DAN GILBERT’S GUANTANAMO BAY? Detainees in CJC Jail denied contact with lawyers & family, subjected to brutal conditions
On Sept. 10, a ground-breaking protest outside the new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center was held on behalf of Ricky Rimmer and hundreds of victims of criminal frame-ups by Detroit cops and Wayne County prosecutors. (Full video and story coming later this week.) Meanwhile, multiple articles have been published in the mainstream media about dire conditions in the CJC Jail, built by Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock firm for $670 million, mostly from public tax dollars. Demetris Knuckles-El was at the Sept. 10 protest. He and his organizations are now calling on the public to rally at the new Criminal Justice Center Friday, Sept. 20 from 12 noon to 2pm to support our detainees.
Some of more than 60 supporters of Ricky Rimmer who turned out Sept. 10 in front of the new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center at 5301 Russell in Detroit.
‘IT’S TURNED INTO A NIGHTMARE INSTEAD OF A DREAM” (excerpt)
By Andrea May Sahouri, Detroit Free Press —“While Wayne County officials tout the new Criminal Justice Center that was six years in the making as “cutting edge” and “state-of-the-art,” union officials and defense attorneys describe last week’s opening as riddled with problems.
Atty. Lillian Diallo
Among the issues include days-long lockdowns of inmates in crowded cells because there haven’t been enough deputies to cover the larger new complex, a union official and defense attorney told the Free Press. That has led to incidents of fighting and inmates breaking fire sprinklers and causing flooding in protest, said Allen Cox, President of the Wayne County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.
“The first day out, it’s fights, flooding and everything. It’s turned into a nightmare instead of a dream,” Cox said last week.
Lillian Diallo, president of the Wayne County Criminal Defense Bar Association, said inmates are protesting conditions inside the new facility by refusing to leave holding areas for their court hearings. Three days ago, Diallo said an inmate reported having to defecate and urinate in a bag because the plumbing inside cells was not working.
Atty. Brian Brown/DN photo
“It’s like “Shawshank Redemption” or something,” Diallo said, referring to the movie.
Diallo and defense attorney Brian Brown said they have been forced to wait hours before meeting with clients because there’s currently only five visiting rooms available in the new complex. In the old jail, there were two to three visiting rooms for detainees to meet with their attorneys on every floor, Brown and Diallo said.
Diallo said she and other attorneys couldn’t enter the building on Wednesday; she said deputies told her it was because of staffing shortages. And on Saturday, Diallo said jail staff never brought her client in for a visit through video call. She said she waited on the call for her client for two hours.
URGENT. Funds needed for quarterly web hosting charge of $465.00 by Sept. 19, 2024 or VOD and 13 years of its stories will be taken off the web. VOD is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
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.
Some of more than 60 supporters of Ricky Rimmer who turned out Sept. 10 in front of the new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center at 5301 Russell in Detroit. VOD Photo
UPDATE Sept. 15—VOD story on protest for Ricky Rimmer t0 be published this week with complete video.
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, Lester Benford, and others 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.
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 opened 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, 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 process 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. (See links below to two VOD stories: “Hundreds of Men Serving Life Sentences . . .” and “Innocents Sat in Prison for 4,327 Years Total . . .”)
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.
That witness has repeatedly recanted, saying he gave the statement after DPD’s Joann Kinney and other cops responsible for wrongful convictions threatened him with charging him for the murder, while he was locked at DPD headquarters for several days. 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.
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.
GARY BRAYBOY–Gary Brayboy’s SADO attorney Adrienne Young left to become a Michigan Court of Appeals Judge, a welcome development considering her pro-defense background.
Gary Brayboy
Brayboy called VOD recently, excited that Atty. Sterling Coleman now represents him and is taking his case to the state Supreme Court. A Court of Appeals panel had affirmed WCCC trial judge Nicholas Hathaway’s denial of his motion for relief from judgment. (Box at left.)
Hathaway claimed that DPD Sgt. Monica Childs’ history of obtaining wrongful convictions through coerced confessions and other tactics was not relevant to Brayboy’s case.
Hathaway’s ruling flew in the face of a COA opinion about the role DPD’s Barbara Simon played in the conviction of exoneree Mark Craighead (seen above in the Metro Times photos), as well as other appellate rulings.
Judges Nicholas, Dana Hathaway
The Craighead panel ruled that evidence of prior acts is admissible “as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, scheme, plan, or system in doing an act, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident when the same is material, whether such other crimes, wrongs, or acts are contemporaneous with, or prior or subsequent to the conduct at issue in the case.”
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:
WCCC Judge Chandra Baker Robinson has been assigned to the case for the past several years and denied Cooper’s motions for relief from judgment twice so far. The Michigan Supreme Court and state Court of Appeals remanded the case back to her three times citing violations of case law.
Judge Chandra Baker-Robinson
But during a hearing July 19, in rambling and nearly incomprehensible declarations Judge Baker-Robinson repeated those violations, and filed an order denying Cooper’s motion for relief from judgment July 23, forcing the case back to the Court of Appeals for a third time. The Michigan Supreme Court made this comment about Baker-Robinson’s earlier disobedience in the case, noting that the duty of the trial court is to comply strictly with mandates from higher appellate courts:
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, COA Judge Stephen Borrello asked the Wayne County AP the following:
See complete oral arguments on Ray’s case from 18:40 to 45:16 below
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.
LESTER BENFORD–VOD is researching and developing a new story on the 2o13 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. ______________________________________________________________
(See a list of thirty Michigan criminal cases where Judges, most from Wayne County, have been reversed by the Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court since 2016 because they refused to implement significant updates to Court Rules that benefited defendants at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/30-reversals.pdf.)
