Crowning victory for Thelonious ‘Shawn’ Searcy,  family and supporters

Wayne Co. Pros. Kym Worthy fought Searcy every step of the way in her usual role as ‘Innocence Denier,’ also in the case of Davontae Sanford

VOD covered Searcy’s story extensively beginning in 2017; photos and videos below are added to the NRE report from the VOD stories, and from Channel 2 Detroit report by Amy Lange. 

By Ken Otterbourg  —  National Registry of Exonerations

October 14, 2022

Thelonious “Shawn” Searcy enters court during his evidentiary hearing in 2018. He carried files with his pro se motion for new trial filed in 2016, that led finally to his exoneration. VOD PHOTO

On September 5, 2004, the Sunday before Labor Day, an event known as the “Black Party” took place next to the Coleman Young Airport on the east side of Detroit, Michigan.

At about 9 p.m., according to eyewitnesses, a man approached the back of a silver Corvette and began shooting. One bullet struck 27-year-old Brian Minner in the hip, and several hit 30-year-old Jamal Segars, the driver, in the head and the chest. Segars died later that night at a local hospital.

Because of the large crowd at the event, police were already nearby and quickly responded after shots were fired. Officer Micah Hull tried to drive toward the sound of the gunfire, but his patrol car was hit by a Mercury Marauder. Hull and his partner, Officer Shawn Stallard, then saw a man with a gun fire more shots, although they were not sure whether this man had also fired the initial shots. Hull gave chase on foot, but the man got away. Some witnesses said the shooter ran into a nearby convenience store.

At the crime scene, police recovered shell casings from two weapons; They found eight .40-caliber casings near or in the Corvette and seven .45-caliber casings at least 20 feet from the car.

For reasons that aren’t clear from police records, the police quickly pursued a theory that the shooting was a case of mistaken identity and that the intended target was DeAnthony Witcher, who drove a similar-looking Corvette. An undated note in the police files said, “This case is about being at the wrong time, place. [Segars] was driving the exact vehicle as Deanthony and even looked like him.”

On September 6, an investigator’s report identified 24-year-old Thelonious Searcy as the shooter, and an assistant prosecutor recommended that murder and assault charges be filed. Searcy was said to have had a long-running feud with Witcher, but the police records don’t say how investigators first learned of his name. A motion later filed on Searcy’s behalf would call this “a complete mystery.”

Thelonious Searcy with wife Tyria and young daughter LaShyra in wedding photo prior to his 2004 arrest. They remarried after his conviction was overturned 19 years later.

On September 5 and September 6, the police interviewed eyewitnesses, who gave different descriptions of the shooter. None mentioned Searcy or indicated that it was a case of mistaken identity. They all agreed the shooter was Black, but some said he was only 5 feet 6 inches tall, while others said he was perhaps 6 feet tall. One witness said the shooter had caramel skin; another said his skin was dark. Several of the witnesses knew Segars, who had served eight years in federal prison for drug offenses, and, as one person said, “He did what he had to get paid.”

Minner, interviewed at the hospital, was unable to make an identification of the shooter.

Police re-interviewed three witnesses on September 8, now showing them lineups that included a mugshot of Searcy. The witnesses – including one who had initially told police he could not identify the shooter “by face” – identified Searcy as the man who shot Segars.

Police interviewed Witcher on September 9. He said that his Corvette was a “twin” of Segars’, and that he and Searcy had a falling out after he paid Searcy to do some work and then Searcy lost the money shooting dice. Witcher said that he returned to a house he owned one day and found the property ransacked. Witcher said Searcy was inside and shot him several times.

Witcher said he was at the party near the airport on September 5, and that his phone started blowing up after the shooting. “A lot of my friends told me, ‘Man, a [person] dead in your car.’ They thought it was me.”

On November 30, officers entered an apartment in the Detroit suburbs looking for Searcy. They initially saw only his grandmother and his wife, but later found Searcy behind a piece of drywall in a bedroom closet. Separately, officers also found a .45-caliber semi-automatic gun in the bedroom where Searcy had hidden.

