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IMETTE COPS IN 'COLD' WAR
By MURRAY WEISS, LUKAS I. ALPERT and DOUGLAS MONTERO
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IMETTE ST. GUILLEN
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March 12, 2006 -- What's "all the fuss" about, a steely cool Darryl Littlejohn told a patron of The Falls bar in the days just after another patron, Imette St. Guillen, was found brutally slain.
Littlejohn icily told a regular at the SoHo gin mill where he worked that he was surprised at the level of interest in the case.
Through lineups, interrogations and court hearings, law-enforcement sources say the career criminal - the top suspect in St. Guillen's murder - has maintained his cool-as-a-cucumber demeanor.
With detectives convinced Littlejohn is their man, the burly bar bouncer who was the last one seen with the sable-eyed beauty has maintained an eerie calm as investigators struggle to build a case against him.
Sources say Littlejohn didn't appear at all flustered when police put him in two lineups to learn if he was connected to a rape spree. Both victims failed to pick him out.
He also didn't bat an eyelash when detectives grilled him about his whereabouts the morning St. Guillen disappeared.
And even before he was picked up, "All he would say is that the whole thing was just really weird and he couldn't believe all the fuss around the bar," said pub patron Robin McDonald, 30.
Seasoned investigators believe the ice in Littlejohn's veins is a sign of the prime suspect's overwhelming confidence that he has effectively covered his tracks, sources said.
However, Littlejohn's lawyer, Kevin O'Donnell, insists it's because his client is innocent.
For a week, Littlejohn, 41, has sat in a Rikers Island cell awaiting a hearing to determine whether he violated his parole for illegally working at the bar. He hasn't been charged in either St. Guillen's death or the string of rapes.
Investigators say his cocky reticence has made an already difficult case - long on circumstantial evidence but short on physical proof - even more difficult.
Cops believe that whoever was behind the rape spree went to great lengths to cover up physical evidence - taking his victims' clothes, then forcing them to clean up after the assaults, and gargle with mouthwash.
He also made efforts to conceal his identity. The rapist posed as an immigration officer in one attack, and a bounty hunter wearing a "Fugitive Agency" hat and carrying a badge in another.
With no direct evidence yet connecting Littlejohn to St. Guillen's death, investigators haven't been able to charge him in her rape and murder.
O'Donnell says cops are getting desperate, and accused them yesterday of sending an immigration agent on an illegal fishing expedition for information on Friday.
He says an immigration agent purportedly interviewing his client about his immigration status - Littlejohn is an American citizen - suddenly began questioning him about the St. Guillen case, despite the fact his lawyer wasn't present.
"He was surprised, and asked, 'What does this have to do with my immigration status?' " before clamming up, O'Donnell said. "It's reprehensible."
A law-enforcement source confirmed that an immigration agent interviewed Littlejohn that day, but did not know what transpired.
An NYPD spokesman said he was unaware of the exchange. A spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services said he could not comment last night.
O'Donnell said his client "just wanted to be treated fairly."
In a new development, sources say Littlejohn worked for a bail-enforcement company in Passaic, N.J., and believe he could have gotten a bulletproof vest, badge and clothing there.
An official with the outfit - the U.S. Recovery Bureau - said Littlejohn had taken a 30-hour course for a bail-enforcement license at a school it runs in Brooklyn.
Cops began to focus on Littlejohn last Sunday after The Falls bartender, Danny Dorrian - a member of the family that owns the tavern - said the barroom heavy escorted an inebriated St. Guillen out around closing time. Dorrian made his statement after a week of singing a different tune.
He said he then heard them arguing outside, and St. Guillen scream.
Imette's raped and strangled body was found 17 hours later wrapped in a blanket and laying alongside a street in a remote part of East New York, Brooklyn. Her hands and feet had been bound, a sock stuffed in her mouth, and translucent tape wrapped around her head.
Additional reporting by Heather Gilmore, Perry Chiaramonte and Rich Calder
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