URGENT. Funds needed for quarterly web hosting charge of $465.00 by Sept. 19, 2024 or VOD and 13 years of its stories will be taken off the web. VOD is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
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.
Jamario (Mario) Mitchell (ctr.), brother Kevin Mitchell (l), Father Victor Mitchell (r).
Jamario Mitchell has motions for new trial, relief from judgment, Walker hearing pending before WCCC Presiding Judge Donald Knapp
Mitchell was convicted of Homicide-Felony Murder, other charges on December 10, 2001, sentenced to life without parole on Jan. 7, 2002
For 23 years, courts have denied him a ‘Walker’ hearing to challenge ‘confession’ that DPD Sgt. Isaiah Smith read t0 trial jury
Sgts. Smith, Reginald Harvel were widely exposed in local, national media coverage of DPD witness and suspect “dragnets.”
Mitchell’s jury never heard that DPD removed Smith and Harvel from Homicide related to the 1997 detention of Janetta Toles; both cops admitted to their unconstitutional acts in Toles depositions, lawsuits v. City of Detroit
Witness dragnets, decades of other constitutional violations including denial of access to attys. by DPD led to U.S. Justice Dept. consent decree declaring federal oversight of DPD from 2003-2013.
Ed. note:Jamario Mitchell greatly assisted VOD in the legal research for this story by identifying case law and background documentation f0r matters including the 2003 DOJ Consent Decree imposed on DPD. Mitchell’s family also provided transcripts from his preliminary exam and trial, as well as a copy of the DPD Homicide file, which were reviewed for this story.
Jamario Mitchell. 19, after 2001 arrest/DPD photo
DETROIT– For 23 years, Michigan courts have denied Jamario Mitchell a “Walker” evidentiary hearing to challenge an alleged “confession” that Detroit Police Department (DPD) Sgt. Isaiah “Ike” Smith read t0 his trial jury on December 6, 2001.
Mitchell is serving a life without parole sentence for the “felony murder” of Vito Davis on Detroit’s east side Feb. 19, 2001. That ‘confession’ was the chief evidence used against him. Osiris Cuesta, the only prosecution eyewitness, testified during the trial hat Mitchell was not present at the actual murder scene.
“The only thing Defendant signed under the behest of Officer Smith was what he was led to believe was a release form,” Mitchell says in his motions for a new trial/evidentiary hearing, now pending before Third Circuit Court Judge Donald Knapp. “Defendant was also led to believe that after he signed the form he would be released. . . after sitting in a filthy cell and psychologically traumatized for several hours.” (See links to motions at end of story.)
Wayne Co. pros. Kym Worthy, former DPD Chief James Craig, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan (formerly Wayne Co. Pros. 2001-04.)
Mitchell also says Smith lied when he claimed he never requested an attorney. He said Smith denied him phone calls to his family members to obtain an attorney during his detention.
Neither Smith nor then Wayne Co. Prosecutor Mike Duggan disclosed to Mitchell’s jury that Smith had been demoted from DPD’s Homicide Unit March 29, 2001 related to unconstitutional witness dragnets used to coerce false confessions and statements from suspects and witnesses while holding them incommunicado.
Case of Janetta Toles, witness arrested in 1997
Smith and Sgt. Reginald Harvel admitted to those practices during widely-publicized depositions in the 1997 case of Janetta Toles, a young mother arrested on murder charges, held by the two cops in DPD headquarters lock-up for four days.
The two officers also admitted to their actions in a civil lawsuit against the City of Detroit filed June 12, 2001, swearing that DPD trained them to commit the illegal acts. They won a cash settlement, but little has been done since to address the untold numbers of men and women still in prison because of such actions. See link to lawsuit at end of story.
“Mayor Michael Duggan was in charge of the Wayne County Prosecutor Office when the US Dept. of Justice consent decree investigation started, but he allowed corrupt DPD officer Isaiah Smith to coerce witnesses to make false statements, tamper with evidence, and falsify statements,” Mitchell wrote to VOD.
“From 2000 until now, hundreds even thousands of people were forced to go to trial without having all the facts. Can we say 23 years later that Mr. Mitchell had a fair trial? Ask Mr. Mike Duggan, ask Kym Worthy. . . How about we ask Jeffrey Collins, Department of Justice?”
Decades of unconstitutional DPD practices including the witness dragnets and conditions of confinement including denial of access to attorneys led to the U.S. Department of Justice “Consent Decree” imposed in 2003, which established federal oversight of DPD through 2013.
Mitchell says in his motions that the failure by Detroit police and the prosecution to disclose Smith’s history to the jury violated U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Brady v. Maryland (1963), and Giglio v. United States (1972).
He also cites United States v. McClellon (2017), a ruling by U.S. District Court for the Eastern District Judge David Lawson, ordering a new trial for defendant Lazell McClellon, who had been charged with two weapons offenses. DPD officer Charles Lynem was the OIC. McClellon discovered that Lynem was under investigation for false reports of felony weapons possession charges during his trial, before the case went to the jury.
Mario Evans MDOC photo
Mitchell’s motions for a new trial, relief from judgment, and a Walker evidentiary hearing, cite new evidence, including the witness dragnet scandal, and Smith’s clearly perjured testimony in the case of Mario Evans (Case No. o1-o333). Evans, like Mitchell, has been serving life without parole on murder charges he denies.
During Evans’ trial, on January 2, 2002, Smith said he had never held anyone in custody just to get a statement. He went on to deny that he was suspended from the DPD Homicide Unit at the end of March, 2001, and re-assigned to the telephone crime reporting unit, despite broad media coverage showing he was lying. Evans’ defense attorney asked the questions, but the trial judge barred admission of the testimony. A screenshot of Smith’s testimony is below. Read the actual pages at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Smith-testimony-Mario-Evans-2.pdf
Evans told VOD. “The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office knows that homicide investigators and police officers have been committing perjury, withholding evidence, tampering with evidence and breaking the law.
