December 2, 2023 We are so sad to learn about the death of Carl Bruner, 39. He died of a heart attack on November 21st. He was found in his apartment unresponsive when his sister arrived to pick him up for the trip from Kentucky back to Detroit for Thanksgiving. Carl was released from prison three and a half years ago.
Carl Bruner, March 2020
Carl had a difficult time adjusting to life outside prison. In addition to that, the police officer that he was suing for his wrongful conviction was suing him in response. The pressure on him was significant. It weighed on him. In one sense, Carl was never free from his wrongful conviction and imprisonment.
A lot of people were involved in getting him out of prison and supporting him afterward. He was a recipient of Proving Innocence’s Walking Free Fund. But sometimes all the support in the world can’t penetrate and heal the damage that has been done to one’s soul. We try. Many times we succeed. But not always. We grieve. And now we move on and help the next person.Carl is posted on our site at Carl Bruner. For those interested in his case, you may go toCarl Bruner II – National Registry of Exonerations (umich.edu),
The viewing will be held this Wednesday, Dec 6, 2023, at Stinson Funeral Home, 16540 Meyers Rd, Detroit, MI 48235 from 3 pm to 6 pm. The Funeral will be Thursday, Dec 7, 2023, at Triumph Church, 2760 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit, MI 48211, beginning at 1 p.m.
The family is in need of $2,700 for the funeral expenses. If anyone would like to help, you may send funds to Carl’s mother, Vernell Vass through Zelle, ID 313-645-0959, or Cash App: $VernellVass.
Urgent: Supporters of Davontae Sanford and Derrico Searcy: Please note that VOD’s quarterly web fee of $460 is due Dec. 4. VOD has published dozens of stories on this case since 2017. It will disappear from the web if this is not paid. Our funds are completely depleted at this point.
(L to R) Darrell Ewing, Derrico Searcy nod to families at June 6 hearing.
DETROIT. MI — Darrell Rashard Ewing, fondly known to many as APPLE, spent his 35th birthday in the Wayne Co. Jail, where he has been for nearly three years.
He will appear in the courtroom of Third CC Judge Kiefer Cox this Friday, Dec. 1, 2023 at 1 pm, as part of hearings leading up to a second trial, after his conviction and that of his co-defendant Derrico Searcy were overturned in 2019. Ewing is representing himself pro se. He will argue, among others, a key motion to Dismiss all Charges due to the prosecution’s failure to disclose key exculpatory evidence under Brady v. Marylandand its progeny rulings.
Ewing says the Bradyviolations began even before the 2010 trial that sent him to prison for life. He says AP Kam Towns deliberately engineered the convictions despite testimony from a witness at trial, provided by the federal government, that he had direct knowledge that Tyree Washington was the actual killer, and that neither Ewing nor Searcy were involved. With Towns and OIC Theophilus Williams sitting in front of him at trial, he reminded them that he had met with them twice to exonerate Ewing and Searcy.
At trial, Towns built a case around allegations the drive-by killing was gang-related, poisoning the jurors’ minds to the extent that several decided to conduct research about Black “gangs” on-line. They convinced other jurors that Washington was at at the bottom of a gang “hierarchy” and sacrificed himself to save Ewing. One juror, who had planned to vote “not guilty,” came forward at an evidentiary hearing in front of 3rd CC Judge Michael Hathaway, to expose the juror misconduct.
The hearing was called after U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood overturned the pair’s convictions because of the misconduct. Judge Hathaway likewise granted a new trial in October, 2019, saying he had no choice due to the evident juror misconduct, and also noting that the evidence at trial was sparse.
So far, in the current set of hearings, both Ewing and Searcy have won motions to bar the witness Hathaway mentioned from testifying again. Ewing also won his motion to remove his handcuffs during court hearings because of his need to have his hands free to represent himself, and motions to have investigators and ID experts assigned to the defense at court cost, among others.
Davontae Sanford (l) and Kym Worthy.
The family, friends of supporters of Ewing and Searcy are calling on Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to dismiss the case because there is no real evidence to take it to trial.
As in the case of exoneree Davontae Sanford, who she still does not concede is innocent, she remains an “Innocence Denier,” as she was called in Slate, a national magazine. When he was 14, Sanford was falsely charged with the murder of four adults in an alleged drug house, although her prosecutors should have known he was not guilty from day one. Detroit police who came to the scene in 2007 interviewed eyewitnesses who saw the killers and said they were taller and older than this child. Vincent Smothers confessed to the crime to DPD only two weeks after Sanford went to prison. He was finally exonerated and released in 2016.
Below, VOD Editor Diane Bukowski appeared on the Jay Love show Nov. 24 for 2 hours to bring awareness to the Ewing/Searcy case and upcoming hearing.
URGENT: Voice of Detroit is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE. Funds are needed NOW to pay our quarterly web hosting fee of $460.00 by Dec. 4. VOD will disappear from the web if fee not paid.
VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. Ongoing costs include quarterly web charges of $460.00, P.O. box fee of $180/yr. and other costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.
The video above originates from Aurora, Illinois, 11 months ago, on the Indisputable TYT YouTube channel. The Illinois state law making such searches illegal is essentially the same as that in Michigan. Since Detroit cops Michael Parish and Michael Osman got away with no charges for conducting cavity searches on Detroit’s southwest side in and around 2006, such searches have become rampant across the U.S.
“Booty Boy” cops Michael Parish and Michael Osman were never disciplined, but instead promoted. Parish is now a DPD Commander, Osman was earlier promoted to Sgt.
Alleged “Booty Boys” cop Michael Parish, cited in 2009 in multiple lawsuits with the rape of men during body cavity searches on Detroit’s southwest side, after extensive publicity, is now a Detroit Police Commander. His name surfaced in an article in the Detroit News citing Parish as well as City of Detroit correspondence. This follows the DPD’s “pattern and practice” through the decades of promoting instead of disciplining and firing criminal cops. See DN article at Detroit Police to release first video of shooting under new policy (detroitnews.com).
RAPE BY COP IS OK IF VICTIMS OWE CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS?
Plaintiffs in the cases against Michael Parish and Michael Osman were never charged by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, and only minimally prevailed in their lawsuits, after a blitz in the mainstream media. Court records in the case filed by Plaintiffs Marcon Green and Harold McKinney (USDC 09-CV-11589, 3rd CC 09-11730 CZ) indicate that the final $50,000 settlement with Atty. Gerald Posner’s firm had been whittled down because the City offset the original amount with outstanding child support and other legal charges imputed to the plaintiffs.
DPD Captain Michael Parish from earlier DPD Report under Chief James Craig; Parish is now DPD Commander
VOD editor Diane Bukowski extensively covered the “Booty Boys” cases in multiple stories published in the now-defunct Michigan Citizen, which some media including Fox 2 News Detroit expanded on.