(L to r) Searcy’s daughters Paige, LaShyra, and a maternal grandmother, with his grandmother Edna Richardson at evidentiary hearing in 2018. VOD PHOTO

Searcy was charged with first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder, and use of a weapon in committing a felony. His trial in Wayne County Circuit Court began on May 2, 2005.

During his opening statement, the prosecutor told jurors that Searcy had meant to shoot Witcher but made a mistake and instead shot Segars, because their Corvettes were similar. In his opening statement, Robert Mitchell, Searcy’s attorney said the party was too chaotic and busy for the witnesses to make proper identifications, but he never rebutted the state’s theory that Witcher – not Segars – was the intended target.

Four eyewitnesses identified Searcy as the shooter at trial. Three of the witnesses had picked him out of a photo lineup. Minner testified, but he was unable to make any identifications.

Searcy discovered this record of DeAnthony Witcher’s arrest for carrying a 9 mm gun on Nov. 18, 2004 just prior to Searcy’s arrest.

Witcher testified about his relationship with Searcy, including his claim that Searcy had shot him in 2003. On cross-examination, Witcher said that he had not wanted to testify but had not cut any deals in exchange for his testimony about Segars’ death.

Mitchell asked Witcher if he was involved in other crimes. Witcher said he wasn’t. Mitchell then asked Witcher if he had ever been arrested or convicted for anything involving deception, fraud or falsehood. Witcher said he hadn’t. Mitchell tried to ask Witcher about whether he had owned a permit to carry a gun, but Judge Timothy Kenny cut him off and said there was no evidence that Witcher had a gun.

Later, Witcher testified that he didn’t call the police after the 2003 shooting because of a concern that he would be investigated for drugs. He acknowledged that he was given immunity from any charges related to that incident.

Dr. Carl Schmidt, a medical examiner, testified that Segars had been shot seven times and that he had removed four bullets during the autopsy. One of these slugs was entered into evidence as People’s Exhibit 23, labeled as “.40 caliber, Metal jacket bullet,” without any reference to its source. The police separately and incorrectly labeled it in their files as a 9 mm casing.

Michigan COA cited roles of Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny, AP Patrick Muscat in Searcy’s wrongful conviction, in 2021 ruling.

Kevin Reed, a technician with the police department’s firearms identification unit testified that the weapon found in the apartment was the source of the .45-caliber casings found at the crime scene. (The firearms report was not completed until the first day of the trial.) Reed also testified that the slug in Exhibit 23 could not have been fired from the weapon found at the apartment, because it wasn’t “caliber consistent.” He wasn’t asked to state the caliber of the slug or where it had come from.

Searcy did not testify. But several friends and family members said he was at a barbecue at his mother’s house on the night of September 5, 2004. His mother and grandmother testified that Searcy did not live at the apartment where he was arrested. The grandmother testified that the gun found at the apartment did not belong to Searcy and that a man named Jeffrey Daniels, who had a child with a member of Searcy’s extended family, had left the gun there after driving her home around the time of the shooting. Daniels was shot to death on September 24, 2004.

Deliberations began on May 6, 2005, a Friday. The jury first asked whether the casings recovered were .45 caliber or .40 caliber. Later, the jury asked about the bullet recovered from Segars. It also asked to review the medical examiner’s report and the report of casings found at the crime scene.

Exhibits showing falsified ballistics reports during 2018 evidentiary hearing; Searcy located these on review of his homicide file, obtained by his grandmother. VOD PHOTO

The jury was brought into the courtroom, where Judge Kenny addressed them as a group. “Now with regard to your first question, what type of caliber bullet was found in the deceased?” he asked.

“After speaking with the attorneys they have agreed to my sharing with you the fact that the testimony presented in the case, and there is a report on one of the exhibits that the bullets that were recovered from the deceased were too deformed to be able to identify what gun it came from or what caliber it came from.”

That was incorrect. Mitchell didn’t object, and prosecutors didn’t correct the statement.

On May 9, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all charges. On May 23, Judge Kenny sentenced Searcy to life without parole for the murder conviction, and concurrent sentences of 15 to 30 years for the assault conviction and two years on the firearms conviction.

At his sentencing, Searcy proclaimed his innocence and criticized his attorney for his inadequate representation and preparation. “This man right here, he got the audacity to stand on the side of me, and he took my Mama’s hard-earned money. Standing here like he’s my lawyer.”