Valerie Newman, CIU Director (l): Wayne Co. Pros. Kym Worthy (r)
“Why haven’t the Wayne County Prosecutors and the Conviction Integrity Units reopened cases that these known corrupted officers have testified in, where it came down to the credibility of these officers?
“This nightmare [of my conviction] all came from false confessions typed out by Detroit homicide investigator Sgt. Isaiah Smith. Prosecutors knew that Sgt. Isaiah Smith admitted to using arrest as a investigation tool and was removed from the homicide section back in March of 2001 for this.”
Mitchell denied Walker hearing for 23 years
WCCC Judge Prentis Edwards Sr.
“Walker” hearings have been a bedrock of Michigan criminal law since a 1965 Michigan Supreme Court ruling mandating them as part of due process under the U.S. Constitution.
Mitchell’s trial attorney Rita Young filed a motion for a Walker hearing April 27, 2001 with Mitchell’s trial judge Prentis Edwards Sr. writing . . .”the police took two alleged written confessions from the Defendant while he was in custody under the following circumstances: Denial of counsel upon request, and as a result of promises, threats and coercion . . .the Defendant contends that his statement was illegally obtained in violation of his Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
WCCC Presiding Judge Donald Knapp
Edwards held a “Walker” hearing for Mitchell’s co-defendant Aljarrau Akins, but not for Mitchell, which was scheduled for the same day. Edwards blind-sided Mitchell’s trial attorney with a letter Mitchell had sent him about Young, then got her to agree to remove herself, despite Mitchell’s plea that he wanted her to remain to hold the hearing.
The motion was never withdrawn, but Edwards did not follow up to see that the hearing was held.
Court records show that Edwards later denied Mitchell’s motion for a new trial Nov. 15, 2002 and a motion for relief from judgment (MFRJ) August 18, 2001. On July 24, 2015, Edwards’ successor judge James A. Callahan denied another MFRJ July 24, 2015. Presiding Criminal Court Judge Donald Knapp denied a subsequent MFRJ August 22, 2020.
Records show that Mitchell’s pro se motions remain pending, a Motion for a New Trial and one for an Evidentiary Hearing filed July 13, 2023, and his motion for an amendment to include new evidence filed July 16, 2024.
Trial history in case of Vito Davis homicide
Map of 14201 Glenwood (red arrow)
Mitchell was 19 when he and co-defendant Aljarrau Akins, also 19, were charged with first degree felony murder, armed robbery, and felony firearm for the death of Vito Davis, 19, outside 14201 Glenwood on Detroit’s east side, the home of Antwan Banks, on February 19, 2001.
Banks and another man, Osiris Cuesta, were charged as well. A fifth man, Kenyon Bailey, was held but never charged.
The prosecution’s theory of the case was that Banks recruited several men to rob Davis of his jewelry, car rims and other possessions outside of Banks’ home. They were told Davis would be in a 2001 silver Cadillac. Banks’ former girl-friend was dating Davis. One of the men threatened Davis with a gun from outside the passenger window, as he sat in the driver seat. He hit the gun on the window and it fired, shattering the window and killing Davis with one shot to his leg that hit an artery. No murder weapon was presented at trial.
Reviewing the homicide file, VOD noted the sad irony that the Cadillac was actually a rental car, possibly rented to impress Davis’ date that night.
DPD Sgt. Isaiah Smith was the officer-in-charge (OIC) of the investigation into the murder. Court records show that Smith and fellow officers conducted sweeps of the neighborhood, arresting suspects and witnesses in dragnet style. Bailey and Akins rode with the officers to identify the residences of individuals they claimed were involved.
Old DPD HQ 1300 Beaubien
At DPD headquarters, 1300 Beaubien, Smith and other officers first informally interviewed the individuals who were arrested. Smith testified that he reviewed the interviews and decided which contents were “true,” then re-interviewed the individuals, creating final statements which had “Constitutional Notifications of Rights” forms attached.
Osiris Cuesta testified at the Smith/Akins trial that he and Akins approached the victim’s car from the passenger side. He said Mitchell “abandoned” the robbery and was far down the street when it happened. He claimed Akins had the gun involved which discharged when he knocked on the passenger window. However, Akins said in his testimony that Cuesta had the gun.
In exchange for Cuesta’s testimony, Judge Prentis Edwards Sr. reduced his charges from felony murder to “assault with intent to rob armed” and sentenced him to 81 months to 11 years. No forensics identifying the actual gun were part of the prosecution’s case.
Court records show that Banks was convicted of “assault with intent to rob armed,” after a jury acquitted him of felony murder and second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 15-25 years in prison, but VOD could not locate further records. He is not shown on the state’s OTIS offender website or on the Third Circuit Court website.
Mitchell and Akins were convicted of the three charges by a jury and sentenced to life without parole by Wayne Third Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards, Sr. on January 7, 2002. (Mitchell’s conviction of armed robbery was later vacated by the state Court of Appeals.).
RELATED DOCUMENTS, provided by Jamario Mitchell
Jamario Mitchell’s pro se motions for new trial, relief from judgment, and evidentiary hearing:
URGENT. Funds regularly needed for quarterly web hosting charge of $465.00 or VOD and 13 years of its stories will be taken off the web. VOD is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
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.
