Doctor linked to '93 slaying is arrested

Accused of paying two to falsify court testimony

(Globe Staff / John Tlumacki) Dr. Timothy Stryker and his wife, Michal, at Stryker's 2006 civil trial.

WOBURN - Soon after a Middlesex Superior Court jury found him civilly responsible for the 1993 strangling of his girlfriend, a case in which he was never criminally charged, Dr. Timothy Stryker hatched an elaborate scheme to escape the $15 million judgment, prosecutors said.

His alleged plan hinged on a carefully coached new witness, who would come forward and say that he had seen Dr. Linda Goudey, the victim, with another man on the last night she was seen alive. To find that witness, the Stoneham endocrinologist, who was arrested yesterday, allegedly asked his handyman and longtime patient for help. In exchange, Stryker was said to offer him a steady supply of OxyContin and $100,000 cash.

In turn, the handyman, Richard Chambers, contacted a friend from Derry, N.H., who contacted a player from his hockey league named Craig Pizzano. Pizzano had recently been fired from his job at a tool company and was looking for "easy money," prosecutors said.

Stryker, through Chambers, promised Pizzano another $100,000 if he would testify about Goudey under oath, and Pizzano agreed, prosecutors said.

Supplied with maps and diagrams of the crime scene, Pizzano came forward in 2006 with a sworn statement that Stryker's lawyer used to try to reopen the civil case. Pizzano soon testified before a grand jury that he had seen Goudey in her car with a man who liked like Boomer Esiason, the blond, retired NFL quarterback, and not like Stryker, who has brown hair.

Pizzano explained that he had waited 13 years to come forward because he had been drinking and cheating on his girlfriend the night he saw Goudey in her Saab with the large, blond man. But after police unearthed phone records, medical records, and bank statements linking Stryker, Chambers, and Pizzano, Pizzano recanted and told authorities that Stryker had concocted the ruse.

Yesterday, Stryker was arrested at his medical office and accused of enlisting Pizzano and Chambers to fabricate the story.

Nearly 15 years before, Goudey, 42, an obstetrician who had been dating Stryker for four years, was found under a blanket in the back of her Saab in the parking lot of New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham, where she had worked. Two years ago, Goudey's mother, Marguerite Rafuse of Concord, won the $15 million civil judgment against Stryker.

District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said in Middlesex Superior Court yesterday that Stryker remains a suspect in the killing of Goudey. He called Stryker's alleged scheme "this deceit, this lie against the court," and "the worst of frauds," against Marguerite Rafuse and Goudey's brother, John Rafuse.

The Rafuses' Boston-based lawyer, Michael L. Altman, said the family was "very pleased that the lie that was being perpetrated by Stryker was revealed.

"They were not in any way aware of the level of chicanery that went on," and they were worried about having to reopen the painful civil suit, Altman said.

Stryker stood impassively as he pleaded not guilty to one count of willfully misleading a police officer, three counts of conveying something of value to a witness, one count of conspiracy to commit perjury, and seven counts of subornation of, or orchestrating, perjury. He was held on $100,000 bail.

Stryker's wife, Michal, who sat in the courtroom, said afterward that "there's a good chance" that Chambers was involved in a scheme because the handyman adored her husband and wanted to help him. "Tim, as far as I know, knew absolutely nothing," she said.

Stryker's Cambridge-based lawyer, Kevin Mahoney, said that the prosecution's timeline showing how the three men allegedly plotted over the phone was "impressive." But he said "this case rests on the testimony of an admitted perjurer," because Pizzano is recanting his sworn grand jury testimony.

Chambers, 44, of Woburn, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit subornation of perjury, three counts of subornation of perjury, four counts of perjury, three counts of willfully misleading a police officer, and two counts of conveying something of value to a witness. He pleaded not guilty, and was ordered held on $50,000 bail.

His lawyer, David Yannetti, said Chambers needed the OxyContin and Xanax he received from Stryker because Chambers has diabetes and has undergone neck and back surgeries. Yannetti said Stryker was the "driving force" in the scheme and said he used Chambers and Pizzano.

Prosecutors agreed not to charge Pizzano, whose last known address was in Lowell, in exchange for his agreeing to testify against Chambers and Stryker.

Stryker has maintained that he had nothing to do with Goudey's death. After her body was discovered Oct. 4, 1993, police searched Stryker's apartment, finding a tote bag, briefcase, and olive jacket that Goudey had been wearing on Sept. 30, 1993, the last day she was seen alive.

But authorities ruled there was not evidence to charge Stryker. In 1996, Marguerite Rafuse filed a civil suit. During the trial, she testified that her daughter feared Stryker would kill her if she backed out of an upcoming trip to the Caribbean. In June 2006, the jury awarded her the $15 million judgment.

That is when Stryker decided to fight back and to find a way to void the judgment, prosecutors said.

In summer 2006, he enlisted Chambers, who eventually contacted Pizzano, they alleged. Stryker instructed Chambers to show Pizzano landmarks, diagrams, and maps of the parking lot at New England Memorial Hospital, prosecutors said.

He instructed Chambers to have Pizzano memorize his testimony, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, prosecutors said, Stryker filled 35 OxyContin prescriptions for Chambers between November 2006 and February 2008. In September 2006, Pizzano relayed his account to Stryker's lawyer, who moved for a new civil trial.

But as the case advanced, things began to unravel, prosecutors said. Stryker, worried about police, decided that he, Chambers, and Pizzano should speak only on prepaid, throwaway cellphones, which Chambers bought under a false name, prosecutors said.

In August, 2007, as Pizzano grew anxious about the plan, prosecutors said, Stryker told him, "We are all in this together." Stryker also gave Chambers some Effexor to give to Pizzano, with instructions for him to "double up" on the antianxiety medication, prosecutors said.

In October, 2007, Pizzano, despite growing unease, testified to a grand jury that his story was true. But police were deep into their investigation, having collected bank statements and phone records showing that the three men sometimes talked dozens of times a day, prosecutors said.

In June, Pizzano reversed himself and swore under oath that his testimony about seeing Goudey was a lie. Pizzano told prosecutors that he spoke to Stryker for the last time several months ago, telling him that he was being investigated for perjury. Stryker allegedly told Pizzano: "They can't prove it . . . You saw what you saw."

But as police continued to investigate, Stryker apparently sensed things were going wrong, prosecutors said. On Friday, prosecutors said, Stryker complained to an unidentified witness about Pizzano, saying he wished he could "make him disappear."

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.