Update: DiGuglielmo to Return to Prison Today

It has been 14 years since news vans have camped around the corner and across the street from the DiGugliemo family's deli waiting to get a passing shot of someone going in or coming out. 

But now they're back.

Richard DiGuglielmo, a former NYPD officer and Dobbs Ferry resident, was told yesterday by a state appellate court that he must return to prison for the 1996 shooting of Charles Campbell.

"We're devastated by the appellate court's decision," said DiGugliemo's mother Rosemarie DiGuglielmo in an exclusive interview. "And can't believe they're sending Richard back to prison after being home for 18 months when he was just putting his life together."

Richard DiGugliemo, now 45, was convicted of killing a man, Charles Campbell, in 1996 after a heated parking dispute broke out among Campbell and DiGugliemo's father and brother-in-law. 

At the time, DiGugliemo testified his action was that of a police officer, protecting his father from an aggressor.

Prosecution maintained it was murder.

In 2008, Rory J. Bellantoni of Westchester County Court ruled to release DiGuglielmo on the basis that witnesses to the crime had been mishandled by police and prosecutors, reported the New York Times in 2008.

But a panel of four appellate judges ruled last Tuesday that despite any mistreatment of witnesses, their testimonies should still be upheld in court.

"It's been a long haul," Ms. DiGuglielmo said. "There's been a lot of media coverage and a lot of misinformation. I'm very taken aback by the decision...the jury heard the witnesses tell their truthful story and knew about the coercion that went on, and they still found him guilty."

Not everyone agrees, including Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore.

In a statement released by her office this morning, she said, "The reinstatement of the conviction demonstrates that justice has been served and that one of our most important institutions, the criminal justice system, is honest, fair and effective."

DiGugliemo's mother believes that to send her son back after already serving nearly 11 years is the greater injustice, though it is something she must face today.

"He's been living on his own," she said. "He has his own apartment, he has a wonderful job. He's a tunnel worker--a 'sandhog.' He's very happy to get up to go to work every day and labor hard. He's come back to the community and has been welcomed back with open arms."