The story below was originally published in VOD on July 11, 2011, a year after Bukowski was fired from the Michigan Citizen and began publication of VOD. The Michigan Citizen folded in 2014 and is no longer available on-line, but Bukowski used her previous photos and other information from the MC stories in the 2011 story below. Also surviving is Bukowski’s story in the Final Call at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Booty-Boys-Detroit-Cops-Sued-for-Allegedly-Violating-Men-Final-Call-DB.pd
From Original VOD article published in 2011.
Detroit City Council Members at this 2011 session included the “Fatal Five” who sold the City of Detroit into bankruptcy with a Consent Agreement under Gov. Rick Snyder’s “Emergency Manager” Act in 2012.
The City Council voted to hold a closed session Thurs. July 21, 2011, to discuss the following:
“RE: For the purpose of consulting with attorneys from the City of Detroit Law Department and City Council’s Research and Analysis Division to discuss pending litigation relative to Devon Windom v City of Detroit, Michael Parish and Michael Osman (Case No. 2:09-cv-11625); Marcon Green and Harold McKinney v City of Detroit, Michael Osman, and Michael Parish (Case No. USDC 09-CV-11589 and 3rd Circuit Court 09-11730 CZ); Quentin J. Curry v City of Detroit, Michael Osman, and Michael Parish (Case No. 2:09-cv-10109) and Melvin Akins v City of Detroit, Michael Osman and Michael Parish (Case No. 2:09-cv-1013).(Law Department and City Council Research and Analysis Division).”
This means not only has the pay-out in the case discussed below been delayed, but the pay-outs in the other cases cited above have also been delayed. It is outrageous that this is happening–Osman and Parish should be in prison for life for rape, and now their victims can’t even get some chump change from the city in compensation for what they endured?
By Diane Bukowski
July 17, 2011
Marcon Green and Melvin Atkins; both men filed suit against Osman and Parish for sexual assault
DETROIT – A federal judge has ordered the entire Detroit City Council to appear before him July 26 in Port Huron to “show cause” why he should not sanction them. Since March 31, he says they have failed to approve or disapprove a lawsuit settlement involving two Detroit police officers who were accused in 2006 by numerous men of rape—public anal cavity searches.
Since the order was issued, the Council has set a discussion for Tues. July 19 on “legal representation in lawsuit of Marcon Green and Harold McKinney vs. City of Detroit . . . . Sgt. Michael Osman and P.O. Michael Parish.” The officers’ badge numbers are, respectively, 4788 and 4431.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff
The two officers were commonly known on Detroit’s southwest side by the derogatory term “the Booty Boys.” This is one of the most of the egregious cases alleged against them, their search of Green and McKinney in front of McKinney’s 15-year-old daughter in May, 2006.
“City Council’s deliberate indifference has had, and will continue to have, a significant detrimental effect on: (a) the economy and efficiency of the judicial system, generally, and this Court, specifically, (b) the rights and interests of the Plaintiffs to this action, (c) the rights and interests of Defendants Osman and Parish, (d) the rights and interests of the residents of the City of Detroit, and (e) the rights and interests of the many non-residents of the City of Detroit who pay taxes to the City of Detroit,” U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Zatkoff said in his order, dated June 29. (Click on Marcon Green Notice to Appear and show cause to City Council to read entire order.)
The suit, filed by attorney Gerald Posner, accuses Osman and Parish of engaging in a “pattern and practice of improper, illegal and unconstitutional conduct.”
Posner said, “Each instance has involved one or more of the following acts: stopping, detaining, and searching persons without search warrants, probable cause or even reasonable suspicion, or consent; strip searches; disrobing persons, to a greater or lesser extent; body cavity searches; and searches in which the defendant, either bare handed or with a glove, has touched a person’s buttocks, and/or gluteal cleft, and/or spread the buttocks, and/or inserted a finger in the person’s anus, and/or has touched, grabbed, and/or fondled a person’s genitals and/or genital area.”
The suit (click on Booty Boys Marcon Green and Harold McKinney to read entire complaint) cites at least 16 civilian witnesses in the case, as well as 17 others who have alleged similar acts by the officers and in some cases have filed suit. The witness list includes this author, who with Wyoman Mitchell broke the story of the officers’ acts and interviewed numerous witnesses, in multiple articles published in the Michigan Citizen. It also includes other reporters from Channels 2 and 4.
Marcon Green was among four men who testified at City Council in June of 2006 about the alleged assault. He told the council he filed a complaint the same day with the Chief Investigator’s Office of the Detroit Police Department regarding the assault. (Click on Marcon Green citizen complaint to read actual complaint.)
“Michael Osman and Michael Parish pulled me over because they claimed my passenger didn’t have a seat belt on,” Green told the council. “They took him out of the car, along with his 15-year-old daughter. They made her put her hands on the car and then started feeling all on the back of my behind. They did they same to my friend, right in front of his daughter.”
Green, who worked as a dry wall contractor in a small business, Jack of Trades, told this reporter at the time, “I was sexually molested, fondled in between my buttocks, and they handled my genitals several times, over and over again. Then they threw me in the back seat until they ran my name and let me go.”
City Council members Alberta Tinsley-Talabi and Kwame Kenyatta listen as Byron Ogletree testifies about Booty Boys’ assault on him/Photo Diane Bukowski 5/31/2006
The suit says the incident happened May 19, 2006 near Annabelle and Schaefer on Detroit’s southwest side. Many of the alleged incidents happened on S. Schaefer, including an assault on Byron Ogletree on May 31, 2006. He joined Green, Melvin Shields, and Devon Windom in testifying at City Council.
Posner alleges that the “red-headed officer” (Osman) searched Green, who had been driving and fully details the assault.
“He pulled plaintiff’s pants and underwear away from his body, put his hands down the back of the pants and underwear, spread the plaintiff’s buttock cheeks and examined the area, inserted a finger into plaintiff’s anus, and then turned the plaintiff around, put his hand on plaintiff ‘s front side, rubbed his hand up and down over plaintiff’s genitals a number of times, and then grabbed, squeezed, and fondled plaintiff’s testicles a number of times.”
The suit alleges Osman performed these acts without a glove, as did his partner Parish with regard to McKinney.
It says Osman “conducted both a strip search and a body cavity search of plaintiff McKinney, pulled plaintiff’s pants and underwear away from his body, put his hand down the back and spread the plaintiff’s buttock cheeks and examined the area, repeatedly rubbing the area between his buttocks and around his anus, and then turned the plaintiff around, put his hand on plaintiff ‘s front side, lifting, grabbing and fondling plaintiff’s scrotum and penis.”
The suit says when Green accused Osman of “acting like a homosexual,” the officers threatened to arrest him for being drunk. He demanded a breathalyzer test, which the officers refused to perform, according to the suit. They finally released the three without charges, but made McKinney, who did not have a license, drive.
Both Osman and Parish denied all allegations in depositions given under oath during multiple lawsuit proceedings.
