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Thousands More Serving Death in Prison Due to Crimes Committed by Detroit Police, Wayne Co. Prosecutors; WCCC Judges Are Ignoring Reversals by Higher Courts
Criminal Justice Center
Editorial — By Diane Bukowski
Full VOD stories with updates on Carl Hubbard, Roger Carlos Ray, Gary Brayboy, Robin Emmanuel Hancock, Andre Nelson, Kenneth Cooper, and Lester Benford are in the works. VOD will need to pay our quarterly webhosting fee of $465 this Sept. 19, and needs donations as soon as possible to continue our reports on unjust convictions and prisons.
Please DONATE TO VOD at: https://www.gofundme.com/donate-to-vod or CASH APP 313-825-6126
September 5, 2024
DETROIT — “We’re not just opening a facility; we’re ushering in a new era for our justice system,” Wayne County Executive Warren Evans says on the new Criminal Justice Center’s website, as the Center opens to the public Sept. 3. “The Wayne County Criminal Justice Center symbolizes our dedication to turning challenges into opportunities and our relentless pursuit of excellence for the benefit of every resident in Wayne County.” https://www.waynecounty.com/cjc/
VOD strongly disagrees that the new CJC will benefit all Wayne County residents, and that it heralds a “new era.”
What about the thousands of men and women from Wayne County who have been wrongfully locked up in the Michigan Department of Corrections for decades?
They are there because Detroit police officers like Barbara Simon and prosecutors like Wayne County’s Kym Worthy put them them there, using unconstitutional tactics unashamedly, even in the face of actual innocence. Kym Worthy is on the ballot again this November, a strong indication that the “new” era will feature just more mass incarceration.
The racist frame-up of Michael Jackson-Bolanos for the 2023 murder of Synagogue President Samantha Woll was condemned even by mainstream media experts. The jury acquitted him of all murder charges after a brilliant defense by Atty. Brian Brown. But Judge Margaret Van Houten gave him an 18 month to 15-year sentence for “misleading police,” ignoring a preliminary sentence investigation recommending 18 months probation on that charge.
Worthy’s office and Judge Margaret Van Houten say they disagree with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Yeager v. United States, 557 U.S. 110 | Casetext Search + Citator which held “that a jury’s failure to reach a verdict on some counts is a ‘nonevent’ that cannot, by negative implication, inform the double jeopardy inquiry.” The Double Jeopardy Clause in the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits anyone from being prosecuted twice for substantially the same crime. Michigan’s constitution also bans double jeopardy.
FRAMED by DPD’S BARBARA SIMON, WAYNE CO. PROS. KYM WORTHY Criminal Justice Center Aug. 28.. 2024 Photo: Metro Times Steve Neavling
(Above) Some of the people whose lives Worthy and Simon stole protested at the new Criminal Justice Center Aug. 28, targeting Worthy and SImon, after of a series of articles in Detroit’s Metro Times. (linked below this story.)
Mark Craighead and Lamarr Monson, framed by DPD’s Barbara Simon. Metro Times 7 31 24
“A six-month Metro Times investigation . . . paints a troubling picture of Simon and the prosecutors, police leaders, and judges who could have stopped her,’ the MT notes. “Simon used aggressive, illegal, and sometimes violent interrogation techniques on suspects and witnesses, according to affidavits, court transcripts, and multiple lawsuits.”
“We want Barbara Simon locked up,” MT quoted Mark Craighead, who was exonerated after spending seven years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. “She repeatedly committed perjury, illegally detained suspects without warrants, and threatened witnesses.”
Mark McCloud
VOD. and hundreds of Wayne County men and women serving time in the Michigan Department of Corrections, have long called for ALL criminal police officers and prosecutors responsible for their wrongful and unjust convictions, as well as judges who ignored blatant due justice violations at trial and on appeal, to be charged and imprisoned.
Mark McCloud, President of the National Lifers of America Chippewa Chapter #1014, has been compiling lists of men and women currently incarcerated due to the actions of police and prosecutors involved in the cases of those freed due to wrongful convictions.
WCCC JUDGES REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE HIGHER COURT RULINGS
RICKY RIMMER (r) with DPD cops Leo Haidys (upper left) and James Harris (lower left.)
RICKY RIMMER- A coalition of criminal justice advocates and supporters of Ricky Rimmer, who has spent nearly a half-century in the MDOC, will rally outside the Criminal Justice Center Tues. Sept. 10 at 1 pm.
Rimmer is widely known by hundreds of others in the MDOC as a leader and peacemaker. The rally was called after WCCC Judge Christopher Blount abruptly denied his motions for a new trial and evidentiary hearing in a ruling copied from the prosecution’s seriously flawed brief. Among other issues, the ruling refuses to acknowledge a key 2015 Michigan Supreme Court ruling in the case of exoneree Lorinda Swain, which opened the way for actual innocence claims in Michigan.
Judge BLOUNT
DPD’s James Harris
Judge Blount is the son of DPD Sgt. Michael Blount, a close associate of James Harris, one of two DPD cops who framed Rimmer. Harris later served 20 years in federal prisons after his conviction on charges of protecting drug shipments coming into Detroit.
Rally organizers are also calling for family members and supporters of other unjustly incarcerated men and women to attend the Sept. 10 rally. VOD has published dozens of stories on other cases over the past decade (including those in photo montage above.) Complete story updates on the following cases are in the works. ______________________________________________________________
Carl Hubbard (l) Judge Richard Hathaway and Kym Worthy, (center), DPD’s JoAnn Kinney. (r).
