$10 M FALSE CONVICTION PAY-OUT THE HIGHEST TO DATE INVOLVING CITY OF DETROIT; AT LEAST 17 OTHER CIVIL LAWSUITS PENDING
CO-DEFENDANT MOISES JIMENEZ, A FORMER DPD COP, ALSO KEY TO WRONGFUL CONVICTION OF KENNETH NIXON
JIMENEZ NOT CRIMINALLY CHARGED IN EITHER CASE; NO CHARGES V. DPD COPS, PROSECUTORS INVOLVED IN DOZENS OF OTHER CASES
By Diane Bukowski
February 25, 2024
DETROIT — Alexandre Ansari won a $10 million jury verdict Feb. 9 for damages from his wrongful conviction, the highest amount paid out to an individual involving the City of Detroit to date.
He told ABC News he was so distressed at his life-without-parole sentence that he tried to kill himself shortly after he was incarcerated.
“I believe the jury came away with two things in this trial,” Ansari’s attorney Wolfgang Mueller told VOD. “That Alex Ansari was innocent . . .and that the defendant, Det. Moises Jimenez, was lying and was protecting a major Mexican drug cartel leader from going to prison by focusing on my client, whom he called ‘a nobody,’ to protect Jimenez’s own family from harm if he tried to charge the cartel leader.”
Atty. Wolfgang Mueller also won $9.95M on behalf of exoneree Mubarez Ahmed.
“We are happy that the jury saw through Jimenez’s defenses and realized that he was not telling the truth about his misconduct. The verdict reflects the harm he caused Mr. Ansari, not only in the past but for the long term as well.”
Jimenez also helped engineer the wrongful conviction of Kenneth Nixon in 2005.
He interviewed jail-house informant Stanley January after Wayne Co. Asst. Prosecutor Patrick Muscat asked police in the jail to interview the “cell-mates” of Nixon and his co-defendant to get information bolstering a weak case. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy overturned Nixon’s conviction in 2021, citing January’s false testimony.
Muscat
Ansari was falsely charged with the 2013 murder of Ileana Cuevas and the shooting of Cuevas’ sister Rosalind Barley and Miguel Figueroa. He was exonerated in 2019, after investigations by the federal Appellate Defenders Office and the Wayne Co. Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU). He was also charged in the murder of Figueroa’s brother in a separate incident later, also involving DPD’s Jimenez, but was acquitted by a jury.
The investigators found that Jimenez concealed evidence favorable to Ansari, including a witness statement describing a heavy-set 300-lb. man as the shooter, not Ansari, in keeping with testimony from other witnesses. Working closely with the U.S. Department of Justice, investigators obtained FBI reports that Jose Sandoval, an alleged drug dealer living in southwest Detroit, committed the shooting in retaliation for the theft of his drugs by Barley and Figueroa, along with Figueroa’s ex-girlfriend.
The complaint says Sandoval was present at the scene of the Cuevas murder and the subsequent murder of Figueroa’s brother “20 minutes before and after” according to the civil complaint in the case. Investigators said Jimenez was aware of Sandoval’s connections, but did not disclose them. See full complaint at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Ansari_v_Jimenez_et_al__miedce-20-10719__0001.0-2-Complaint.pdf
Jimenez still has a lawsuit pending against CIU Attorney Carole Stanyar, the WCPO, and Detroit, alleging discrimination because he is Mexican. It is set for trial in 2025.
MI AG Dana Nessel, WCPO Kym Worthy
John Roach, chief of City of Detroit media relations, for comments regarding the role of the Detroit Law and Police Departments in the case, and whether DPD Officer Jimenez deliberately concealed the role of the alleged drug dealer in Ansari’s case. VOD also requested to know if criminal charges or disciplinary actions have been brought against Jimenez in the Ansari and Nixon cases.
In the Ansari case, charges against Jimenez were allegedly requested either by the CIU or the Detroit Police Department, with the Michigan Attorney General’s office refusing to file them for unknown reasons.
VOD also requested to know whether any other lawsuits are pending against him or other DPD officers involved in wrongful conviction cases. They include Ernest Wilson, Monica Childs, Ronald Sanders, David Pauch, Donald Stawiasz, Donald Hughes, Michael Russell, James Tolbert, Dale Collins, and Michael Parish, among others.
Roach has not responded to date.
THESE DPD COPS HAVE COST DETROIT $45M+/MORE $$ PENDING
VOD has also filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the City for information on all City expenses in the cases of 61 Detroit residents exonerated since 1989, including lawsuit pay-outs and legal expenses for private attorneys.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy provided the following statement on the verdict:
The WCPO and the City of Detroit disagree on whether trial prosecutor Ericka Tusar knew about Moises Jimenez’ role in the Ansari convictions. Ansari was tried in two connected cases, the murder of Ileana Cuevas and that of Miguel Figueroa’s brother, which took place later in a separate incident. He was exonerated in 2019 in the Ileana Cuevas case, and previously was acquitted of the murder of Figueroa’s brother by a jury.
The City argued that Jimenez disclosed his role in the two cases to the WCPO’s trial counsel Tusar, at least in between the two cases, implying Jimenez’ failure to disclose key evidence would have placed culpability for damages on the WCPO as well. However, case law holds the prosecutor responsible for a police agency’s failure to disclose exculpatory evidence, even if the prosecutor was not aware of the failure.
RELATED VOD STORIES:
CASES OF EXONEREE LARRY SMITH, LIFER GARY BRAYBOY PROCEED, CITE MISCONDUCT BY DPD’S MONICA CHILDS | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought
DOES KYM WORTHY WANT 54 MICH. JUVENILE LIFERS TO DIE IN PRISON, VIOLATING U.S. SUPREME COURT ORDERS? | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought
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