Posner says the City of Detroit is included as a defendant in the suit essentially because the officers’ actions were commonly known both in the community and by their superiors, and the Police Department and City of Detroit took no action to prevent the assaults.
Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick took no action on behalf of Black men raped by white cops
Then Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick would not comment to this reporter through his spokesman Matt Allen.
“The Mayor is aware of the allegations regarding these officers, and he understands the gravity of their alleged conduct. He also understands that there is a joint investigation between the Detroit Police Department and the FBI currently ongoing. Pending conclusion of the investigation, he is withholding comment at this time,” Allen said.
The FBI never took any action against Osman and Parish, and in some cases used statements given to them by alleged victims against them during criminal court proceedings against the victims.
After the City Council testimony, dozens of other men came forward, some at a neighborhood rally July 12, 2006, held outside the Bryant Brothers Auto Collision Shop. The Bryants told this reporter they had witnessed numerous such assaults by Osman and Parish outside their shop. During the picnic-rally, attorneys including those from the law firm of Posner and Posner and from the American Civil Liberties Union appeared to assist the alleged victims.
Attorney Daniel Reid and Byron Ogletree after charges against Ogletree were dismissed
It was the incident with Ogletree, who was stopped on Schaefer by Osman and Parish on May 31, 2006, which ignited the fuse, nearly causing a neighborhood rebellion. Community members told this reporter at the time that anger was simmering to the extent that some were considering taking physical action against the Booty Boys.
According to witnesses, during the Ogletree stop, dozens in the neighborhood came out chanting, “Rodney King,” and “Starsky and Hutch” (as officers Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn, who beat Malice Green to death in 1992, were known.)
The city’s Law Department settled Ogletree’s case and that of Marjjo Clyburn for a traffic stop in which Clyburn drove away after the officers smashed his window in, for approximately $350,000 each out of court, creating a negative outcry in some media outlets. Both were represented by attorney Daniel Reid. Osman and Parish filed charges against both men, but judges in their cases dismissed the charges.
Charges against Ogletree, which carried up to 37 years in prison, were dismissed at trial by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Carole Youngbloode after a police technician testified that neither the officers nor their superiors contacted him to download the police car videotape of the event after an in-station transfer failed. Reid called police the day after the Ogletree incident to demand preservation of the tape.
Gerald PosnerEric Frey
Suits by Windom, Quentin Curry, and Melvin Akins were settled by Posner and Posner in front of U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox for unknown amounts on May 3, 2011, according to federal court records, but not before Windom petitioned the court for a protective order against Detroit police. Along with Gerald Posner, attorney Eric Frey worked on the Green and McKinney case, and Zachary Posner worked on others. A Posner suit on behalf of Prince Jeter and Ronald Kinney, Jr. was not settled before Cox, but has been reassigned to U.S. District Court Judge Victoria Roberts and is still ongoing.
Eric Frey
A suit by Marcus Wrack, represented by Kenneth Finegood, was settled for an unknown amount in 2008 in front of U.S. District Court Judge Robert Cleland. Wrack alleged that he was stopped and sexually assaulted on two separate occasions by Osman and Parish. A suit by Terence Alan Hopkins was tried in Wayne County Circuit Court. A jury found on behalf of Osman and Parish after negative media coverage of the Ogletree and Clyburn settlements, particularly in the Detroit Free Press.
Jones
In his order, Zatkoff explained his reason for the show cause order against the City Council, indicating that a settlement was reached only after lengthy negotiations.
“On two occasions since March 31, 2011 (specifically, May 4, 2011 and June 7, 2011), the Court emailed Mr. Posner and Mr. Schapka [representing the City] to inquire about the status of the settlement, specifically, whether City Council had approved (or rejected) the proposed settlement. On both occasions, the Court was informed that the settlement is being held up by members of City Council or, more specifically, members of the Internal Operations Sub-Committee, a three-member subsection of City Council, because of concerns regarding indemnification related to Defendant Michael Osman and Defendant Michael Parish.
Tate
Councilwoman Brenda Jones chairs the Internal Operations committee. Councilmen Andre Spivey, James Tate, and Council President Charles Pugh (ex-officio) are members.
“The Court also has been advised that these delays have “become a common problem with [City of Detroit] police department cases[.]” Zatkoff said. “At no time has anyone even provided the Court with a date by or upon which City Council will begin to consider (let alone approve or reject) the settlement agreed to by Plaintiffs, counsel for Plaintiffs, the individual Defendants and counsel for Defendants.”
Spivey
He ordered all (emphasis his) members of the Council to appear on July 26, 2011, at the Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, 526 Water Street, Port Huron, Michigan.
“At 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 26, 2011, all members of the City Council shall be prepared to show cause before the Court why: (i) the City of Detroit; (ii) City Council as a whole; and/or (iii) certain members of City Council should not be sanctioned for failure to take timely action with respect to the proposed settlement of this case, a proposed settlement that City Council has had in its possession fornearly three months.”
Zatkoff said if the Council does not approve the settlement, the case will proceed to trial.
Atty. Mark Fancher
To this date, the city has not disciplined or discharged the officers. Instead, Michael Osman was promoted to sergeant in the midst of the controversy. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has not brought charges of rape or any other offense against them. First-degree criminal sexual conduct is a capital offense in the state of Michigan, meaning it carries a possible sentence of life in prison.
*************************************************************************************Voice of Detroit is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE, along with other related issues like the genocide the U.S. and Israel are inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison. Funds will be needed Dec. 4 to pay VOD’s quarterly web hosting fee of $465.00 and other expenses. VOD will disappear from the web if fee not paid.
VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. Ongoing costs include quarterly web charges of $460.00, P.O. Box fee of $220/yr. and other costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.
Rally is endorsed by MIMuslim Coalition, JVP DETROIT, Michigan Task Force For Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine, APIA Vote-MI, WWN, CAIR Michigan, Detroit Will Breathe, Women in Black, Detroit Kids matter, Students for Justice in Palestine, Flint Rising. U-Detroit Mercy SP, NNAAC (ACCESS), Democratic Socialists of America, and others
Premature infants forced out of incubators in Al Shifa hospital.
Follow-up at Hart Plaza, Thurs. Nov. 16, 6PM
Muslim Leaders in Michigan, and many other swing states, pledge to “Abandon Biden” in 2024 election for greenlighting, funding Gaza genocide
At least 11,078 Palestinians, including 4,500 children have been slaughtered, 1.5 million displaced, large part of Gaza’s infrastructure destroyed.
“We will not support those who support genocide!”
Poll: Only 5 percent of Muslims now would vote for Biden, down from 80 percent in 2020
Massive marches, blockades, sit-ins, and more globally are challenging U.S.-Israel hegemony in the world
“Genocide Joe” revives U.S. movement to end two-party duopoly; 300,000+ turned out for March on Washington Nov. 4. Cease Fire! Free Palestine! Palestine is Freeing Us
“From the River to the Sea!” Chant spreads globally; counters Likud Party’s “Between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Michigan), the only Palestinian-American in Congress, stands up to censure for her stance, including River to Sea slogan
By Diane Bukowski, Editor
November 11, 2023
Note: VOD’s editorial comments in this story do not necessarily reflect the views of every Muslim leader who participated in this press conference Nov. 9.
