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DPD officers in Rimmer case were charged in 1968 Vets Memorial white cop mob attack on Black youths (Leo Haidys); and 1972 Rochester St. Massacre of Black Dep. Sheriffs by DPD/S.T.R.E.S.S. (James Harris)
These events played major role in Detroit’s Black civil rights history vs. police abuse.
Judge Blount says “not guilty” verdicts in those cases negated use for impeachment evidence, flying in face of Brady, Giglio, People v. Layher, other case law.
On Feb. 8, COA called similar Brady ruling by Blount’s court in case of Dwayne Ballinger unconstitutional for “conflating Brady with Cress”
Ricky Rimmer, mother during MDOC visit.
Blount’s Opinion/Order, copied from WCPO 2023 response, cites 2015 COA opinion in People v. Lorinda Swain, overturned by Mich. Supreme Court in sweeping 2016 ruling, 499 Mich 920 (2016)
Blount refuses to hear new testimony from two eyewitnesses to the murder for which Rimmer has spent nearly 50 years in prison.
“Mommalove” Lovie Mae Rimmer died waiting for her son’s evidentiary hearing, during multiple court postponements; Rimmer now 70, was 21 when sentenced to death in prison
(Complete copies of all court filings cited in this article are linked at the end of story.)
By Diane Bukowski
May 30, 2024
Judge Blount
After multiple postponements since 2021, Wayne 3rd Circuit Court Judge Christopher Blount abruptly denied Detroit lifer Ricky Rimmer’s motions for a new trial and evidentiary hearing under MCL 770.1 and MCR 6.500, on Feb. 9.
He has not responded to a Motion for Reconsideration by the defense filed March 1, or to VOD’s repeated requests for comment.
“I’m 70 now. they can’t keep playing games with my life,” Rimmer told VOD. “My mother died waiting for this hearing while the Judge took his time. That was a gut shot. I was 21 when I came up in here. This is making me and my family and supporters question the entire judicial system.”
Rimmer has been serving a sentence of death in prison since March 3, 1976, for the murder of Joseph Kratz, a white car dealer on Detroit’s east side in 1975.
Judge Blount said in part in his Order and Opinion, “Defendant is claiming that the People violated Brady v. Maryland, 373 US 83 (1963) and Giglio United States, 405 US 150 (1972) by failing to advise him that two of the police officers involved in this case were found not guilty in either of these unrelated cases. Defendant clearly does not understand the purpose of Brady and Giglio.”
The evidentiary hearing was to assess Brady disclosure violations involving DPD Sgts. Leo Haidys and James Harris, who masterminded his 1976 conviction. The two have corrupt, violent and racist histories including their participation, respectively, in the 1969 Veterans Memorial Incident and the 1972 Rochester Street Massacre. Both events played a major role in Detroit’s Black history.
Additionally, two direct witnesses to the crime were to testify at the evidentiary hearing that Rimmer did not shoot and kill Joseph Kratz, a white car dealer, in 1975, during a robbery on Detroit’s east side. The hasty ruling cites no “findings of fact or conclusions of law” per MCL 6.508(E).
Rimmer’s attorney Darnell Barton strongly disputed Judge Blount’s findings on numerous legal grounds in a Motion for Reconsideration filed March 1.
Among other precedents, Attorney Blount cited People v. Layher, a 2001 Michigan Supreme Court ruling. The high court said in part:
“We hold, consistent with existing precedent and the Michigan Rules of Evidence, that a trial court may allow inquiry into prior arrests or charges for the purpose of establishing witness bias where, in its sound discretion, the trial court determines that the admission of evidence is consistent with the safeguards of the Michigan Rules of Evidence.
“We conclude that evidence of the witness’ prior arrest without conviction to show the witness’ bias was admissible under MRE 402 and MRE 403. People v. Layher, 464 Mich. 756, 757-56, 621 N.W.2d 281, 282 (2001).
In his ruling, Judge Blount also cited arguments that the Michigan Court of Appeals roundly rejected Feb. 8 in the case of another defendant whose case is in front of Blount, Dwayne Ballinger. (See quote from Ballinger COA ruling in sidebar.)
Dwayne Ballinger
In Ballinger, the COA ordered, “On remand, the trial court should promptly reconsider this matter in light of both this order and our Supreme Court’s order in Ballinger IL The trial court may hold whatever further proceedings it deems appropriate to that end. This order is to have immediate effect. MCR 7.215(F)(2). We do not retain jurisdiction.”
Ballinger’s Register of Actions shows no action by Blount since the COA order. Neither Judge Blount nor his judicial assistant Evan Ford have responded to VOD’s repeated requests for comment on Rimmer’s case after the dismissal.
BLOUNT, HEBEL WRONGLY USE SWAIN, A CASE WHERE DEFENDANT EXONERATED OF CHILD ABUSE, TO DENY RELIEF UNDER MCL 770.1
Judge Blount’s Feb. 9 Opinion and Order (excerpt above) wrongly identifies a 2015 Court of Appeals unpublished opinion in People v. Swain, with the citation 499 Mich 920 (2016). But that is the Michigan Supreme Court ruling that overturned the COA in 2016.