Home at last: (l to r) Shawn Searcy, daughters Paige and Shyra, and wife Tyria Searcy with his two grandchildren (mother Paige). FBook

Later he said: “Now you tell me this is justice? It ain’t no justice. Do I care about going upstate? Yes, I care because I got kids, too. Yes, I’m married, too. Yes, I’m sorry that that guy got killed, but it wasn’t on my behalf.”

Searcy appealed his conviction, arguing that Judge Kenny erred in allowing the firearms report to be entered into evidence during trial. He also said that a prosecution witness, Latasha Boatwright, had committed perjury by testifying that Witcher was her friend. Boatwright and Witcher were half-siblings, Searcy said.

The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction. It said that Mitchell could have but didn’t ask for a continuance on the firearms report and that Boatwright’s statement might not be perjury because Witcher could be both a friend and a half-sibling.

Thelonious Searcy (r foreground listens as his atty. Michael Dezsi plays Vincent Smothers’ recorded confession. Smothers is on witness stand with head bowed. Asst. Pros. Timothy Chambers is at right. VOD PHOTO

Beginning in 2015, Vincent Smothers confessed to killing Segars and submitted several affidavits claiming that Searcy had no involvement in the crime. He said Daniels was his partner in the shooting. Smothers was a Detroit contract killer, in prison for 11 murders. His confession to four other murders was at the heart of a claim of innocence by Davontae Sanford, who would be exonerated in 2016.

On June 24, 2015, Searcy filed a pro se motion for relief, and a series of evidentiary hearings were held three years later. At the hearings, Smothers testified that he had been stalking Segars for months because he was a drug dealer known to carry around a lot of money. (Segars’s criminal record had not been introduced at Searcy’s trial.)

See 1994 6th Circuit Court ruling on Jamal Segars’ drug conviction at: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Jamal-Segars-6-CC-denial.pdf

Smothers said Daniels carried the .45; Smothers used a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson, and he described how he came up on Segars from behind, which was consistent with the autopsy on several of Segars’s entry wounds. Smothers was also able to describe the chaotic scene after the shooting, when the Marauder hit the police cruiser, and how the cruiser’s airbags deployed.

On December 3, 2018, Judge Kenny denied Searcy’s motion for relief, ruling that “a reasonable jury could not find Vincent Smothers’ testimony credible at a retrial.”

Atty. Michael Dezsi with Thelonious Searcy as they left court after all charges dismissed Oct. 3, 2022. FB Live

Represented since 2017 by Michael Dezsi, Searcy appealed, asserting that Judge Kenny had applied an unreasonable standard in evaluating Smothers’ testimony.

In addition, the appeal said that prosecutors had failed to disclose exculpatory forensic evidence and evidence that undermined Witcher’s credibility. The motion said prosecutors never told Mitchell that the slug in Exhibit 23 had been removed from Segars’s body, although the state claimed in its responses that this information was easily inferred. In addition, prosecutors didn’t disclose Witcher’s lengthy criminal record or that a charge for carrying a concealed weapon had been dismissed the day that police arrested Searcy.

On February 11, 2021, the Michigan Court of Appeals granted Searcy a new trial. It said that Judge Kenny had incorrectly told the jury that the slug taken from Segars was “too deformed” to be tested, and that in dismissing Searcy’s appeal, he had too heavily discounted Smothers’s statements and subsequent testimony. (Smothers had briefly recanted but later said he did so out of concern that a parallel investigation into another possible wrongful conviction would unduly harm Sanford’s quest for freedom.)

“We conclude that, when considering Smothers’s testimony in its entirety, it is clear that his testimony is not wholly incredible, as the trial court found, and that a reasonable juror could find his testimony worthy of belief on retrial,” the court said. The ruling did not address Searcy’s claims that prosecutors had failed to disclose evidence.

Searcy was released from prison on April 16, 2021.

A year later, on April 15, 2022, Dezsi filed a motion to dismiss. The motion said prosecutors had misled Judge Kenny about the slug, because forensic testing had said it came from a .40-caliber weapon.

Convenience store at Conner and Whithorn; videotapes suppressed by police/prosecution.