DETROIT — As Israel’s harrowing genocide of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Lebanon continues, surpassing a total of 11,000 civilian deaths in Gaza alone, 4,500 of them children, Michigan’s Muslim leaders called on their constituencies and others to #AbandonBiden in the 2024 elections for endorsing Israel’s war against Palestine.
Imam Dawud Walid of Mi-CAIR spoke during 2015 rally for justice for Terrance Kellom, 19, and others killed by Detroit police and I.C.E. (VOD photo)
“Along with leaders in Minnesota, California, Wisconsin, Arizona, and other states, we are calling on the Muslim and Arab communities not to vote for Mr. Biden in the 2024 election,” Imam Dawud Walid announced Nov. 9, at a press conference held in front of the McNamara Federal Building in downtown Detroit.
(The first video above expands Imam Walid’s remarks.)
The Greater Detroit area is home to one of the largest, oldest and most diverse Arab American communities in the western hemisphere.
Imam Walid is the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) and member of the Imams Council of Michigan. For decades, he has also worked with communities of Blacks and others in metro Detroit, including the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality.
Mona Mawari at community meeting
“Today we stand united in our demand for an unconditional and immediate ceasefire,” Mona Mawari, a Dearborn pharmacist and community activist whose family emigrated from Yemen, said. (See second video above.)
“This is not a political stance. It’s a moral one. The Koran teaches us that saving one innocent life is akin to saving all of humanity. Pres. Biden has left us with no choice but to withdraw our support. We echo the sentiments of our community. Let this be a clear message to Pres. Biden and any future politician: ‘We will not support anyone who supports genocide.’”
Mawari said she campaigned among Muslims and Arab-Americans to bring out the vote for Biden in 2020. But she noted, a recent poll estimates that only five percent of that demographic now plan to support him in 2024, after 80 percent voted for him in 2020.
“Mr. President we will rally every voter in our community, our friends and allies to make sure you don’t win Michigan in 2024,” she said.
“This is a genocide, this is ethnic cleansing, and the blood is on Biden’s hands,” Imam Imran Salha of the Islamic Center of Detroit said, noting that Biden is bankrolling the slaughter. The Biden administration has asked for $14 billion in military aid to Israel, on top of its 1o-year $38 billion commitment, or $3.8 billion per year, beginning in 2015. See: Israel’s War in Gaza, Subsidized by the USA | The Nation
U.S. Pres. Joe Biden met with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel as it slaughtered 4500 Palestinian children.
“The illegal Zionist regime, that is a non-state, has murdered one of my relatives in Ramallah. She was 37 years old with eight children,” Imam Salha said.
“[Biden] is a blood-thirsty murderer, who will be in the trash-can of history for killing innocent civilians. His only response is to say, ‘Don’t believe the statistics from the Palestinians.'”
Hundreds of thousands of protesters across the globe have taken up the chant, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free.” Many supporters of the Zionist “state” of Israel claim this slogan challenges Israel’s right to exist and is anti-Semitic, confusing anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.
But does Israel have a Right to Exist?
These critics ignore the history of the Zionist movement led since the beginning of the last century by Britain, France, the United States and other western imperialist powers greedy for control of the vast oil resources in the Middle East. Taking advantage of the suffering of European Jews and others during Hitler’s Holocaust, these countries funded the Zionist movement, which replicates the historical takeovers of indigenous peoples’ lands in the U.S. and around the world.
History shows that the majority of Jews who fled Europe during the Holocaust, who were not farmers, wanted to come to the United States, not Israel.
Palestine encompassed this land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea before Zionist occupation.
Netanyahu’s Likud Party says in its founding charter, “Between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.” It adds, “A plan which relinquishes parts of western Eretz Israel, undermines our right to the country, unavoidably leads to the establishment of a ‘Palestinian State,’ jeopardizes the security of the population, endangers the existence of the State of Israel, and frustrates any prospect of peace.” See http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Original-Party-Platform-of-the-Likud-Party-of-lsrael.pdf
Netanyahu, on behalf of the “State” of Israel, founded on the indigenous land of Palestine, thus makes it clear that his ultimate intent is to wipe Palestine and its people from the face of the earth. Numerous sources say Israel actually funded Hamas to interfere with the “Two-State Solution” which the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Yasser Arafat advocated in an attempt to protect their people from the bloodthirsty imperialists.
Some reporters at the Nov. 9 press conference challenged the Muslim leaders’ stance to
abandon Biden, asking what other plans the leaders have instead of letting Donald Trump and the Republicans win. The mainstream media appears to believe that the only possibilities for the people of the U.S. lie with a two-party system. It regularly publishes polls only of self-identified Democrats and Republicans, which purport to reflect the entirety of public opinion.
Above: U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib, backed by supporters behind her, condemned the U.S. Congress’ attempt to silence her, the only Palestinian-American in Congress.
*************************************************************************************Voice of Detroit is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE, along with other related issues like the genocide the U.S. and Israel are inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison. Funds will be needed Dec. 4 to pay VOD’s quarterly web hosting fee of $465.00 and other expenses. VOD will disappear from the web if fee not paid.
VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. Ongoing costs include quarterly web charges of $460.00, P.O. Box fee of $220/yr. and other costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.
VOICE OF DETROIT is focusing on coverage of mass incarceration and the criminal actions of the police, largely in Michigan in its original stories. Gaza, part of the homeland of the Palestinian people, is considered the world’s largest open-air prison. This post is pinned to the top of our home page, so our readers can see the breadth and even revolutionary consciousness of the movement in support of the Palestinian people here in the U.S. The mainstream media here gave virtually no coverage to this protest and many more, as Israel, fully supported by the U.S. government and hundreds of billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars, carries out the massive slaughter and genocide of the Palestinian people.
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE RASHIDA TLAIB
To see more coverage, subscribe to the YouTube channel above, and watch Al Jazeera at Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera. Also follow our U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib as she stands heroically against the weight of the U.S. government to support her people and colonized peoples across the world.
In 2010, Imam Dawud Walid (center) called for DOJ civil rights investigation into the assassination of Imam Luqman Abdullah in Dearborn, MI in 2009.
Muslim Michigan leaders, echoing the sentiment of their communities, are pledging to #AbandonBiden.
With over 10,000 Palestinans killed, 75% of them women and children, the Biden Administration has facilitated the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza through its refusal to demand a ceasefire.
Furthermore, the Administration has pursued additional aid for the Israeli government as it actively continues its mass murder of entire families and communities in Gaza.
Earlier, Minnesota Muslim leaders urged President Biden to call for an immediate ceasefire to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza by Oct. 31, 2023.