In People v. Swain, No. 314564, 2015 WL 52163 (2015), the COA held that the trial judge’s finding that “justice had not been done” pursuant to MCL 770.1, was error and reversed the grant of a new trial. However, on May 18, 2016, the Michigan Supreme Court, in People v. Swain, 499 Mich 920 (2016) remanded the case for a finding not inconsistent with the trial court’s findings under MCL 770.1. Michigan Radio celebrated the ruling at Lorinda Swain, once convicted of child abuse, is free (michiganpublic.org).
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NEWLY PRESENTED WITNESS TESTIMONY
Old DPD HQ 1300 Beaubien
“Defendant provides two affidavits which mostly consists of inadmissible hearsay,” Judge Blount, copying from AP Hebel, says in his ruling. “The only portion of those that would be potentially admissible is the 45-year late assertation of-two of his Co-conspirators that he was not involved in the murder. These witnesses are incredible. The delay is incredible. They are choreographed affidavits that are inadmissible.”
Defense filings say the affidavits contain new testimony that Rimmer did not shoot Kratz. They say that Sgt. James Harris put the two, along with another man, all under arrest, into a room together at Police Headquarters, 1300 Beaubien. Then he told the three to “get your stories together” to finger Rimmer, who was arrested the next day.
One was later charged as a co-defendant but never testified at trial (invoking his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent), then sat next to Rimmer at trial as a co-defendant. Sgt. Harris was then allowed to read the co-defendant’s statement, manufactured after Harris ordered the three men to ‘get your stories together,” to Rimmer’s jury. The second man took the stand at trial. His alleged police statement was read to the jury, but he denied on the stand that he told police that Rimmer was the shooter.
The third man later recanted in front of trial judge Henry Heading, with the jury excused, but on the record. He said he lied at the preliminary exam because Harris told him falsely that Rimmer had murdered his brother. But Judge Heading then declared him “unavailable” and had his false testimony read to the jury by AP Timothy Kenny.
HAIDYS, HARRIS IN 1969 VETERANS MEMORIAL COP ATTACK ON BLACK YOUTHS, 1972 ROCHESTER STREET MASSACRE OF BLACK DEP. SHERIFFS
Judge Blount was born in June, 1978, after what he calls “unrelated” cases involving DPD Sgts. Leo Haidys and James Harris: the Veterans’ Memorial Incident of 1968 and the Rochester Street Massacre of 1972, involving DPD’s killer S.T.R.E.S.S. unit.
Rimmer’s motions contend that then Asst. Prosecutor Timothy Kenny should have made Rimmer and his jury aware of those histories when the two testified during his trial.
Haidys was tried on charges stemming from the notorious Veterans Memorial Incident of 1968 during which armed white cops, shouting the N word, chased, shot at, pistol-whipped and beat Black youths attending a church dance at the building. Haidys was singled out by Jimmie Evans as the cop who smashed him in the face with his gun. After an uproar in the Black community, a police panel ordered him charged, but he was acquitted by a white jury after a change of venue to to Mason, Michigan to avoid Black Detroit jurors. (DFP 11/26/1968 graphic: white cops attack Black youths in car, drag them out to beat them.)
See: https://policing.umhistorylabs.lsa.umich.edu/s/detroitunderfire/page/veteran-s-memorial-incident
One of hundreds of anti-STRESS protests in Detroit, this one at DPD headquarters in 1973.
Harris was charged in the Rochester Street Massacre of 1972, during which he and two other cops with the notorious S.T.R.E.S.S. killer decoy unit, abetted by two white DPD officers, invaded an apartment, guns blazing, where Black Wayne Co. Deputy Sheriffs were playing cards on a pretext. One Deputy Sheriff, Henry Henderson was killed, Deputy Sheriff James Jenkins was disabled for life.
Wayne County Prosecutor William Cahalan charged Harris and the other S.T.R.E.S.S. cops with murder, attempted murder, felonious assault, and felony firearm with intent to commit murder.
Massive rally against STRESS including Black Panthers.
But he did not charge the white DPD officer who shot Henry Henderson six times, killing him. The Wayne County Sheriff’s office did an independent investigation of the case, concluding that Harris and four other DPD officers fired on the Deputy Sheriffs without cause.
The case was a prominent factor in the massive community movement against S.T.R.E.S.S. that developed as the cops killed 22 Black men and women over the years. It led to the election of Detroit’s first Black Mayor, Coleman a. Young, who ran against Police Commissioner John Nichols in 1074. https://policing.umhistorylabs.lsa.umich.edu/s/detroitunderfire/page/rochester-incident
‘MOMMALOVE’ RIMMER DIES WAITING FOR SON’S COURT HEARING
Rimmer’s mother Lovie Mae Rimmer, born in Kosciusko, Mississippi in 1937, died Feb. 13, 2023, after Judge Blount ordered an indefinite stay on proceedings. requested by the Wayne Co. Conviction Integrity Unit, with no notice to Rimmer or his attorney. Judge Blount later rescinded the stay, but kept adjourning hearings for the next two years, allegedly for “further research.”