Above: Lillian Diallo, Board Member of Wayne Co. Criminal Defense Attys. Assn: “It’s Done!” explains why other Bolanos-Jackson charges must be dismissed, decries “use immunity” given to Samantha Woll’s ex-boyfriend
Michael Jackson-Bolanos attorneys file for dismissal of remaining murder and home invasion charges after acquittal of 1st and 2nd degree murder
Cite “Double Jeopardy” outlawed by U.S., Michigan Constitutions
Hearing on motion, sentencing on “concealing facts and misleading police” charge set for Friday, August 9
Michael Jackson-Bolanos with co-counsel Purna Krishnamoorthy
DETROIT — When a jury acquitted Michael Jackson-Bolanos of First-Degree Premeditated Murder July 18, they acquitted him of all murder charges, say his attorneys Brian Brown and Purna Krishnamoorthy.
On July 23, they filed a motion to dismiss the remaining felony murder and home invasion charges on double jeopardy grounds.
Third Circuit Court Judge Margaret Van Houten will hear the defense motion Friday, Aug. 9. She said she needed the time to research applicable law in the case.
On the same day, she plans to sentence Jackson-Bolanos for “concealing facts and misleading the police,” the jury’s only guilty verdict.
Michael Jackson-Bolanos testified extensively in his defense.
“The acquittal followed a jury trial at which the jury acquitted Mr. Jackson-Bolanos of 1st degree premeditated murder and the lesser included offense of second-degree murder, but asserted that it could reach no verdict on the charge of first-degree felony-murder and the lesser included second-degree murder and first-degree home invasion,” says the motion.
“Given the jury’s verdict, any felony murder charges and home invasion charges must be dismissed on double jeopardy grounds. *US Const. Ams V, XIV; Const 1963, Art. 1, Sec. 15, Arizona v. Washington 434 US 437 (1978); People v. Lett, 466 Mich 206 (2002).” Lett is a Michigan Supreme Court ruling that says in part:
Screenshot of Michael Jackson-Bolanos jury verdict form rendered July 18, 2024
Samantha Woll, Pres. Downtown Detroit Isaac Agree Synagogue
Prosecutor Kym Worthy charged Jackson-Bolanos with the murder of Samantha Woll, president of the Downtown Detroit Isaac Agree Synagogue, on December 13, 2024.
“This is an extraordinarily sad and tragic case,” Worthy said. “Since October 21st, the date that Samantha Woll was killed, there has been painstaking, diligent, and tireless work done by the Detroit Police Department and my office. Investigations like this take time and we do our best to never rush to judgment.”
After those charges were filed, before any legal proceedings, the family 0f Samantha Woll profusely thanked the prosecution and police for identifying her killer.
Understandably aggrieved at her heinous, brutal murder, they sat through every day of the pre-trial and trial proceedings.
Samantha Woll family members at Jackson-Bolanos trial. Photo/Detroit News
However, when the jury acquitted Bolanos-Jackson of first-degree murder July 18, they said in a joint statement, “We are stunned and deeply saddened by the outcome of this trial, as there is overwhelming evidence that Michael Jackson-Bolanos took our beloved Samantha’s life.”
But Jackson-Bolanos’ jury, his attorneys, and three legal experts who appeared on CBS News Detroit saw the case differently. Lillian Diallo, a board member of the Wayne Co. Criminal Defense Attorneys Bar Association (video at top), Rick Convertino, who has been both a prosecution and defense attorney, and Gino Vicci each appeared on CBS News, adamantly challenging the prosecution’s case.
Judge Van Houten
Convertino called it “the weakest prosecution case he has ever seen,” and predicted an eventual acquittal.
The Woll family, in their statement, said they do not believe that the race of Michael Jackson-Bolanos should be an issue in his arrest and conviction, but to many Detroiters and others who are Black, the issue is glaringly apparent.
Jackson-Bolanos is being tried in front of Judge Margaret van Houten, who is white, and served on the Dearborn Heights City Council for 14 years before her tenure. She was appointed to the Circuit Court by Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and ran for election in 2014. She was a law clerk for former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Brian Zahra, an active member of the right-wing Federalist Society
His Asst. Prosecutor, Ryan Elsey, is white and lives in Livonia, where the population is 80 percent white and only 4 percent Black. Wayne Co. Chief Prosecutor Kym Worthy is Black, but her record on behalf of Wayne County’s Black population, particularly its youth, is abysmal.
Davontae Sanford (l) WC Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
Worthy has vehemently fought to maintain juvenile life without parole sentences, outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Miller v. Alabama (2012) and Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016), throughout her tenure as Wayne County Prosecutor. She still denies that Davontae Sanford, 14 in 2009 when he was charged with the murders of four adults, is innocent, despite the subsequent dismissal of his charges and a $7.9 million settlement of his wrongful conviction.
Jeffrey Herbstman in 2022 with Samantha Woll.
Samantha Woll’s white, well-to-do ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Herbstman fled to Kalamazoo from Detroit, and confessed to police there that he had killed her. He was released with little investigation, claiming he was delusional when he confessed.
Herbtsman testified at length for AP Ryan Elsey and then was cross-examined by defense attorney Brian Brown. No psychiatrist or other medical expert was called by the prosecution to back up his claims. He was granted “use immunity” to testify at the Jackson-B0lanos trial, a practice which Attorney Lillian Diallo questioned in her interview with CBS News (above).
CBS News expert Gino Vicci commented on Herbstman’s testimony below.
Defense Attorney Brian Brown, who is Black, put the issue of race front-and-center during his cross-exam of Herbstman, noting that Elsey appeared to act as a defense attorney as he questioned Herbstman.
URGENT. Funds regularly needed for quarterly web hosting charge of $465.00 or VOD and 13 years of its stories will be taken off the web. VOD is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
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.
