At 3 a.m. on July 29, 1990, a man knocked on the door of a 21-year-old woman’s apartment in Brook Park, Ohio. When she asked who was there, the man said he was a friend. The woman, identified as J.Q., thought she recognized the voice, looked through the peephole and thought the man was a friend of a friend of hers.
When she opened the door, the man entered and flicked open a switchblade, held it to her throat and pulled off her bathrobe. He cut her breast and said, “Scream and your kid gets it, too.” He then raped her and fled.
J.Q. ran to a next door neighbor, who called the police. J.Q. was taken to a hospital, where a rape kit was taken and she was treated for several knife wounds.
Later that day, she went to the police department and gave a description that a police sketch artist used to create a composite sketch. She said the attacker was a white man who was about 5 feet 8 to 5 feet 11 inches tall, with shoulder-length dark hair parted in the middle. She said he had a mustache, was wearing a T-shirt bearing the name of the band Motley Crue, and had a turquoise-and-silver earring in his left ear.
In September 1990, the police assembled a photographic lineup that included a photograph of 22-year-old Brian Pisczcek. Although he generally resembled the physical description given by the victim, Piszczek had light brown hair and did not have an earring. He told police that he had never had his ears pierced. J.Q. viewed the lineup and selected Piszczek as her attacker.
Piszczek was arrested on September 11, 1990. In November 1990, he was indicted on charges of rape, felonious assault and aggravated burglary.
Prior to trial, he asked his lawyers about DNA testing. Piszczek later said his lawyers first told him it was not available and then later said it was too expensive.
He went to trial in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas on June 25, 1991. J.Q. identified him as her attacker.
Serology testing of the rape kit showed the presence of Type A blood. Piszczek was a type B and a non-secretor, which meant that his blood type would not show up in his bodily fluids.
The prosecution presented evidence that Piszczek had been to the victim’s apartment on a prior occasion with Scott Percival, a friend of J.Q.
Piszczek’s girlfriend testified that he was with her, six miles away from the victim’s apartment, at the time of the crime. She said he had no access to a car and that he wouldn’t have known how to get to the victim’s apartment.
Piszczek’s mother testified that she did his laundry and that he did not own a Motley Crue T-shirt. She said the only T-shirt with the name of a rock group he had was of Iron Maiden.
Piszczek’s lawyers persuaded him not to testify because he would have been questioned about a prior conviction for breaking and entering.
The trial, including the selection of the jury, took two days. On June 26, 1991, the jury convicted Piszczek of rape, felonious assault and aggravated burglary. He was sentenced to 15 to 25 years in prison.
His appeal was denied, although the appeals court criticized his trial attorneys for not seeking DNA testing of the evidence.
In 1994, Piszczek asked the Innocence Project for help in obtaining DNA testing. The evidence was located, and Piszczek’s mother provided the $5,000 needed for the testing. The evidence was sent to Forensic Science Associates (FSA), a California DNA laboratory.
On July 6, 1994, FSA reported that Piszczek had been excluded as the source of the sperm found in the evidence— vaginal and anal swabs and a cutting from the victim’s nightgown.
On September 16, 1994, a motion for a new trial was granted and Piszczek was released on bond. On October 21, 1994, the charges were dismissed.
Piszczek was awarded $105,000 in state compensation in 1995.
In 2008, Brook Park police submitted the unidentified DNA profile to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, a database that at that time contained more than 6 million DNA profiles of convicted defendants and unsolved crimes. The search turned up no suspects.
Piszczek died in December 2019.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 03-05-2026