It also said prosecutors had failed to provide Searcy’s attorney with footage from a security camera taken from a nearby convenience store. Two witnesses had told police that the shooter ran into the store.

An officer retrieved the footage, according to an evidence log, but the prosecutor told Judge Kenny prior to opening statements that he had not seen the footage and had been told by the police that the footage did not exist. The motion said the failure to preserve this evidence violated Searcy’s right to a fair trial.

.45 and .40 caliber bullets

On October 3, 2022, Judge Thomas Hathaway granted Searcy’s motion to dismiss the charges. “The damage caused by the suppression and withholding of the exculpatory evidence cannot be cured,” Hathaway wrote.

The forensic evidence was particularly critical to Searcy’s defense, Judge Hathaway said. “At the time of the trial, the prosecution’s forensic examiners were aware of the bullet caliber type removed from the victim’s body and that it did not match the handgun offered at trial,” he wrote.

“Defendant argues and this court agrees that there is nothing more exculpatory than this single piece of evidence which was suppressed from the defense and the jury.”

– Ken Otterbourg

Related: 

The story below on dismissal of all charges against Searcy includes links to all VOD stories published on his case beginning in 2017.

THELONIOUS SEARCY: “IT’S OVER!–FREE!” CHARGES DISMISSED, JUDGE BLASTS WAYNE CO. PROSECUTOR | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

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Voice of Detroit 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. 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.

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Original work by Burt R. Lancaster

Ricardo Ferrell, VOD field editor

By Ricardo Ferrell

November 21, 2022

After his first decade behind bars, Burt Lancaster, who’s serving LWOP for the shooting death of his girlfriend in Southfield in 1993, finds art as an outlet in coping with the stress of being locked up and helping deal with his mental health.

“When I first came to prison, I had all sorts of reservations. I wondered how I would be treated by other prisoners because of my career choice of being in law enforcement,” Lancaster told VOD Field Editor Ricardo Ferrell.

“The reality of being in prison for my girlfriend’s death hit me pretty hard and fast,” he added. ” I contemplated harming myself as a way out of my predicament, but something told me to pick up a pencil & pen and try art again, as I knew it could be therapeutic because I first learned how to draw at the age of 16, but back then, I didn’t take it serious.

But in here I got professional with at it, especially drawing faces, that was nearly 20 years ago and the rest as they say, is history,” Lancaster says.

His works are also displayed on Facebook and other social media.

Original works by Burt R. Lancaster

Original works  by Burt R. Lancaster

Original works by Burt R. Lancaster

RELATED:

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WRITE BURT R. LANCASTER AT

Burt R. Lancaster #242182                                                                                                      G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility                                                                              3500 N. Elm Road
Jackson, MI 49201

Join CALL ‘EM OUT visit to EULA MAE POWELL

     SUNDAY. NOV. 13, 11 AM- 1 PM   18640 Harper, n. of Moross at 1-94 

NO FORCED CONFINEMENT!

STOP ELDER ABUSE! FREE EULA!

Updated Nov. 12, 2022

See: Eula Mae Powell’s letter to Judge Judy Hartsfield asking for an emergency hearing at: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Eula-Mae-Powell-Objection-and-Petition-to-Terminate-Guardianship-Conservatorship.pdf

Eula Mae Powell, 85, is being held against her will inside the Orchards of Harper Woods nursing home, barred for no reason from visiting her long-time friend Diane Bukowski, the editor of The Voice of Detroit newspaper, as she has been peacefully doing.

The home drugged Eula against her will when Bukowski came to visit Nov. 5, 2022, locking her behind a closed inner door. The home called the police to threaten Bukowski with arrest and impounding  her car. Staff continues to force Eula back into the home if she even goes out to sit outside and get some air as other patients do.

THE ORCHARDS AT HARPER WOODS

Eula is contesting the guardianship and conservatorship which her niece Karen Sue Herbert foisted on her, telling the court that Eula approved it but not providing her with any court  documents or access to the judge.

She has since deprived Eula of her valid driver’s license, all her ID, her ATM card, access to her car, and all her assets, including her Social Security, pension and other benefits. Eula cannot drive, go to her bank, the store, or even walk outside.

