman, identified as J.Q., thought she recognized the voice, looked through the peephole, and thought the man was a friend of a friend of hers. 

When she opened the door, the man entered and flicked open a switchblade, held it to her throat, and pulled off her bathrobe. He then raped her and fled.

J.Q. ran to a next-door neighbor, who called the police. J.Q. was taken to a hospital where a rape kit was taken and she was treated for several knife wounds.

The Investigation

Later that day, J.Q. assisted the police department in creating a composite sketch of her attacker. She described him as a white man, between 5 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 11 inches tall, with shoulder length dark hair parted in the middle and a mustache. He wore a Motley Crue band t-shirt and a turquoise and silver earring in his left ear.

In September 1990, the police assembled a photographic lineup that included an image of 22-year-old Brian Piszczek. Although he generally resembled the physical description given by the victim, he had light brown hair and had never had his ears pierced. “My dad would kill me,” he said.

J.Q. viewed the lineup and selected Mr. Piszczek as her attacker.

On Sept. 11, 1990, Mr. Piszczek was arrested. In November 1990, he was indicted on charges of rape, felonious assault, and aggravated burglary.

Prior to trial, he asked his lawyers about DNA testing. His lawyers initially told him it was not available, then later said it was too expensive. 

The Trial

Mr. Piszczek  went to trial in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas on June 25, 1991. J.Q. identified him as her attacker on the stand. 

Serology testing on the rape kit showed the presence of type A blood. Mr. Piszczek had type B blood and was a non-secretor, which meant that his blood type would not show up in his bodily fluids.

The prosecution presented evidence that Mr. Piszczek had been to the victim’s apartment on a prior occasion with a friend of the victim’s, named Scott Percival.

The defense presented Mr. Piszczek’s girlfriend, who testified that at the time of the crime, he had been with her, six miles away from the victim’s apartment. She said he had no access to a car and that he wouldn’t have known how to get to the victim’s apartment.

Mr. Piszczek’s mother testified that she did his laundry and that he did not own a Motley Crue t-shirt. She said the only band t-shirt he owned was of Iron Maiden.

Fearing that he would be questioned about a prior conviction for breaking and entering, Mr. Piszczek’s lawyers persuaded him not to testify.

The trial, including the selection of the jury, took two days. On June 26, 1991, the jury convicted Mr. Piszczek orape, felonious assault, and aggravated burglary. He was sentenced to 15 to 25 years in prison.

His appeal was denied, although the appeals court was critical of his defense attorney for not seeking DNA testing of the evidence.

The Exoneration

In 1994, Mr. Piszczek asked the Innocence Project for help in obtaining DNA testing. The evidence was located and Mr. Piszczek’s mother provided the $5,000 needed for the testing. The evidence was sent to Forensic Science Associates (FSA), a California DNA laboratory.

On July 6, 1994, FSA’s Dr. Edward Blake reported that Mr. Piszczek had been excluded as the source of the sperm found on the evidence — vaginal and anal swabs, and a cutting from the victim’s nightgown.

On Sept. 16, 1994, a motion for a new trial was granted and Mr. Piszczek was released on bond. On Oct. 21, 1994, the charges were dismissed.

In 1995, Mr. Piszczek was awarded $105,000 in state compensation.

In 2008, Brook Park police submitted the unidentified DNA profile to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, a database which, at that time, contained more than six million DNA profiles of convicted defendants and unsolved crimes. The search turned up no suspects.

In December 2019, Mr. Piszczek died at the age of 52.