FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. – In a major new development, the battle over whether powerful evidence should be included in an Oakland County murder trial could go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Local 4 has been closely following the murder case -- and the fight over evidence in the case -- for more than seven years.
In 2019, Oakland County charged Floyd Galloway with the murder of 28-year-old Danielle Stislicki, who disappeared on Dec. 2, 2016, and was never seen again. Galloway was a security guard at the Southfield building where Stislicki worked and he was the last known person seen with her.
A week after Danielle Stislicki’s disappearance, Galloway took a lie detector test, arranged by one of his attorneys. The test was conducted by a former FBI agent, who leaked statements made by Galloway directly to Troy Police Chief Gary Mayer. Mayer then shared Galloway’s statements with Farmington Hills Police Chief Chuck Nebus, who was investigating Stislicki’s disappearance. The polygraph examiner’s leak led to the discovery of critical evidence: Stislicki’s keys and fitness tracker, and security footage that put Galloway in the area. When Galloway learned his statements to the polygraph examiner resulted in evidence against him, he moved to suppress that evidence.
Read: Can you trust the results of a lie detector test?
Oakland County and state appeals courts ruled in favor of suppressing the evidence, but in the state appeals case, the decision was not unanimous.
Two state appellate court judges, Viviano and Zahra, dissented, stating, “suppression will certainly impair the jury’s truth-finding ability.”
In an email to the Local 4 investigative team sent Thursday, July 25, the state Attorney General’s office said, “We have exhausted our legal avenues to have our issue decided under Michigan law,” and “we turn now to the U.S. Supreme Court.” The state A.G. will file paperwork with the Supreme Court soon.
Floyd Galloway is currently serving a 16-to-35-year sentence for the kidnapping and sexual assault of another woman, a jogger he encountered a few months before Danielle Stislicki disappeared.
Danielle Stislicki has not been found.