Eula earned her income and benefits over a lifetime of work as a UAW steward at the Dodge Main plant, a certified teacher in the Highland Park, Hamtramck and DPS school districts, and a manager at the Detroit Housing Department.

Eula Powell owned and lived in duplex house at 2172 Cadillac, where she helped educate her young nieces and nephews in the duplex next to hers. One niece got a scholarship to Marygrove as a result.

She was a neighborhood community organizer during her time living on Cadillac Avenue (Detroit’s East Side), where she was an official liaison with the Housing Department for an area south of Harper, west of Chalmers, and east of Woodward to the Detroit River, overseeing benefits provided to the community and other matters.

She organized a Youth Block Club which got a lot of youth to get back in school and get their diplomas (with one even studying in Europe). She told VOD she used to greatly enjoy walking through the community knocking on doors to get the children up to go to school as well as involve them in neighborhood clean-ups and other activities.

EULA POWELL WAS DHD LIAISON FOR THIS AREA S. OF HARPER, W. OF CHALMERS, E. OF WOODWARD (1) TO THE DETROIT RIVER.

But now the nursing home has her trapped in Harper Woods, not allowing her to even go outside to get some air as other patients do, and subjected to forcible medication. And the home has barred her long-time friend from visiting her, saying the guardian told them to do so.  A guardian has no right to do this under state law.

Eula has always been a fighter and an activist, and now her activist friends, including the members of Call ‘Em Out, are coming out to support her.

Stay tuned for an announcement of their plans.

FOR FURTHER INFO:

Diane Bukowski 313-825-6126  Agnes Hitchcock Call ’em Out, 313-874-2792                   Call EULA POWELL on her cell phone at 313-765-4508

(L to r) Eula Powell, Diane Bukowski, her mother Dorothy Bukowski in the late 1990’s, photo taken by her father Robert Bukowski.

Eula and Diane were members of the Save SAVE DGH, SAVE DODGE MAIN COALITION of AFSCME LOCAL 457 (Detroit Health and Hospitals) and UAW LOCAL 3 (DODGE MAIN) which led a historic battle to save Detroit General Hospital and the Chrysler Dodge Main Plant, beginning in 1977.

The Coalition predicted accurately that if DGH was privatized, and Dodge Main closed, there would be a domino effect across Detroit. In 1980, DGH was privatized and the Dodge Main Plant closed. Dozens of auto plant closings and other Wall Street disinvestment in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park ensued. Privatization of the City of Detroit Departments, services and jobs, also devastated the city, resulting eventually in the final blow, the phony Detroit bankruptcy of 2014 led by global banks and corporations.

EULA POWELL WAS A BOARD MEMBER AND STEWARD AT UAW LOCAL 3 DODGE MAIN, AND ACTIVE IN THE SAVE DODGE MAIN/DGH COALITION.

Agnes Hitchcock (center) with members of Call ‘Em Out at
“Blackinaw” protest May 28, 2009 during annual Mackinac Island conference. Eula Powell is a long-time member of Call ’em Out.

RELATED: 

Orchards at Harper Woods has had numerous violations of state law during inspections over the years. See: THE ORCHARDS AT HARPER WOODS – Nursing Home Inspect – ProPublica

STOP GM’S PLANT CLOSINGS! SAVE THE PLANET FOR THE WORKERS! RALLY FRI. JAN. 18 @ 5:30 PM COBO HALL | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

CITY BANKRUPTCY ONE OF MANY ATTACKS ON DETROITERS | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Images show fund-raiser for Tyree Guyton’s Heidelberg Project. Rider was building his real estate portfolio south of downtown Detroit.