Jerusalem is concerned that the UK may cease exporting arms to Israel in the coming days, according to several Hebrew media reports Monday, following other steps taken by the new Labour government to reverse the previous government’s policy on Israel amid the war with Hamas in Gaza.
After the UK earlier this month restored funding to UNRWA — the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants — and withdrew its objection to the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, several outlets said that Israel believes that within the next few days, the UK could announce an end to the sale of arms to Israel.
“Hundreds of people were killed — horrifically — in a massive strike at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, including patients, healthcare workers and families that had been seeking refuge in and around the hospital.
While still in the opposition, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy had said earlier this year that the government should suspend the sale of British arms if there was a clear risk they might be used in a serious breach of humanitarian law. Now in government, he said last week that he had requested an assessment of the legal situation regarding weapons use in Gaza, and that he hoped to be able to communicate any decisions with “full accountability and transparency.”
The defense secretary, who has said he wants a balanced position on Israel and Gaza, signaled earlier this month that even in the event that the UK limits the sale of offensive weapons, it would not implement a blanket ban on arms sales to Israel.
Questioned by a Green Party lawmaker on whether he would act to stop “all UK arms exports to Israel,” Lammy answered in the negative, stressing the need for Israel to have access to defensive weapons.
GENOCIDE IN GAZA AP photo 39,000 now dead.
“Israel is a country surrounded by people who would love to see its annihilation,” Lammy said at the time. “It is being attacked by the Houthis, missiles are being fired from Hezbollah, notwithstanding the desire for Hamas to wipe Israel off the map.
“For those reasons, it would not be right to have a blanket ban between our country and Israel,” he added.
While the UK’s previous Conservative government was a strong supporter of Israel’s right to defend itself following the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught, Reuters found in June that the value of Britain’s approvals of new arms licenses had dropped sharply after the start of the war, with the value of permits granted for the sale of military equipment to its ally falling by more than 95 percent to a 13-year low.
They marched to support the Palestinian people being slaughtered by Israel, gave tribute to Aaron Bushnell, the active-duty USAF member who immolated himself to protest the Gaza genocide.
War erupted with the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, during which some 1,200 people were slaughtered and 251 were seized as hostages.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 39,000 people have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 331.
PAUL CLARK hugs his son and daughter after his release from prison by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Mark T. Slavens in May, 2024. On July 23, 2024, Judge Slavens dismissed all charges against him without prejudice, after Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy decided not to pursue another trial on the first-degree murder charges. Photo: Courtesy Akeel and Valentine Law Firm.
Wayne 3rd Circuit Court Judge Mark T. Slavens dismisses charges against Michigan Lifer Paul Clark July 23 after ordering new trial April 24, 2024
Judge Slavens freed Clark on a tether April 24, 2o24, ordering a new trial: said “actual innocence” likely, cited suppression under Brady v. Maryland
Wayne Co. Conviction Integrity Unit found key evidence, but denied relief 4 years ago for unknown reasons
It is said that the wheels of justice sometimes do not turn fast enough. And in the case of Paul Clark, that rings so true. Thirty-seven years ago, an innocent man was escorted out the back doors of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, wrongfully convicted of a murder he truly did not commit. And now today, thirty-seven years later, he walks proudly out the front door of that same court, a free man, victorious in the cause of justice. Paul never gave up hope, never wavered in his fight to vindicate his name; never surrendered his belief that one day he would be free from this arduous and painful odyssey to freedom.
A brief summary of his case is worth noting to understand how we reached this point today. In February 1987, the victim, named Trifu Visilje, was lured by a prostitute out of a bar in the city of Highland Park into a trap of an armed robber who announced a holdup as Mr. Visilje approached. Mr. Visilje put up a struggle and was shot to death. But not before he pulled out a “hook knife” and slashed his killer across the face.
Six weeks later, the killer was arrested by police for carrying a concealed firearm and bore that fresh scar across his face. Paul Clark, it must be pointed out, never bore that scar then; nor does he bear that scar today.
Approximately three months after that murder, the killer, a man named Alex Scott (it would later be learned in 1990), using the same modus operandi, killed another unwitting victim by having a prostitute lure him outside of a bar and into his trap where he announced a robbery. This murder happened in the same neighborhood only two blocks away from the Visilje murder.
Significantly, Mr. Scott pled guilty to the May 1987 murder which bore all similarities to the Visilje murder.
Because the Visilje murder occurred on the border between Detroit and Highland Park, it was a joint homicide investigation involving both police agencies.
Paul Clark was convicted based solely on the testimony of two witnesses, one who stated he saw Paul in the area of the murder just before it happened; another who testified falsely that he met up with Paul just before the murder and Paul told him he was casing the neighborhood looking to rob someone that night.
Paul was convicted of the Visilje murder and sentenced to life without parole in late 1987. There was no physical evidence that linked Paul to the crime; nor did he confess to the murder.
Fast forward to 1990: another prisoner who was locked away in the same prison as Alex Scott had a discussion with him about the scar on Mr. Scott’s face and said Mr. Scott confessed to him how he got the scar in the course of killing Mr. Visilje. Several years after that discussion with Mr. Scott, that inmate later met Paul at another prison and upon discussing Paul’s case with him, he told Paul what Mr. Scott had confessed to him years earlier.
That inmate provided Paul an affidavit and that spawned several appeals on a relief from judgment motion with one court ruling in Paul’s favor; while a higher court reversed and reinstated his conviction.
Many years after that, after Paul obtained copies of the homicide file, he learned FOR THE FIRST TIME that the victim had slashed his killer across his face and was found with a bloodied hook knife in his hand at the crime scene.
The police were also aware that Mr. Scott had committed a similar murder only two weeks later in the same neighborhood using the same modus operandi. These were details the police never disclosed to the defense at the time Paul was on trial in 1987 for the Visilje murder.
