Derrico Searcy, Darrell Ewing were co-defendants in case involving 2009 murder of J.B. Watson; convictions vacated by Fed, State Courts in 2019
Wayne Co. Pros. Kym Worthy is retrying them despite Mirandized confession by Tyree Washington, violations of Brady v. Maryland, alibi witnesses
Ewing representing himself; Searcy, Attorney Blase Kearney have joined multiple Ewing pro-se motions, one to dismiss due to 7 Brady violations
Next hearing on Ewing’s motion to disqualify WCCC Judge Kiefer Cox from case set for Friday, February 9 at 9 AM, Cox Courtroom
“Daubert” hearing on Searcy’s identification motion Feb. 21, 22, 23; trial set for March 25
Ewing wins ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox Jan. 17, granting in part motion for preliminary injunction v. Wayne Co. Jail conditions
By Diane Bukowski
January 31, 2024
Judge Kiefer Cox at Derrico Searcy hearing Jan. 5, 2024
As Darrell Ewing’s motion to disqualify Wayne 3rd Circuit Court Judge Kiefer Cox was pending a Feb. 9 hearing, his co-defendant Derrico Searcy appeared at a pre-trial hearing Jan. 5 on motions filed by his attorney Blase Kearney.
They included an “Omnibus Pleading Joining Motions of Darrell Ewing.” The pleadings include Ewing’s motion to dismiss the charges due to Brady violations. In addition to joining the motions, Kearney expanded on several with additional legal arguments.
See full pleading at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Derrico-Searcy-Omnibus-Pleading-Joining-Motions-of-Darrell-Ewing.pdf
Ewing and Searcy are being re-tried for the murder of J.B. Watson in 2009, after multiple courts overturned their convictions, despite repeated confessions by Tyree Washington to the murder and other issues.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox
Meanwhile, motions filed by Ewing and other Wayne County Jail detainees in front of U.S. District Court Chief Judge Sean Cox, challenging conditions at the Wayne County Jail, where Ewing and Searcy have been held over two years pending their re-trial, have resulted in a partial victory.
On Jan. 21, Judge Cox (an uncle of Judge Kiefer Cox) entered an injunction requiring jail administrators to “allow Ewing to engage in outdoor recreation for a two-hour session at least once per month, and if resources allow . . . . Ewing to attend two two-hour sessions per month,” partially granting motions filed by Ewing and six others in the sweeping federal lawsuit. Cox upheld the following finding by Magistrate Judge Patricia Morris at: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Darrell-Ewing_et_al_v_Wayne_County_Sheriff__miedce-22-11453__0146.0-1-17-18-Grant-of-WCJ-motion-2.pdf
The 41-page finding in Judge Sean Cox’s court investigates the jail detainees’ claims seriously and in depth.
Attorneys who have knowledge in this area of law, after reviewing Searcy’s omnibus motion and the federal injunction issued in Ewing v. Wayne Co. Jail, have noted that Ewing’s pleadings are on all fours with case law, court rules, statutes and constitution.
During Searcy’s Jan. 5 hearing, Judge Kiefer Cox denied his “Omnibus Pleading Joining Motions of Darrell Ewing” as untimely, saying it should have been filed by Aug. 14, 2023, the general filing deadline for motions from both sides.
Kearney objected.
“It would be prejudice to Mr. Searcy’s constitutional rights to deny those constitutional motions as being untimely,” he said.
“In this case, there have been substantial complications by holding [Ewing and Searcy’s] hearings separately. The court is severing the pre-trial proceedings but will join this case for trial. I did not receive service of Mr. Ewing’s motions. When I was made aware of them, I filed the omnibus joinder.”
With regard to the two defendants’ motion to sever their trials, Judge Cox said he would rule on them in limine as the trial began. He said if “outbursts” at the trial occurred that were prejudicial to Searcy, he would deal with them himself, and referred to some of Ewing’s filings as “self-serving.”
Ewing’s standby Atty. Christopher Sinclair (r) as Ewing leaves hearing with 3 boxes of his legal files.
At Ewing’s hearing Dec. 1, his stand-by attorney Christopher Sinclair strongly objected to Judge Cox’s warning about “outbursts” in the courtroom, which referred to the audience, not Ewing. He noted he had heard NO such outbursts behind him.
“Mr. Ewing feels strongly that he is being railroaded and that he has been wrongfully convicted. . .” Atty. Kearney responded. “When the court says its not going to permit any outbursts of any kind, I could see it turning into a circus. If it’s case that Mr. Ewing is being restrained throughout the course of the trial, or something is happening, there is significant case law that specifically addresses this particular issue. I don’t’ want to be midway through a trial that we’ve been waiting a number of years for, for it to end in a mistrial. I don’t think Mr. Ewing’s statements . . . are self-serving. I don’t think there’s evidence of that.”