HEARING POSTPONED TO FRI. NOV. 4 8:30 AM

“I’ve been in here six years for an unlawful search warrant–it was a legal lynching.” — George Rider

Appeals Court remanded Rider murder case to trial court Aug. 18: defense counsel “ineffective” for agreeing that warrant authorized phone seizure

Phone contents played major role in conviction;  four judges, including Judge Joseph Toia, who sentenced him to natural life, reviewed warrant 

“Never has anyone been convicted of First Degree Murder for two unauthenticated  text messages.” — Ricardo Ferrell, VOD Field Editor

Ricardo Ferrell

Rider’s case part of a pattern of racially-biased arrests, convictions, and practices over decades in Macomb County

By Diane Bukowski

VOD Field Ed. Ricardo Ferrell wrote six stories on case

COA ruling:  http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/COA-George-Rider-et-al.pdf

Defense atty. Christine Pagac Appellate Brief earlier sent to COA 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/George-Rider-appellate-brief-CPagac2.pdf

October 22, 2022

Mt. Clemens, MI – George Rider, a prominent Detroit-area businessman and community activist convicted of the 2017 murder of Julii Johnson, will be back in Macomb County Circuit Court Friday Nov. 4 (postponed from Wed. Oct. 26.)

Rider Evidentiary Hearing Friday Nov. 4, 8:30am Judge Joseph Toia 

Macomb County Court Building
40 N. Main St, 4th Floor
Mt. Clemens, MI 48043

Toia sentenced him to life without parole in 2019.

A state appeals court remanded his case back to the trial court Aug. 18, ordering an an evidentiary hearing.

It upheld Rider’s “ineffective assistance of counsel” claim, citing former defense attorney Suzanna Kostovski’s agreement at trial that Warren police had a valid warrant to seize his cell-phone inside a Roseville car wash. The cell phone played a major role in Rider’s conviction.

“The trial court shall determine whether defendant is entitled to a new trial on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel,” the court concluded.

The court found that the warrant used did NOT allow the seizure of the phone, only records from Metro PCS. (See box.) One officer testified at trial that the seizure of the phone was the chief reason for their “traffic stop” of Rider INSIDE the car wash after state and federal agents tracked it using “pings” from cell towers.

Rider told VOD, “My attorney and the prosecutor knowingly allowed me to be convicted when they knew the phone was not admissible. Four judges on this case all knew that my warrant was unlawful. I’ve been in here six years for an unlawful warrant. It was a legal lynching.”

Rider referred to Judge Toia and 37th District Court Judge Michael Chupa, who bound him over, along with his previous trial judge, Jennifer Faunce, who was earlier removed because her sister, 37th DC Judge Suzanne Faunce, signed that and other warrants in the case.

Rider’s current attorney Christine Pagac won the remand after participating in oral arguments at  the appeals court.

This was the second time in two months that a Michigan appeals court has remanded a Macomb County criminal case for “ineffective assistance of counsel,” both in Toia’s court. In each case, the appellate court said Toia played a role in the “ineffective assistance.”

Rider was convicted in the Jan. 13, 2017 murder of Julii Johnson, 34, outside her boyfriend J. Terrell Lattner’s Warren condo. Police originally zeroed in on Lattner as the chief suspect after finding $500,000 in cash and a trove of weapons and illegal drugs at the condo and in Lattner’s truck.

Those finds led to speculation that either Lattner or drug dealer rivals killed Johnson. Lattner, who was on life-long probation for earlier federal crimes,  was convicted separately on federal counts of felon-in-possession of one of the guns at issue in Rider’s case. He was released from prison last January.

Marcie Griffin, Eric Gibson, co-defendants

Defense attorneys during the trial unsuccessfully challenged the composition of the jury, which was composed of nine whites and three Blacks in a county with a burgeoning Black population.

Rider’s two co-defendants, Marcie Griffin and Eric Gibson, were also convicted of capital murder in the case. However, the appeals court affirmed their convictions.

“There was no direct evidence connecting Rider to the crime,” VOD Field Editor Ricardo Ferrell, who covered the story in multiple articles, linked below, wrote at the time.  “In the history of Michigan’s court system, never has anyone been convicted of First Degree Murder for two text messages that were never authenticated.”

 AP Jurji Fedorak, wife, U.S. ATF agent Vera Fedorak.

The Michigan State Police Crime Lab ruled Rider out as a contributor in DNA tests on two guns linked to the case, and a pair of work gloves found near the second gun. No eyewitness otherwise identified him as the killer or co-conspirator.

Instead, the prosecution introduced vague text messages from the phones allegedly belonging to Rider, his co-defendants and others, which did not include any admissions of the crime. The mainstream media repeatedly highlighted the gossipy messages in its coverage of the case.