Now that the Ceasefire Deadline has passed, Muslim Michigan leaders are pledging to
#AbandonBiden and actively campaign for their communities to follow suit.
The press conference will include speakers from the Michigan Muslim community including: ● Imam Dawud Walid ● Mona Mawari ● Imam Imran Salha ● Shaykh Mohamed Almasmari and others.
VOD will be covering this event, as part of its commitment to call for the overturn of Police State(s) and Prison Nation(s). Gaza is known as the world’s largest open-air prison. The tens of billions of our tax dollars used to finance genocide in Gaza and a neo-fascist government in Ukraine should be going to support the needs of the people, to provide jobs/ liveable income, education, housing with water, electricity/heat, and education through the college level. The provision of these needs for ALL will combat the genocidal mass incarceration of those from communities of color and poor communities.
Voice of Detroit is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE. Funds are needed regularly to pay quarterly web hosting fee of $460.00 and other expenses. VOD will disappear from the web if fee not paid.
VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. Ongoing costs include quarterly web charges of $460.00, P.O. box fee of $180/yr. and other costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.
ALONG WITH ARNETTA GRABLE AND HERMAN VALLERY, THE PARENTS OF LAMAR GRABLE (now deceased), VOD Editor Diane Bukowski helped lead the Detroit Coalition against Police Brutality from 1996-99 through 2016. Other leaders, now deceased, included Cornell Squires, Sr. and Ron Scott. Many other family members of those killed by police, with long-time activists like Aneb Kgositsile (Gloria House), Marge Parsons and Tijuana Morris at their side, played vital roles in this historic Coalition.
At April 28, 2015 rally for Terrance Kellom, 19, executed by ICE and Detroit police earlier that month, members of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality: (l to r) Lamar Grable, Jr. with his mother Arnetta Grable Jr., Butch Carrington, Arnetta Grable Sr., Herman Vallery, and Cornell Squires.
The Coalition also worked with the National October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. It was strongly supported by the Michigan Citizen newspaper (ceased publication in 2014) with dozens of militant articles.
Diane Bukowski will also address issues regarding wrongful convictions, mass incarceration, and the Michigan prison system, currently a chief focus of the Voice of Detroit newspaper, which Bukowski founded in 2010.
Family members, attorneys, and other supporters of the three men killed by Serial Killer Kop Eugene Brown from 1996-99 gathered outside the office of Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy to demand that charges be filed against Brown. They had just won the disclosure of the Shoulders Report, by an internal DPD task force. that called for charges to be brought against him. Worthy refused to do so. He later retired after having a college degree paid for by the City of Detroit.
The Voice of Detroit has continued to follow police killings of Detroiters in particular, since its inception in 2010 after the Michigan Citizen fired Bukowski. Put the names in the photo collage below in VOD’s search engine to bring up dozens of stories published since 2010, notably VOD’s unparalleled coverage of the police murder of Aiyana Jones, 7, in 2010.
(L) The family of Aiyana Jones demanded “Justice for the Jones’: Aiyana and father Charles Jones, during a 2012 protest at FMHJ. (R) Aiyana’s grandmother the late Mertilla Jones (holding Aiyana’s photo) spearheaded the family’s fightback against the DPD and biased media coverage. At Arnetta Grable’s invitation, Ms. Jones joined the Oct. 22 Coalition with her.
The mainstream media engaged in a shameful “blame-the-victim” campaign against Aiyana Jones’ family. VOD was the ONLY newspaper to cover each and every hearing in the case in detail, in dozens of stories on the trials of killer kop Joseph Weekley, and of Aiyana’s father Charles Jones and Chauncey Jones, as well as every aspect of the case.
Voice of Detroit is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE. Funds are needed regularly to pay quarterly web hosting fee of $460.00 and other expenses. VOD will disappear from the web if fee not paid.
VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. Ongoing costs include quarterly web charges of $460.00, P.O. box fee of $180/yr. and other costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.
(L to R) Darrell Ewing, Derrico Searcy nod to supporters at July 6 hearing. Provided by family.
Darrell Ewing, Derrico Searcy in court Oct. 10, 12 for separate pre-trial motion hearings, 4 yrs. after courts ordered new trial in 2019
WCCC Judge Kiefer Cox denies Ewing’s motion for pre-trial bond, which cited People v Reginald Lamarr Davis.pdf : bond granted if the proof of the defendants’ guilt is NOT ‘evident or the presumption great.’
Granted: Ewing’s motions to remove his handcuffs, hire PI and ID expert, provide discovery on many items
Granted: Searcy motion for suppression of ID procedure by Raymond Love, due to no lawyer at line-ups, unreliability; prosecution conceded
Ewing cites suppressions of : statement from Detroit schools officer who saw 2009 killing of J.B. Watson; Tyree Washington’s 2010 statement to police admitting to murder, assault of J.B. Watson et al., noted in prosecution brief
Next hearings: Darrell Ewing Dec. 1, 2023 at 1:30 PM for remainder of his motions, Derrico Searcy motion hearing Jan. 4, 2024 asking for suppression of Jendayi Love testimony, and Feb. 21-23, 2024 for evidentiary hearing on shell casings allegedly planted on Searcy’s car at the time of arrest
Trial set for both March 25, 2024, pending action on motions to dismiss all charges
By Diane Bukowski
October 20, 2023
Updated Oct. 24 2023 with corrections, including fact that Judge Thomas Hathaway dismissed Thelonious Searcy’s murder conviction in similar case WITH PREJUDICE,after granting pre-trial bond.
To supporters of those whose cases are being covered in VOD: Please DONATE TO VOD to keep the newspaper publishing! https://www.gofundme.com/donate-to-vod Cash App $MDianeBukowski
Contact info redacted
Above: Darrell Ewing reports stunning new evidence from discovery files that Detroit Public Schools officer Anthony Reed witnessed and reported the murder of J.B. Watson on Detroit’s east side 12/9/2009. Reed specified that h saw a “green Aurora” involved in the shooting, and left his contact information. Ewing said this is the first the defense knew of this witness. This would be the only police officer witness to the actual crime. In confessing to this crime to the Michigan State Police, Tyree Washington said he and William Beal were in a “turquoise Aurora” when the murder was carried out. WCCC Judge Kiefer Cox ordered the prosecution to follow up using the contact information of the reporting entity. See: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Tyree-Washington-MSP.pdf
WCCC Judge Kiefer Cox prepares for hearing Oct. 10, 2023.
DETROIT– The 13-year battle by east-side Detroiters Darrell Ewing and Derrico Searcy against their alleged wrongful convictions in the 2009 murder/assault of J.B. Watson and others moved forward slowly but surely during separate pre-trial motion hearings Oct. 10 and Oct. 12.