CARL HUBBARD — This is one of the most egregiously wrongful convictions VOD has covered. Carl Hubbard was convicted in 1992 of murder based solely on a witness statement that Hubbard was at the scene of the crime, in one of the most egregious cases VOD has covered.
That witness has repeatedly recanted, saying he gave the statement after DPD’s Joann Kinney and other cops responsible for wrongful conviction. Trial Judge Richard Hathaway even ordered the witness arrested after he testified truthfully during the three-day trial.
Despite nearly dying from COVID-19, Carl Hubbard has fought his case all the way through to the Sixth Circuit Court, where an en banc hearing is pending after a three judge panel with a Trump appointee refused relief. He is represented pro bono by attorney Gregory Cui of the Washington D.C. office of the prominent MacArthur Justice Center.
Kym Worthy’s office dogged Hubbard with appeal after appeal, forcing him into the federal courts. Fortunately Hubbard had the wherewithal and stamina to continue his fight for freedom from this outrageously bogus charge. FULL VOD STORY COMING.
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JAMARIO MITCHELL AND MARIO EVANS — 
Jamario Mitchell and Mario Evans have been serving LWOP sentences since 2001 and 2002, respectively. Detroit homicide investigator Isaiah Smith was the Chief Investigating Officer (CIO) in both cases. Smith lied blatantly to the jury at court proceedings in both cases.
Smith denied that he had been suspended from the homicide bureau in March, 2001 f0r several months, in relation to his role in DPD’s witness dragnet scandal. Local and national mainstream media exposed the fact that DPD police officers were conducting wholesale round-ups and arrests of witnesses and suspects alleged to have information on homicide cases, and holding them indefinitely in jail cells at DPD Headquarters at 1300 Beaubien.
Smith and others then interrogated them to further investigate the crimes, in many cases threatening them with being charged with the crime and having their children removed from their homes, if they did not testify against others under investigation. In many cases, they did not allow the arrestees access to attorneys. The practice was one of many that led the U.S. Justice Department to impose federal oversight on DPD, 2003- 2013.
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Kenneth Cooper, mother
KENNETH COOPER — Kenneth Cooper was convicted in 2001 of the murder of an Albanian immigrant outside a Detroit east-side after-hours club that had a shady reputation. There was no physical or witness evidence to tie him to the murder or place him at the scene. Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Hilda Gage wrote in a dissenting opinion: 
Judge Chandra Baker-Robinson
In two rulings, the Court of Appeals later remanded the case to the trial court of successor Judge Chanda Baker Robinson, citing numerous constitutional and case law violations, as did the Michigan Supreme Court in another ruling.
But Judge Baker Robinson, in rambling and nearly incomprehensible declarations during a hearing July 19 repeated those violations, and filed an order denying Cooper’s m motion for relief from judgment July 23, forcing the case back to the Court of Appeals for a third time.
Roger Carlos Ray
ROGER CARLOS RAY — Roger Carlos Ray has been serving a LWOP sentence since 1987, in a case where police deliberately suppressed evidence that another man committed the murder. His case is currently in front of Judge Miriam Saad Bazzi, who has twice previously denied his motions for relief from judgment.
Saad Bazzi
His family members contacted VOD to alert us to oral arguments conducted on his case in the Michigan Court of Appeals Aug. 7.
After hearing an excellent presentation from defense attorney Tiffany Howell, and from a Wayne County Asst. Prosecutor, a COA Judge asked the Wayne County AP the following:
See complete oral arguments on Ray’s case from 18:40 to 45:16 below
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Michael DeGraffenried with infant son in 2000.
MICHAEL DEGRAFFENRIED: As Michael Degraffenried was being tried for murder and sentenced to 30 to 50 years on March 3o, 2000, the officer in charge (OIC) of his case, Inkster Police Sgt. Darian K. Williams, was robbing and extorting drug dealers using his official police car. Sgt. Williams was charged and convicted of those activities, which occurred from May 1999 to December, 2001, in the U.S. District Court in Chicago.
Williams, with other Inkster detectives including Gregory Hill and Anthony Abdallah, who have been involved in other wrongful convictions, fingered Degraffenried as the drive-by shooter who killed one man and wounded two others June 15, 1999 in Inkster.
Judge Tracy Green
Willie Wimberly, one of the individuals who was wounded, said, “I saw the person who fired the shot that injured me but I did not recognize his face. . . After I was released from the hospital, Detective Williams and Detective Greg Hill came to my house and interviewed me again. At that time they mentioned Michael Degraffenried and asked me if Degraffenried was the person who shot me. I told them Degraffrenried was not the person who shot me.” Wimberly is expected to testify at a delayed evidentiary hearing in front of Judge Tracy Green Nov. 8, 2024.
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Lester Benford
LESTER BENFORD–VOD is researching and developing a new story on the 2o16 murder conviction of Lester Benford in a case engineered by corrupt DPD cops Donald Olsen and Moises Jimenez. The only evidence against him is a sample of his DNA collected at the scene of the murder.
His advocates say that the sample is there because he was shot at the scene by the actual murderer, as he attempted to intervene to protect the victim. He has sworn affidavits from witnesses who saw the murder that he was not the shooter. ______________________________________________________________
Related from the Metro Times:
Related from Voice of Detroit:
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VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. In addition to quarterly web hosting charge. other expenses include P.O. box fee of $226.00/yr., costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.
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CASH APP 313-825-6126 MDianeBukowski
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