Rider contended at trial that four cell phones, including the one seized, were commonly left at the Fine Arts Theater, which he previously owned, for anyone to use.

The prosecution used “pings” on cell towers from the phones to place them in key locations, although a cell phone tower expert testified at trial that such “pings” cannot definitely identify any individual.

Rider and his supporters contend that federal agents met with Warren police at their headquarters on the day of his arrest, Feb. 23, 2017, to push for a murder conviction after their long-time attempts to convict him of a variety of federal crimes failed.

VOD has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Macomb County’s Office of the Corporation Counsel for details on the meeting at Warren police headquarters, and for copies of material in Rider’s homicide, miscellaneous, and prosecutor’s files.  http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/George-Rider-FOIA-2.pdf 

Jurji Fedorak, the assistant prosecutor in various trials covered by VOD,  is married to U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent Vera Fedorak.

A month after Rider’s arrest, federal agents and police raided the home he shared with his girl friend and son with no search warrant, only an application for a warrant. The two said they were threatened that if they did not open the door, the police would knock it down.

No search warrant was ever produced, and no charges brought pursuant to the raid. Rider has filed a complaint in the federal court demanding the return of the property seized.

Lawrence Rider at Sept. 15 rally in Flint called by the Michael Thompson Clemency Project

During his two-year confinement in the Macomb County Jail prior to trial, which included multiple repeated adjournments of hearings on motions to dismiss and  Rider’s claims under the Fourth Amendment,  federal agents charged Rider and his brother Lawrence Rider with orchestrating an arson-for-profit scheme from his jail cell.  The only witnesses were self-admitted federal informants.

Charges against George Rider were dismissed without prejudice Nov. 7, 2019, but his brother, who is now legally-blind,  told VOD that a federal agent forwarded a plea agreement for him to sign to his attorney, but he is withdrawing it.

George Rider previously served time on federal drug charges, but went on to become a respected property owner and community activist in the Paradise Valley/Brush Park/Cass Corridor communities. He was thus a target for corporate gentrification drives aimed at Black business owners and residents, who were displaced by the wealthy white corporate owners of Little Caesar’s Arena, other sports and entertainment facilities and new market-rate housing for the influx of suburbanites into downtown Detroit.

Little Caesar’s Arena is across the street from the Fine Arts Theater.

Rider at one time owned the Fine Arts Theater in the area. Three previous owners of that venue were found murdered, and their cases have never been solved. He had sold his ownership rights shortly before his arrest for the murder of Johnson. Rider and his supporters believe that the federal government, the state and police acted in concert with corporate forces to frame him as part of the gentrification and “white-out” of downtown Detroit.

Convicted in Macomb County:  (l to r) Reinaldo Jemison, Terry Wilson, Saad Akram Bahoda

Another Michigan Appeals Court panel reversed Reinaldo Jemison’s 2019 second-degree murder conviction on Sept. 15,  also citing “ineffective assistance of counsel,” and sent it back for a new trial. Judge Toia was also the trial judge in that case.

It cited the “ineffective assistance” of defense attorney David Cripps. It said Cripps failed to properly investigate or pursue his client’s self-defense claim. It added that Judge Toia erred when he accepted defense counsel’s “patently incredible testimony” regarding evidence that Jemison had raised the self-defense claim to him from the beginning. Cripps instead chose to argue that Jemison didn’t kill the victim.

In addition to Jemison’s case, others involving racially-biased convictions in Macomb County that VOD has covered include those of Terry WIlson, whose conviction was reversed because of racial bias on his trial jury, which was virtually all white, and Saad Akram Bahoda. (See VOD stories below.)