Ewing entered court without the handcuffs both defendants wore at their last hearing July 6. WCCC Judge Kiefer Cox had had granted his motion to allow him to represent himself by freely accessing three boxes of legal research and making his own notes during the hearings. Ewing is assisted by his stand-by attorney Christopher Sinclair. Cox did not order Searcy freed from his handcuffs during his own brief hearing Oct. 12. Ewing told VOD he has filed a lawsuit to overturn the procedure for all defendants.
Searcy is represented by Neighborhood Defender Services attorney Blase Kearney. Although their hearings were conducted separately, Judge Cox denied Ewing’s motion for separate trials which cited their individual concerns in the case.
Darrell Ewing, acting pro se, enters court, not handcuffed, with boxes of research. A paralegal graduate of the Blackstone Institute, he assists others with their cases.
Separate hearings are further scheduled for Ewing on Dec. 10 to address the remainder of 3o motions he filed, and Feb. 23, 2024 for Searcy’s evidentiary hearing on shell casings allegedly planted in his vehicle at the time of his arrest.
JUDGE COX DENIES EWING’S MOTION FOR PRE-TRIAL BOND
Ewing filed a motion for pre-trial bond, citing “binding precedent” in the case of People v Reginald Lamarr Davis.pdf. In Davis, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered the Appeals Court to “remand the case to the trial court to assess whether ‘the proof of [the defendant’s guilt is evident or the presumption great’ for purposes of MCL 765.5.'” or in the alternative to “address whether the trial court abused its discretion by granting the defendant’s request for pretrial release,” MCR 6.106(H)(1).
Davis had been charged with first-degree murder. He was acquitted after a jury trial and the charge was dismissed on Nov. 30, 2022.
Judge M. Hathaway
“Binding case law says that defendant is entitled to a bond when the presumption of guilt is not great or evident. . . .In this case it’s clearly not great or evident,” Ewing argued.
He cited the repeated confessions of Tyree Washington to the murder and assault of J.B. Watson, attested to by others, WCCC Judge Michael Hathaway’s 2019 finding that “The trial evidence in this case was “certainly not what we would call overwhelming,” and the lie detector test he took for the DPD and passed in 2010. Ewing said he would submit to a tether to monitor his activities.
The witness Judge Hathaway referred to above was Raymond Love.
But Judge Cox denied the motion. “The Court finds that a remand bond is appropriate , the circumstances will not be changed so the motion for bond reduction will not be granted. I may or may not remand considering the charges in this case, and the fact that the court does have a concern for public safety if Mr. Ewing is released.” Ewing said he will file an interlocutory appeal, citing Judge Cox’s failure to include findings of fact in his ruling.
(L) WCCC Judge Thomas Hathaway; (R) Thelonious Shawn Searcy
The National Registry of Exonerations now lists Searcy as an exoneree, but the prosecutor’s office has appealed Judge Hathaway’s Oct. 3, 2022 ruling, and the case is still tied up in the appellate courts. This has so far prevented Searcy from filing motions for compensation under WICA (Michigan’s act on wrongful convictions), or in the federal court.
Prosecution brief filed with Mich. Sup. Ct. cites undisclosed “2010 statement” by Tyree Washington admitting guilt and exculpating defendant in the case.
Ewing also reported during the Oct. 10 hearing that a prosecution brief on Searcy’s motion, filed with the Michigan Supreme Court Jan. 27, 2023, includes a 2010 exculpatory statement by Tyree Washington not disclosed to the defense: “Defendant [was] aware before his original trial in 2010 that Washington had made a statement to law enforcement officers where he admitted to murdering the victim and denied that defendant was involved.”
Ewing said the defense has never received that statement either before or since the 2010 trial and asked the court to have the prosecution produce it.
Washington has repeatedly admitted to the 2009 shooting death of J.B. Watson and assault on others, in multiple affidavits and a videotaped interview with private investigator Scott Lewis. During pre-trial preparation in 2021, the defense discovered that he had also reported this to the Michigan State Police in 2017, but the prosecution still pursues the re-conviction of Ewing and Searcy.
Darrell Ewing Motion to Exclude witness Raymond Love
MOTIONS TO BAR TESTIMONY OF TRIAL WITNESS RAYMOND LOVE
Searcy’s evidentiary hearing is to follow up on his motion regarding witness Raymond Love’s ID of him in a photo line-up, titled, “The Photo Array Identification was impermissibly suggestive, conducted in violation of Mr. Searcy’s right to counsel, and not reliable.” The motion says in part,
“. . .a photographic array procedure cannot be unduly suggestive. United States v. Wade,
388 U.S. 218 (1967). Here, where a photographic array was conducted once already, an arrest had been made based on the previous photographic array, a second photographic array is unduly suggestive. “An in-court identification following an unnecessarily suggestive out-of-court law-enforcement procedure implicates a defendant’s due-process rights because of the involvement of improper state action.” People v Posey, No. 162373, 2023 WL 4873422, at *10 (Mich, July 31, 2023). Full motion at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Derrico-Searcy-motion-to-exclude-id.pdf.
MOTION TO DISQUALIFY ENTIRE WAYNE CO. PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE
Tyree Washington (l) former AP Kam Towns (r). Towns is now with the Michigan Atty. General’s office. Washington said he asked Towns to testify at the Ewing/Searcy trial, but Towns said, “We have who we want.”
Ewing addressed his motion to disqualify the entire Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office for ‘committing fraud on the court’ by repeatedly insisting that “pre-trial” Brady motions had already been addressed by the court, with no record of the court or opinion from the court. “They don’t want the truth of the matter to come out in this case, because they convicted an innocent man,” he said.
Judge Cox denied the motion, saying in part, “Mr. Ewing’s motion [is] saying that a previous member or member of Wayne Co. Pros. Office had animosity towards Mr. Ewing. . . .There is no showing that the Director of Homicide or whoever was handling this matter knew about this at the time she made the statements Mr. Ewing is saying were fraud on the court.” The WCPO Director of Homicide was Kam Towns. Ewing’s former defense attorney Lillian Diallo told the court during a hearing in 2021 that she has represented many young Black men prosecuted by Towns and that typically, Towns “hit[s] on all [the jury’s] terrors and fears dealing with Black men and gangs.”
MOTION to MAKE WITNESSES AVAILABLE to DEFENSE FOR INTERVIEWS
Pros. Kym Worthy and former Detroit Police Chief James Craig. /Channel 4 news photo
Never resting in his impassioned battle for exoneration, Darrell Ewing on Oct. 12 filed this motion to enable him, acting as his own attorney, to interview witnesses he plans to call at the trial scheduled for March 2024 (unless the charges are dismissed pursuant to his motion to dismiss, still to be heard Dec. 1.
Under state law, rather than providing contact information for these witnesses, attorneys and pro se defendants can ask the prosecution to make the witnesses available to the defense, Ewing notes.
They include Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy, fprmer DPD Chief James Craig; DPD Dep. Chief David LeValley; DPD Officer Theophilus Williams; DPS Officer Anthony Reed; FBI Agent Matthew Allen; Christopher Hess; Lori Dillion; Kareem Wheeler; Royce Hall and George Linen, as well as Raymond Love, Willie Williams, Phillip Reed and Larita Thomas pursuant to MCR 6.201(A)(1).