Paul never gave up the fight for his freedom. Upon learning details of the Visilje murder, including the fact he slashed his killer across the face with the hook knife and having among his arsenal the affidavit of the 1990 jailhouse inmate, Mr. Clark was assisted by the Michigan Innocence Clinic in reopening his appeals and in late 2018-2019, they took his case before the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Conviction Integrity Unit for review.
Wayne Co. Pros. Kym Worthy endorses Karen McDonald for Oakland County Prosecutor in 2020. McDonald withdrew 19 juvenile life without parole recommendations in Jan. 2021, but Worthy did not follow suit, maintaining 51 on record.
In 2020, another bombshell dropped on the case which further undermined the prosecutor’s case against Mr. Clark and only further underscored his claims that police deliberately and intentionally withheld exculpatory evidence of Alex Scott as being an alternative suspect. Namely, the CIU discovered Alexis Scott’s mugshot from the May 1987 murder bearing that fresh scar across his face for the Visilje murder.
The CIU then presented a recommendation to prosecutor Kym Worthy to vacate Mr. Clark’s conviction and set him free. She refused without giving any rationale or reason.
The prosecutor forced Mr. Clark to judicial review and in early 2024, the Honorable Mark T. Slavens vacated his conviction and issued a scathing opinion blasting the police departments for concealing evidence of an alternative suspect. Judge Slavens also took the unusual step for a judge to conclude there was a substantial likelihood of Mr. Clark’s innocence — a queue to the Wayne County Prosecutor of the uphill battle she faced at a new trial.
It should be noted that when the other inmate provided his affidavit in 1990, no one knew that 1987 mugshot that would many years later corroborate his affidavit, existed. In other words, the 1987 mugshot, which wasn’t uncovered until 34 years later, lent credence to that inmate’s affidavit.
Youth in Highland Park outside school board meeting where dozens of their teachers were laid off in 2004. Highland Park police framed Paul Clark in 1987, were they still framing others in 2004? Photo Diane Bukowski, Michigan Citizen 2004.
On July 23, 2023, ONLY after Judge Slavens issued his well-reasoned and cogent opinion awarding Mr. Clark a new trial, Prosecutor Kym Worthy decided to vacate Mr. Clark’s conviction. This was a decision not out of genuine interest for truth and justice, but again, only because the Court had handed the prosecutor a huge defeat in its innocence ruling in the case.
The result? Of the 37 years Mr. Clark wrongfully spent in prison an innocent man, four of those years were due to the decision by the prosecutor when she learned in 2020 of the mugshot photo and still refused to set him free.
Mr. Clark’s case, like many others, is the all-too-familiar tale of corruption, lies and mischief by police and prosecutors hellbent on winning a conviction at all costs, and to confess mistakes or wrongdoing was completely out of the question. But in the end, they are now put to shame. Shame for the lies, deception and treachery that worked a tremendous injustice on this innocent man. In the end, truth prevailed over falsehood, justice over misconduct and light over darkness.
While we share in Paul’s joy at his newfound freedom, true justice has still not come. And I submit, we will never get true justice until the dirty police and prosecutors are compelled to attend these hearings and the handcuffs, when removed from the innocent man, and placed on the dirty police and prosecutors who framed innocent people. True deterrence and true justice will only come when that starts to happen. Put them in prison for their crimes.
URGENT. Funds regularly needed for quarterly web hosting charge of $465.00 or VOD and 13 years of its stories will be taken off the web. VOD is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
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.
URGENT. Funds regularly needed for quarterly web hosting charge of $465.00 or VOD and 13 years of its stories will be taken off the web. VOD is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
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.
Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility college graduates walk down the aisle to receive Associates Degree diplomas; June 17, 2019. Jose Juarez, Detroit News.
MICHIGAN SENATE BILL 861 DISCRIMINATES AGAINST ALL WHO ARE CURRENTLY INCARCERATED IN MDOC
Part of “Safer Michigan Act,” BILL allows only future incarcerated individuals to earn up to 20% off prison sentences
“Productivity Credits” apply to future sentences . . .ensure that victims are notified every step of the way. They are not applied retroactively.”
Bill does not apply to 40% of the prison population, those serving time for specified felonies
S.B. 861 provides “UNEQUAL Justice under Law,” contrary to this slogan at entrance to U.S. Supreme Court building.
MARIO SMITH
By Mario Smith
June 25, 2024
On June 20, 2024, Michigan’s Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary, And Public Safety Committee heard testimony from committee members and special interest groups concerning Senate Bill 861 titled,” Productivity Credits”. This bill will allow future incarcerated citizens convicted of certain offenses to earn up to 20% off of their sentence for earning a G.E.D. and completion of rehabilitation programs.
However, those who are currently serving a term of years sentence under Truth-In-Sentencing” rules will not earn anything, in spite of completing the same rehabilitative programming and achieving their G.E.D.
Passing this bill sends a message to current incarcerated citizens, their families, and the public that, “We do not care about wasting tax-payers dollars by warehousing citizens who are no longer a risk to the public. We do not care how time much you have served. We do not care about how much you took advantage of limited programming with no incentives. However, we do care about our own political interest on election day.”
Michigan Department of Corrections are already dangerously understaffed, and allowing certain classes of incarcerated citizens to benefit from S.B. 861 will cause jealousy and animosity amongst their fellow peers, and create a more dangerous environment.
There is an inscription at the top of our United States Supreme Court that says,” EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW”. S.B. 861 flies in the face of this promise.