Rimmer remembered his mother in a tribute published by VOD.
“In preparation of this missive for my mother, this is the hardest communication I have had to address due to the fact my emotions are RAW,” he said in part. “With MOMMALOVE, I could talk about any subject and she would always give me her honest opinion. When I would call home, before hanging up, she would always ask me, “RICKY, when are you coming home?” I would tell her about the filing of my case, and that I would be home soon.”
Rimmer told VOD.”My mother’s death was a gut shot. Me and my mother had plans go to the Detroit Zoo. I’d never been to the zoo, and I used to watch TV stories on the Bronx Zoo in prison. I wanted to sit down and pick Mommalove’s brain about how it was growing up in Mississippi.”
(See Rimmer’s full statement on his mother’s death in VOD link below).
Rimmer’s sister Mary Catherine wrote to Judge Blount after their mother’s death, relaying her request that “Ricky’s case be reviewed with fairness.” (See box at left.)
But Judge Blount ignored Ms. Rimmer’s simple request to give her son a fair hearing and review of his case after nearly 50 years in prison.
VOD interviewed Ms. Rimmer in its first story on this case, during which she told how Sgt. James Harris came to her house and ate dinners she cooked for him, while covertly planning to set her son up.
William Messenger, who grew up in Rimmer’s east side neigborhood, further recalled details of Harris’ history in a sworn affidavit.
William Messenger, MDOC photo.
“In 1975, Detective Harris, who was the head of Squad Seven homicide division, was routinely assigned to patrol our community. It was known to everyone that he was a corrupt dirty cop. He had a reputation for getting street guys to say they saw or heard about someone committing a murder or robbery—people who had nothing to do with the crime. . . I personally told Detective Harris when he stopped me on the streets, and again in the witness room at the Frank Murphy Hall, that Ricky had nothing to do with this crime. His response was, ‘I want Rimmer.’”
Harris was later sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after he was exposed in an FBI sting off the coast of Miami in 1991 accepting a $50,000 bribe to have Detroit Police guard international drug shipments coming to Detroit. He served 20 years of that sentence. ______________________________________________________________
VOD Editorial Note: VOD discovered this photo of Daniel Hebel, the Wayne Co. Asst. Prosecutor who wrote the “Plaintiff’s Response” that Judge Blount virtually copied in his ruling, on the Facebook Page of the “Student Statesmanship Institute.”
SSI’s motto: “Inspiring Teens To Find Their Ultimate Identity In Christ And Their Highest Calling As His Ambassador.” https://ssionline.org/
“The Student Statesmanship Institute (SSI) in Lansing, Michigan . . .has, since the mid-1990s, staged multi-track, weeklong summer trainings for conservative Christian high school and homeschooled young people in the basics of legislation, the judiciary, business, media, and election campaigns. The institute touts itself as “Michigan’s Premier Biblical Worldview & Leadership Training Program for high school students” and claims to train 300 students during its annual summer programs. The program is substantially underwritten by the philanthropies of the family of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.” Christian Right | Political Research Associates The Proselytizers and the Privatizers – The American Prospect. ________________________________________________________
RELATED DOCUMENTS:
Atty Darnell Barton/Ricky Rimmer Defense: MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION March 1, 2024 http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Ricky-Rimmer-MOTION-FOR-RECONSIDERATION-Final-version-Barton-3.pdf
Judge Christopher Blount: ORDER AND OPINION DENYING RECONSIDERATION OF DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR RELIEF FROM JUDGMENT INCLUDING PROSECUTOR’S RESPONSE Feb. 9, 2024, at: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Rimmer-Ricky-Order-and-Opinion-2-Feb-2024-3.pdf
Asst. Prosecutor Daniel Hebel: PLAINTIFF’S RESPONSE TO MOTION FOR RELIEF FROM JUDGMENT, July 17, 2023, at: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Ricky-Rimmer-Peoples-Response-to-Motion-for-Relief-2.pdf
DEFENDANT’S RESPONSE TO PLAINTIFF’S ANSWER TO MOTION FOR
NEW TRIAL/MOTION FOR RELIEF FROM JUDGMENT (includes Amicus Brief from state and federal prosecutors in Swain, advocating for all Michigan defendants in the use of Michigan Statute MCL 770.1) http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Ricky-Rimmer-Defendants-Response-Final.pdf
RICKY RIMMER’S ORIGINAL MOTIONS FOR NEW TRIAL, EVIDENTIARY HEARING http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/RICKY-RIMMER-MOTIONS-FOR-NEW-TRIAL-EVIDENTIARY-HEARING-BRIEF-IN-SUPPORT-ET-AL-2.pdf.
MICH. COURT OF APPEALS IN BALLINGER: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/People-v.-Ballinger-COA-2-9-24.pdf
PEOPLE V. LORINDA SWAIN COURT OF APPEALS OPINION FEB. 5, 2015 http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Lorinda-Swain-COA-opinion-Feb-5-2015.pdf
PEOPLE V. LORINDA SWAIN, MICH. SUPREME COURT May 18, 2016 http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/People-v.-Swain-Michigan-Supreme-Court-2016.pdf
RELATED STORIES:
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