1995 Oldsmobile Aurora like the one Tyree Washington said he was in during murder of J.B. Watson
Ewing said he wants access to these witnesses because the prosecution claimed not to have information in response to motions to compel production of requested information, which he addressed Oct. 10. Among others, these included:
What Worthy, Craig, and LeValley did after receiving letters from Tyree Washington admitting to the murder of J.B. Watson, which Washington said he sent to them among other officials.
Follow up on DPS Officer Anthony Reed’s eyewitness report that he saw the shooting J.B. Watson and that the car involved was a “green Aurora.”
Voice of Detroit is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE. Funds are needed regularly to pay quarterly web hosting fee of $460.00 and other expenses. VOD will disappear from the web if fee not paid.
VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. Ongoing costs include quarterly web charges of $460.00, P.O. box fee of $180/yr. and other costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.
There is a deep sadness one feels when learning about the death of Lenny Cure. Links to news articles are below. While we do not have all of the facts, those within the wrongful conviction community have a gut feeling about the emotional vulnerability of those who have had years of their lives ripped from them unjustly. We know how emotionally fragile exonerees are. For those who cannot make sense out of a situation that resulted in unexplainable deprivation of their freedom, the mere prospect that such a thing could happen again can produce a terror that few of us can imagine.
Mary Cure, mother of Leonard Cure, at press conference called by Atty. Benjamin Crump
One exoneree told me about panic attacks he had leaving a department store headed for his car with his shopping cart filled with items when suddenly the thought entered his mind “What if they think I’m stealing this shopping cart?” Another told me about sitting in a restaurant feeling like everyone is looking at him, the cashier keeping an eye out in case he tries to leave without paying the bill. Any encounter with law enforcement FOR WHATEVER REASON may make a “normal” person apprehensive. We cannot fathom what a wrongfully convicted person feels.
An AP News reporter said, “Miller, who worked to help Cure win freedom, said he’s seen dozens of exonerated clients grapple with “an overarching fear that at any moment the cops are going to come” and take them back to jail or prison.”
AP News reported later, “The family of Leonard Cure, 53, viewed the dash and body camera video before Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor’s office posted it online. Relatives said they suspect Cure resisted being arrested because of psychological trauma from spending 16 years imprisoned in Florida for an armed robbery he didn’t commit.
Leonard Cure moments before being shot to death by Camden Co. GA Sheriff.
“I believe there were possibly some issues going on, some mental issues with my brother,” Michael Cure said of his slain brother. “I know him quite well. The officer just triggered him, undoubtedly triggered him. It was excitement met with excitement.”
CNN also reported, “Cure got out of the vehicle at the deputy’s request, the GBI said, and he ‘complied with the officer’s commands until learning that he was under arrest.’
“Cure was stopped because he was driving at least 90 miles per hour in an area where the speed limit was 70, the New York Times reported, citing a sheriff’s department spokesperson.”
I doubt there is a single person reading this who has not been guilty of this exact same “crime” but today you and I are still able to read this article in the comfort of our homes. Lenny is not.
We do not know what prompted the officer to announce to Mr. Cure that he was under arrest. The media release indicates that things were relatively calm and cooperative up until that point. The officer likely would have had no idea how Lenny would react. Could the officer have deescalated the situation? Of course, he could have. Could he have used other non-lethal means of subduing Lenny? Of course, he could have. Not knowing the facts one should refrain from a blanket condemnation of the officer. But even without the facts, one has a deep, deep sadness that this did not have to happen.
Video below shows police car camera recording of the killing of Leonard Cure by a Georgia sheriff’s deputy. Note that the cop tased Cure non-stop until Cure fought back to end the pain, in self-defense.
THESE 55 WAYNE CO. EXONEREES ARE AMONG 84 LISTED ON THE NATIONAL REGISTRY OF EXONERATIONS SINCE 1989. THE 55 HAVE SERVED A TOTAL OF 4,158, PLUS 214 FOR THOSE WITH NO PHOTOS: TOTAL 4,372 YRS. OF THEIR LIVES
Wayne Co. CIU has announced 38 exonerees/vacated convictions, who served 700 yrs. total in prison; Nat’l Registry of Exonerations lists 84 exonerees since 1989, who served 4,382 yrs. total
What criminal Wayne Co. Judges, Cops, Prosecutors sent 84 innocent individuals to prison?
NAT’L LIFERS CHAP. 1016 PROJECT–who else is still in prison because of the same criminal injustice system players? Why hasn’t Pros. Kym Worthy investigated?
EDITOR: The Voice of Detroit is researching these cases, and compiling lists of the Wayne County criminal injustice officials who sent these innocent people to prison for 4,372 years of their lives. VOD continues to investigate other likely wrongfully convictions and unjust sentences below.
The same cops and prosecutors in the CIU exoneree cases sent these men to prison as well–covered in Part 1 of Mark McCloud series
By Mark McCloud-El #199143
President—National Lifers of America, Chapter 1016
August 25, 2023 — Part Two
Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy (front) with Atty. Gabi Silver (l) and CIU head Valerie Newman (r) announce the Unit’s first exoneration, of Richard Phillips, after 45 years.
“The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office is directly responsible for sending these innocent men and women to prison. Yet they want credit for freeing these men. Well, this is like the arsonist setting the fire—then calling the Fire Department and trying to take credit for calling the Fire Department.” (VOD NOTE: ARTICLE BELOW COVERS WAYNE CO. CIU CASES, which resulted in 700 years of prison time for innocent individuals.)
Kinross, MI – In 2017, the Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy officially announced that she would be opening a unit within her office to look into wrongful convictions. That unit would be called—The Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU).
Of course, no one truly believed that there would actually be men and women, wrongfully convicted. And if by chance there were men and women wrongfully convicted—it surely would be one or two.
Exoneree Thelonious ‘Shawn’ Searcy, then a newlywed, was arrested in 2004 in front of his wife and toddler daughters. He is shown (l) in 2022 with (l to r) his daughters Paige Braxton and Shyra Searcy, wife Tyria Searcy, and his grandchildren (mother Paige.)
Well, after five and a half years, in Wayne County alone, there have been THIRTY EIGHT (38) men exonerated for crimes they did not commit! And these INNOCENT men have served a combined SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS IN PRISON FOR CRIMES THEY DID NOT COMMIT!
On average, each innocent man served approximately twenty years in prison. That’s twenty years—they did not get to spend with their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. Twenty years—they did not get to raise their children or to even have children. Twenty years—they did not get to marry and travel the world. Twenty years—they did not get to start careers and make something of themselves. But in reality, most of these men have served much more than twenty years in prison for crimes they did not commit.