Sen. Jeff Irwin Introduces Bipartisan “Safer Michigan Act” to Reduce Future Crime — Excerpts of Senate Press Release May 27, 2024
LANSING, Mich.— Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) has introduced Senate Bill 861 as part of the Safer Michigan Act (SB 861–864), a bipartisan package of bills that will establish Productivity Credits, a proven safety strategy. Productivity Credits are designed to make Michigan safer and to more effectively invest our tax dollars in proven strategies that reduce crime, address the needs of current victims, and reduce the number of victims in the future.
“Productivity Credits incentivize prisoners to rehabilitate and lead meaningful lives after their time is served,” said Sen. Irwin. “The Safer Michigan Act will enable rehabilitation programs that are proven to reduce recidivism while also requiring additional safety measures to be put in place for past victims of crime. I’m proud to stand by thousands of crime victims, as well as law enforcement, business leaders, and faith groups in Michigan, who have already voiced their support for the Safer Michigan Act.”
Productivity Credits only apply to future sentences and ensure that victims are notified every step of the way. They are not applied retroactively.
Productivity Credits would allow eligible prisoners to earn a capped amount of time towards earlier parole consideration by participating in programs proven to reduce the likelihood of re-offense.
The parole board will continue to make the final decision on when and whether someone should be released, no matter how many programs they have completed.
Prosecutors and judges retain their discretion.
People convicted of murder, sex offenses, and human trafficking (roughly 40% of the prison population) will not be eligible to earn Productivity Credits.
Additionally, Productivity Credits have no impact on truth-in-sentencing. Prosecutors must provide notice to crime victims at the time of sentencing in any case where a person may become eligible to earn Productivity Credits so victims can have certainty of the minimum amount of time someone will serve before they are eligible for release.
URGENT. Funds regularly needed for quarterly web hosting charge of $465.00 or VOD and 13 years of its stories will be taken off the web. VOD is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
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.
UPDATE JULY 12, 2024: JURY DEADLOCKED. CBS News legal expert Rick Convertino, who predicted a quick acquittal, still calls the prosecution’s case “the weakest” he’s ever seen (above.)
CBS NEWS DEFENSE EXPERT PREVIOUSLY PREDICTED ACQUITTAL
DEFENSE ATTY. BRIAN BROWN’S BRILLIANT CLOSING ARGUMENTS
DEFENSE PLAYS ATTY.-CLIENT JAIL CONVERSATION FOR JURY (below)
VOD was not able to cover this trial in person due to time constraints, but is publishing key videos from other media, focusing on defense presentations
Mainstream media has covered prosecution’s case in detail; go to YouTube (Search “Samantha Woll trial”) to watch those portions of the trial
Why did Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy bring this case on such scant evidence against a poor Black man after a well-to-do white man confessed?
Police officers who took stand included Stephen Kue, fully exposed as a liar by Channel 7 Investigator Ross Jones
Police claimed Jackson-Bolanos never said he accidentally came upon and touched Woll’s body; but DPD officer tells atty. he DID tell him that
CROSS-EXAM OF WOLL’S EX-BOYFRIEND JEFFREY HERBSTMAN
DPD OFFICER: Jackson-Bolanos DID tell him he saw, touched Woll’s body
Samantha Woll, Pres. Isaac Agree Synagogue
GUEST EDITORIAL By Roberto Guzman, with Diane Bukowski
With her family and community, VOD mourns the tragic loss of Samantha Woll, a beautiful vibrant young woman and Isaac Agree Synagogue president. We call on police and prosecutors to target the real perpetrator of her brutal, horrific murder.
July 12, 2024
Marvin Cotton’s mother Ms. Fortune with paralegal Roberto Guzman at 2016 press conference on Davontae Sanford’s release. VOD photo.
Detroit — At a time when all the party balloons, awards dinners, and media frenzy have taken hold with proclamations of the “re-birth” of Detroit, and as officials herald the move of Wayne County courts and prisons to a new Criminal Justice Center and a “new era,” the case of Michael Jackson-Bolanos proves that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
There before us in real time is another wrongful conviction unfolding right before our eyes, in the wake of dozens of exonerations of men and women in Wayne County who were railroaded by the Detroit Police Department in league with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office. Like Larry “Butter” Smith, who just won an $8.9 million settlement from the city after spending 26 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, nearly 40 exonerees spent many decades in prison.
Michael Jackson-Bolanos and his atty. Brian Brown as the jury begins deliberations July 10.
There are thousands more remaining in Michigan’s prisons who were similarly railroaded. Private Investigator Scott Lewis estimates that up to thirty percent of the state’s prisoners are likely innocent. During the period of the 1990’s and the “Ring of Snitches,” estimates of wrongful convictions go up to eighty percent.
But now unfolding before us in real time is another wrongful conviction, that of Michael Jackson-Bolanos. We must not let this happen as a result of our neglect and complacency. If this was happening in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the community would be rising up in anger and horror. Here again, another innocent Black man finds himself tangling with a powerhouse of corrupt and deceitful police and prosecutors intent on framing him for the murder of Samantha Woll, synagogue director and leader in the Jewish community.
This is nothing but an effort to appease public pressure to bring someone to justice. Anyone. Just do it. Make Michael Jackson-Bolanos the scapegoat, their sacrificial lamb, handed over on a silver platter.
Poster from 2020 Victoria-Burton Harris campaign for Wayne County Prosecutor.
But where is their evidence? Other than their belief that his color and presence in the area of the victim’s home made him a likely suspect in the minds of overzealous cops and prosecutors? They found two specks of blood on the sleeve of his jacket, invisible to the naked eye, and pounced on that. This is despite the fact that there was a common-sense innocent explanation for it as exposed by his testimony and defense attorney Brian Brown’s brilliant presentation of his case.
