Background: Parking lot of the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Geneseo, N.Y. (WHAM/YouTube). Inset (left): Richard Fluegel Jr. (Livingston County Sheriff’s Office). Inset (right): Richard Fluegel Sr. (WHAM).
A New York man showed up at a nearby sheriff’s office to turn over the dead body of his father, but he wasn’t alone — he brought his defense attorney with him.
Richard Fluegel Jr., 30, was charged with felony counts of second-degree murder, criminal use of a firearm, and tampering with physical evidence after he arrived at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Geneseo on Dec. 10. According to police, the Livingston County Emergency Communications Center received a 911 call from someone in the sheriff’s office parking lot who “wanted to turn in a deceased body.” The call was later revealed to have been made by Brian DeCarolis, a defense attorney who began representing Fluegel just hours before they rode to the police station.
The body in question belonged to the late Richard Fluegel Sr., 60, the suspect’s father.
DeCarolis told Rochester ABC affiliate WHAM that he got a call from Fluegel Jr. late on the night of Dec. 9 explaining that he needed counsel because he had a dead body in his car. Livingston County Sheriff Thomas Dougherty explained during a press conference, “So, you have the suspect in the car with his deceased father, and in a separate car is his defense attorney, who is Brian DeCarolis. So, the call actually was made by the defense attorney to say, ‘We’re out in the parking lot with a deceased body.’”
DeCarolis told WHAM he was not representing Fluegel until that night. The attorney is not under investigation.
According to a release posted on the sheriff’s office Facebook page, Fluegel Sr. did not return home on the evening of Dec. 8, which raised suspicion because he was expected to board a flight early the next morning. At 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 9, local police reported that Fluegel Sr.’s car was found in a parking lot. That discovery kicked off the investigation into his whereabouts.
From there, police obtained a search warrant for a property on Bonner Road where Fluegel Jr. was said to be cultivating a marijuana grow operation. According to the felony complaint obtained by WHAM, police believed that the alleged homicide of Fluegel Sr. happened at this location. They accused Fluegel Jr. of allegedly shooting his father twice with a 12-gauge shotgun at the Bonner Road property, killing him. Documents also accused Fluegel Jr. of allegedly trying to conceal his father’s body by wrapping him in a tarp inside his car.
The weapon allegedly linked to the shooting was later recovered.
Fluegel Jr. was booked into Livingston County Jail and held without bond due to his prior felony convictions. He expected to be arraigned on Dec. 16.