As bad as those FACTS are, there is an even greater tragedy. NOT ONE SINGLE OFFICIAL who played a role in sending these innocent men to prison has even been reprimanded in any way. NOT A SINGLE JUDGE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, ASSISTANT PROSECUTOR, DETECTIVE, OFFICER IN CHARGE, BALLISTIC EXPERT, DNA EXPERT—NO ONE!!
Carl Hubbard’s actual innocence appeal is pending at US 6th Circuit court after 31 years. Judge Richard Hathaway, Wayne Co. Pros. Kym Worthy and AP James Gonzalez, and Detroit cops Joann Kinney and Ronald Gale, pictured above, based Hubbard’s conviction on the testimony of a witness that Hubbard was present near the scene. The witness recanted at trial, and has repeatedly recanted since. Hathaway and Kinney now work in Kym Worthy’s WCPO.
The corrupt and illegal misconduct by the Detroit Police has been nothing short of Criminal! NO ONE HAS BEEN CHARGED. In the Desmond Ricks case, for instance, the homicide detective—Donald Stawiasz and Ballistic Expert – David Pauch switched out the bullets and lied under oath, which led to Mr. Desmond Ricks’ wrongful conviction. Neither Detroit police officer was charged. Mr. Ricks spent 25 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
In the Marvin Cotton and Anthony Legion exonerations, Detroit homicide Sgt. Walter Bates supplied all the details of a coerced confession in the case to Ellis Frazier, Jr., a well-known jailhouse snitch, who had never met Mr. Cotton in the jail.
Before Frazier Jr.’s appearance at trial, Bates showed the jailhouse snitch a picture of Mr. Cotton, and told the jailhouse snitch where Mr. Cotton would be sitting in court so jailhouse snitch Frazier could make an accurate in-court identification. Mr. Cotton and Mr. Legion spent 21 years in prison for a crime they did not commit. Again, the Detroit police were not charged.
Paralegal Roberto Guzman with Sherena Cotton, mother of exoneree Marvin Cotton, in 2015. Guzman worked on Cotton’s appeals.
The Officer-In-Charge of the Cotton/Legion case was Donald Hughes. According to a lawsuit filed against Hughes, Walter Bates, and Detroit cops Ernest Wilson and Santonin Adams, Hughes recruited a witness that he knew had not seen the killers in the case, to lie and testify that they “looked like” Legion and a third co-defendant. Charges against the third co-defendant were dropped after he provided a definite alibi, but not until after Cotton and Legion were convicted, to prevent him from testifying at their trial.
“Hughes also knew Lockhart’s identification was fabricated because Lockhart had previously never identified anyone as the shooter(s) and Lockhart’s story was contradicted by the physical evidence at the scene,” says the lawsuit. “Hughes wanted both Plaintiffs arrested because he believed they were neighborhood thugs who robbed ‘dope boys.’
Marvin Cotton (l) Anthony Legion (r).
Additionally, Hughes, Bates and Wilson, all veteran homicide detectives, wanted Cotton arrested and jailed because he had earlier filed several complaints with DPD Internal Affairs relating to a handgun that had been stolen from naked and handcuffed in his shower. Internal Affairs later charged the officers with several violations. . .”
Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in her release on the Cotton/Legion cases that the OIC was responsible for the wrongful convictions, but did not identify him by name. Hughes’ name did not surface until after the suit was filed.
Danny Burton with the grandkids born during his 32 years of wrongful incarceration. Photo: Fox2 News screenshot.
In the case of exoneree Danny Burton, Detroit police homicide detective Ronald Sanders locked a 14-year-old witness in a closet and kept her there even after she urinated on herself. The judge in the Burton case barred another witness’ confession from evidence because it came out the Sanders had kicked the witness in the groin and locked the witness in a room until he confessed. And again, the Detroit police officer was not charged with a single crime.
From Lying Under Oath, to Planting Evidence, to Brutally Beating False Confessions out of suspects, illegally Holding Witnesses without warrant until the witness said what wanted the detective wanted the witness to said, to Withholding Exculpatory Evidence, Switching Bullets to frame innocent people. Threatening to take Witness’s Children, Telling Witnesses Who to Pick Out of Lineups, Falsifying Ballistics Evidence, Falsifying DNA Evidence, and much more. Again, no Detroit Police Officer has been charged with a single crime as it relates to the known 38 exonerees!
COPS IN WILLIE MERRIWEATHER CASE ALSO FRAMED EXONEREES DWIGHT LOVE, DANNY BURTON
But let’s now forget the Prosecutors and Judges. As corrupt as the Detroit police and homicide detectives’ illegal conduct was and still is, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and Judges want the public to think that they simply did not know about any of this illegal and corrupt behavior. UNIMAGINABLE!
The same police agency—the Detroit Police Department, and the same officers whose names keep appearing in the exonerees’ case, Homicide Sgt. Walter Bates, Homicide Sgt. Ernest Wilson, Homicide Detective Donald Stawiasz, Ballistics Expert David Pauch, Homicide Det. Monica Childs, Homicide Investigator William Rice, Homicide Investigator Kevin Reed, Officer Dale Collins, Officer Donald Hughes, Officer Ronald Sanders, and many more Detroit police officers’ names keep appearing.
Stawiasz and Sanders were the chief architects of the conviction of Willie Merriweather. Its horrifying history, including systematic witness beatings and deliberate frame-ups, and the use of a co-defendant witness who went on to become a career member of the Wayne County Jail “Ring of Snitches” in the 90’s, is detailed in the VOD story linked below.
And the same Prosecutor’s Office and Court presided over every exoneree’s corrupt conviction – the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and the Third Judicial Circuit Court are in the same building—which is located directly across the street from the original Detroit police headquarters. However, the Prosecutor’s office and Judges want the public to think they did not know about any of the Detroit police corrupt and illegal behavior. UNBELIEVABLE!
Exoneree Mubarez Ahmed, with attorney Wolfgang Mueller announcing his lawsuit, which won a $9.9 million settlement from the City of Detroit. Ernest Wilson was a chief player in the Ahmed conviction, directly coaching a witness to identify him in a line-up.
Atty. Wolfgang Mueller, who has represented eight wrongfully convicted Detroit area residents, “. . .and estimates there could be as many as 2,000 Michigan inmates who were put behind bars on wrongful convictions.”
He went on to say, “. . .part of the solution is lifting qualified immunity for police.” DO AWAY WITH IMMUNITY FOR OFFICERS AND PROSECUTORS.” (See Detroit News article, Sept. 15, 2020, titled “Official Misconduct to Blame in Bevy of Wrongful Convictions.”
AND YET, THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF MEN STILL IN PRISON BASED ON THE CREDIBILITY AND INVESTIGATIONS OF THESE CORRUPT DETROIT POLICE!! Something must be done to free these men!
URGENT: Voice of Detroit is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE. Funds urgently need to keep VOD going.
VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. Ongoing costs include quarterly web charges of $460.00, P.O. box fee of $240/yr. and other costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.