Namely, that in the course of committing petty vehicular crimes in the area, Jackson-Bolanos stumbled upon the dead victim, and obviously concerned for her safety, checked her vitals and got those specks of blood on his jacket. This was enough for cops and prosecutors to pounce, deapite the fact that the apartment where Samantha Woll was brutally attacked and stabbed eight times to to death while fighting for her life, was covered in blood, as was her body.
Two specks of blood don’t fit the facts. Even to an average citizen. But unfortunately, police and prosecutors aren’t just average citizens. They are power-tripping arrogant egotistical maniacs who care nothing about innocence, and especially not a Black man’s innocence.
Inset: Davontae Sanford with mother Taminko on his release in 2016; Background: Roberto Guzman (l) with Sanford ‘s family after a 2012 appeals court hearing. The COA ruled in his favor, but Worthy appealed again and the Mich. Supreme Court reversed it, leaving this child to suffer more years in prison. VOD photo.
In the case of Michael Jackson-Bolanos, we are reminded again of the rushes to judgment that have typified the career of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who many people are hailing as a hero with a heart for justice. But she is just the opposite of that. She rushed to file false murder charges against yet another innocent young Black man without questioning the scant evidence presented to her by the Detroit Police Department, with its shameful history of framing hundreds of others over the years.
Davontae Sanford was a 14-year-old child when he was snatched from his mother and similarly framed by Detroit Police in league with Prosecutor Kym Worthy in 2008. He was charged with the murders of four adults in an alleged drug house.
It was only after his mother led a determined battle to free her child that the truth of his innocence finally came out; but he had spent nine years in adult prisons subjected to torture and abuse by prison personnel.
New Wayne Co. Criminal INJUSTICE Center?
The Michigan State Police cited Detr0it police reports from the night of the crime in which eyewitnesses described another man who did not fit Sanford’s description. That man, Vincent Smothers, later confessed. Charges against Sanford should have been dismissed WITH PREJUDICE, but Worthy would agree only to dismissal WITHOUT prejudice, according to Attorney Julie Hurwitz. To this day, Worthy will not admit Sanford is innocent.
Today, Worthy’s supporters continue to praise her and urge the public to trust her. Their lies, and their fanciful claims of a new day in Wayne County courts have only emboldened her arrogant power to do as she pleases. Today Jackson-Bolanos stands falsely accused of murder. Hopefully, the jury will acquit him, deadlock, or at least hang with only one juror who like me knows and feels what innocence is when we see it. Only then will justice ring true. Jackson-Bolanos’ story will be the one worth telling. Not the lies. Not the praise for abuse of power. Hopefully, Jackson-Bolanos will not have to wait years for his exoneration as did Davontae Sanford.
RELATED:
DETROIT PAYS $2 MILLION TO SETTLE COMPLAINT VS. DPD’S STEPHEN KUE, ALREADY HIT WITH 85 COMPLAINTS
URGENT. Funds regularly needed for quarterly web hosting charge of $465.00 or VOD and 13 years of its stories will be taken off the web. VOD is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
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.
DAN GILBERT’S GUANTANAMO BAY? Detainees in CJC Jail denied contact with lawyers & family, subjected to brutal conditions
On Sept. 10, a ground-breaking protest outside the new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center was held on behalf of Ricky Rimmer and hundreds of victims of criminal frame-ups by Detroit cops and Wayne County prosecutors. (Full video and story coming later this week.) Meanwhile, multiple articles have been published in the mainstream media about dire conditions in the CJC Jail, built by Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock firm for $670 million, mostly from public tax dollars. 
URGENT. Funds needed for quarterly web hosting charge of $465.00 by Sept. 19, 2024 or VOD and 13 years of its stories will be taken off the web. VOD is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
Worthy’s office and Judge Margaret Van Houten say they disagree with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 
FRAMED by DPD’S BARBARA SIMON, WAYNE CO. PROS. KYM WORTHY Criminal Justice Center Aug. 28.. 2024 Photo: Metro Times Steve Neavling
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.
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. 
Gary Brayboy’s SADO attorney Adrienne Young left to become a Michigan Court of Appeals Judge, a welcome development considering her pro-defense background.
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.
“Mayor Michael Duggan was in charge of the Wayne County Prosecutor Office when the US Dept. of Justice consent decree investigation started, but he allowed corrupt DPD officer Isaiah Smith to coerce witnesses to make false statements, tamper with evidence, and falsify statements,” Mitchell wrote to VOD.
Mitchell says in his motions that the failure by Detroit police and the prosecution to disclose Smith’s history to the jury violated U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Brady v. Maryland (1963), and Giglio v. United States (1972). 
By Diane Bukowski, VOD Editor
His Asst. Prosecutor, Ryan Elsey, is white and lives in Livonia, where the population is 80 percent white and only 4 percent Black. Wayne Co. Chief Prosecutor Kym Worthy is Black, but her record on behalf of Wayne County’s Black population, particularly its youth, is abysmal.
Fast forward to 1990: another prisoner who was locked away in the same prison as Alex Scott had a discussion with him about the scar on Mr. Scott’s face and said Mr. Scott confessed to him how he got the scar in the course of killing Mr. Visilje. Several years after that discussion with Mr. Scott, that inmate later met Paul at another prison and upon discussing Paul’s case with him, he told Paul what Mr. Scott had confessed to him years earlier.
However, those who are currently serving a term of years sentence under Truth-In-Sentencing” rules will not earn anything, in spite of completing the same rehabilitative programming and achieving their G.E.D.
LANSING, Mich.— Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) has introduced 
UPDATE JULY 12, 2024: JURY DEADLOCKED. CBS News legal expert Rick Convertino, who predicted a quick acquittal, still calls the prosecution’s case “the weakest” he’s ever seen (above.)
