Judge won't dismiss murder charge against Brendan Creato's dad

CAMDEN, N.J. (WPVI) -- A judge has refused to dismiss murder charges filed against a New Jersey father accused of killing his 3-year-old son.

State Superior Court Judge John Kelley on Monday rejected a motion filed by Richard Fuschino Jr, the attorney for David Creato Jr.

Fuschino argued that the medical examiner, Dr. Gerald Feigin, misled the grand jury by implying he had gone to the crime scene the day the boy was found dead, when instead it was a few days later. Fuschino said that compromised the investigation going forward.

"He is a disgrace. He has a horrific, horrific past as a medical examiner and now here he is doing, frankly, a terrible job that he has to cover by going to this grand jury and, at best, misleading them," he said.

David Creato reported his son missing on the morning of October 13th, 2015. A few hours later, 3-year-old Brendan was found partially submerged in a creek three quarters of a mile from his father's apartment.

His socks were clean, and authorities concluded someone had placed Brendan in the woods. In January, they charged David with murder and endangering the welfare of a child.

In court, prosecutor Christine Sha argued this was a comprehensive grand jury investigation and the medical examiner did nothing wrong.

"What happened was crime scene detectives, trained crime scene detectives, from the prosecutor's office recovered the body from the water and turned it over to the medical examiner's office, which is also the practice in this county," she said.

The judge agreed with the prosecution and denied the motion to dismiss the indictment.

Brendan's mother, Samantha Denoto, attended the hearing and declined to comment as she left the courthouse. Creato's family said they stand by David.

"We support our son 100%," said David Creato Sr. "He's mourning the loss of his son. It's been very tough."

Creato's attorney also filed a motion to suppress evidence. He argued that David didn't understand that he was considered a suspect when he agreed to have his cell phone searched.

The judge continued that motion until June. He wants to see the videotape of Creato being questioned to better understand what he did and did not know and when.

Creato remains jailed on $750,000 bail. He has pleaded not guilty to murder and child endangerment.