SEARCY JOINS EWING MOTION TO DISMISS CHARGES DUE TO BRADY
In his Omnibus motion, at no.9, Kearney said, “Regarding Mr. Ewing’s Motions to Compel and for In Camera Review; Motion to Dismiss Due to Brady, and Motion to Dismiss under MCR 6.201(J), Mr. Searcy joins these motions. . .Mr. Searcy believes the prior judge was incorrect in denying discovery of Brady information, denying an evidentiary hearing, and denying a hearing to evaluate discovery sanctions under MCR 6.201. . .The prosecution has never been required to answer any of the questions proposed by the defense in those pleadings.” See summary of Brady violations cited below in Ewing’s motion.
Summary of Darrell Ewing’s motion to dismiss charges due to Brady violations.
Joins Ewing’s Motion to Prohibit Shackling in the Courtroom.
Judge Cox granted Ewing’s motion to stop his shackling because he was representing himself and needed to access paperwork and other matters during hearings. But Searcy is still shackled. Ewing’s motion asks for an end to shackles in court for all detainees.
“People are entitled to the presumption of innocence, and treating them indistinguishably from convicted persons blurs the already fuzzy practical line between pre-trial detainee and convicted person,” Kearney wrote. “While the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the 9th Circuit en banc opinion in U.S. v Sanchez-Gomez . . .it did so on mootness and other procedural grounds. Sanchez-Gomez, cited by Mr. Ewing, is still strong persuasive authority.” See http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/United-States-v.-Sanchez-Gomez-No.-13-50561-9th-Cir.-2017-__-Justia.pdf.
DPD Theopolis Williams testifies in 2012, at pre- exam of Chauncey Owens, uncle of Aiyana Jones.
Motion to disclose records of DPD’s Theopolis Williams, Andrew Guntsviller.
Kearney also joined Ewing’s motion to disclose the previous disciplinary records of two Detroit police officers in the case, the Theopolis Williams (Officer in Charge) and Andrew Guntzviller. He said the legal authority cited by the prosecution (as well as Judge Cox when he denied the motion) referred to “privileged employment records” in civil cases.
“It is inapposite to a criminal case where the prosecution has a constitutional obligation to produce information in the police department’s possession that could impeach a police officer witness . . .U.S. v Gaskin states that it is an abuse of discretion for the court to deny discovery of a personnel file without conducting an in camera review.”
SEARCY MOTION TO EXCLUDE I.D.
Introduction to Forensic Science, 9/E. By Richard Saferstein. PRENTICE HALL. ©2007
Kearney and AP Sawyer discussed arrangements for experts to testify at the upcoming Daubert hearings Feb. 21, 22, and 23, which Kearney has requested. Searcy’s motion to exclude identification testimony from the Love eyewitnesses is at: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Derrico-Searcy-motion-to-exclude-id.pdf
(In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), the U.S. Supreme Court required judges to assess the methodology and reasoning behind an expert’s opinions, rather than simply relying on the expert’s credentials or reputation, to curtail the admission of pseudoscientific or unreliable expert testimony. Daubert Standard | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute (cornell.edu))
TYREE WASHINGTON CONFESSION
Regarding the prosecution’s review of Tyree Washington’s 2017 Mirandized confession to the murder of J.B. Watson, Kearney says in the Omnibus motion, “The versions of Tyree Washington’s confession during the 2010 trial w[ere] starkly different than the 2017 confession in ways that made it powerfully exculpatory and make PO Guntsviller’s statements claiming otherwise misleading at best, and mendacious at worst. . . The Court should reject this argument.”
Scott Lewis
Kearney and Sawyer also addressed how confessions of Tyree Washington to the murder of J.B. Watson, including a 2017 Mirandized and recorded statement given to the Michigan State Police would be addressed at trial, and whether Washington himself would be expected to testify.
AP Sawyer alleged that a detective met with Washington in the federal prison where he is housed in Aug. 2022 and has a three-minute transcript from the meeting with new findings. But a prosecutor’s reply to one of Ewing’s motions indicated such a meeting took place in Sept. 2022 and nothing new was obtained. Kearney said any such statement could not be offered for the truth of the matter against the Mirandized, recorded statement “against penal interest” from 2017. Washington also recorded an interview admitting to the crime with private investigator Scott Lewis in 2017.
RELATED STORIES:
DID PROS. KYM WORTHY AND DPD SUPPRESS KILLER’S CONFESSION IN EWING/SEARCY CASE? HEARING DEC. 1 | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought
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