I-Team: Family Demands Justice After Accused Killer Is Set Free
BOSTON (CBS) - Michael Costa's family is disgusted and devastated. Tyson Vargas, who is accused of brutally beating Costa in East Boston in 2010, is back on the run. A clerical mistake at the Suffolk County Criminal Clerk's office allowed Vargas to make bail and set him free. Michael Costa's brother, Walter, says his family has suffered enough and demands justice, "My brother deserves justice, this is not justice how do you let a murderer out on the street and let him walk the street?"
Prosecutors say Tyson Vargas is extremely dangerous and call the attack on Costa a savage beating. They say at one point Vargas was holding on to a fence and kicking Costa in the head and neck. Costa's cousin Pauline DeSilva says, "They send a killer free, I just think it's ridiculous. He has done it once, he'll do it twice, he'll kill again. That's how violent he is."
The mistake that sent an alleged murderer free comes in the wake of an I-Team investigation exposing the head of the clerk's office, Maura Hennigan, using court employees to help with her campaign during work hours and spending a lot of time away from the court. "Hennigan really needs to do her job and if she can't do her job she should become a professional dog walker cause that's what she was doing," says DeSilva.
In a statement Hennigan tells the I-Team her heart goes out to the Costa family for their loss. She says she will do everything in her power to make sure her office and the justice system work to bring justice for Michael Costa. DeSilva says, "Justice has to be done, my cousin suffered so much."
