Mark Sweeting

There were whispers for nearly a decade that Julie Monson was killed during a party gone horribly wrong. And those whispered rumors implicated the son of Cayuga County’s top judge.

But in 1991, Mark Sweeting became the first — and only — person to sign his name to an affidavit, claiming he had knowledge of the party and the final hours of Julie Monson’s life.

According to Sweeting’s affidavit, Thomas Bianco brought Monson to a party at Peter Corning’s Swift Street home that night. But Monson didn’t leave with Bianco. Instead, she left with three others: Thomas Calescibetta, James Vasile and John Corning. She was taken to Vasile’s house, where the three raped her in front of a video camera. Later, Monson broke her leg trying to escape from a moving car. She was tackled and stabbed to death by Calescibetta and Vasile, according to Sweeting’s statement.

How did Sweeting know all this? He claims Thomas Calescibetta told him the whole story in jail.

In 1985, Calescibetta was jailed on perjury charges, accused of lying to the grand jury investigating the Monson murder. Sweeting had been jailed after breaking in to two different Scipio businesses. He was charged with third-degree burglary and third-degree grand larceny for stealing about $850 in cash and a case of whiskey.

It was during that time, Sweeting said, that Calescibetta confessed the whole thing. Sweeting claimed he’d gone to District Attorney Paul Carbonaro with the information, but Carbonaro told him to never mention it again.

Sweeting did mention it, though, after Bianco had been in prison half a decade for Monson’s death.

Sweeting has put together a long career as a criminal. In addition to the burglary in 1985, he was involved in a 1983 burglary on Chapman Avenue, where about $5,000 worth of electronic equipment was stolen. He was charged in a 1987 break-in in Manlius, where he led police on a 90-minute foot chase. He was also charged with writing bad checks in 1988. He is currently in jail in Onondaga County on criminal mischief, criminal trespass and petit larceny charges.

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