Related: 

“A LEGAL LYNCHING”—GEORGE RIDER TO MACOMB CO. JUDGE JOSEPH TOIA, DURING SENTENCING TO LWOP | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

RACIST RAILROAD OF GEORGE RIDER, OTHERS IN 2017 MURDER OF JULII JOHNSON–MACOMB COUNTY ‘JUSTICE’ | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

WHO KILLED JULII JOHNSON IN 2017–GEORGE RIDER, HARASSED BY FEDS, OR BOYFRIEND/ DRUG ASSOCIATES? | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

GEORGE RIDER EVIDENTIARY HEARING FINALLY HELD W/NEW JUDGE, BUT RULING DELAYED UNTIL DEC. 19 | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

GEORGE RIDER CASE SHOWS CORRUPTION RUNS DEEP WITHIN MACOMB COUNTY, MI COURTS, POLICE | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

MACOMB CO. CORRUPTION CONTINUES WITH BAHODA CASE, UNDER PROS. ERIC SMITH, AP JORIJ FEDORAK | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

MICH. LIFER TERRY WILSON STILL FIGHTS FOR JUSTICE, BATTLING RACISM IN MACOMB CO./ RE-TRIAL FEB. 2023 | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

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Voice of Detroit 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. 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.

Please DONATE TO VOD at:

https://www.gofundme.com/donate-to-vod

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KCPD Said Missing Black Women Reports In KC Were “Completely Unfounded.” Less Than A Month Later, One Escaped After Being Kidnapped From Prospect & Tortured in a Basement For Over A Month – Kansas City Defender

Social Media Posts Reveal Captor and Possible Serial Killer, Timothy Haslett Jr., Was A White Supremacist Who Believed We Are In A Race War (kansascitydefender.com)

ABOVE: Thelonious ‘Shawn’ Searcy addressed a mass rally against wrongful convictions in Wayne County June 4, 2021, speaking from home on tether. He and Darrell Ewing, as leaders of Operation Liberation, organized the event, which drew hundreds who filled the streets outside the Frank Murphy Courthouse in downtown Detroit

Link below is to Fox2 Detroit report 10/14/22

https://www.facebook.com/1302219946/videos/622812139537620

“It’s over–FREE–19–it’s over!” — Thelonious ‘Shawn’ Searcy

Tether removed immediately after hearing

“Dismissal of the charges is appropriate given the severe and deliberate violations of the defendant’s due process rights.”–Judge Thomas Hathaway

Dismissal is “WITH PREJUDICE,” meaning charges cannot be brought back

Judges cites suppression of evidence: .40 caliber bullets in victim’s body, not .45’s;  store videotape likely showing the actual killer, and the criminal record of key prosecution witness

By Diane Bukowski 

October 3, 2022, updated Oct. 7, 2022

Atty. Michael Dezsi (l) with Thelonious Searcy (r) as they left court Oct. 3, 2022. Screenshot FB Live

DETROIT – Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Thomas Hathaway today dismissed all charges against Thelonious ‘Shawn’ Searcy in a stinging order which repeatedly cited the prosecution for “allowing blatant lies to stand.”

He said Wayne County prosecutors and police deliberately withheld evidence that should have been given to the defense under Brady v. Maryland :: 373 U.S. 83 (1963),  a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. That evidence would have saved Searcy from  spending 17 years in prison for the Sept. 6, 2004 murder of Jamal Segars outside the Detroit City Airport, a crime he did not commit.

“This Court concludes that the damage caused by the suppression and withholding of the exculpatory evidence cannot be cured,” Judge Hathaway said. “Therefore, it holds that dismissal of the charges is  appropriate given the severe and deliberate violations of the defendant’s due process rights that denied him and fair and impartial trial. Accordingly, this Court GRANTS defendant’s Motion to Dismiss.”

The dismissal is WITH PREJUDICE, meaning that the charges cannot be brought back. Most of the cases of Wayne County’s 32 exonerees to date have involved only dismissals WITHOUT prejudice, leading some to speculate that possible reinstatements of their original charges have been held over their heads since.

“I am so happy to see Mr. Searcy turn the page beyond the nightmare of his wrongful conviction,” defense attorney Michael Dezsi told VOD.

Wayne Co. Pros. Kym Worthy (l) Chief Judge Timothy Kenny (r).

“The Court did not mince words in describing the blatant lies, perjured testimony, and suppressed evidence that was known to the prosecution and investigating officers all of which was unknown to the defense at Searcy’s first trial.  As Judge Hathaway concluded, ‘the price to be paid for this failure falls on the prosecution.’”

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy declined to comment on the judge’s order. Judge Timothy Kenny, now Chief Judge of the 3rd Judicial Circuit Court, presided over Searcy’s trial and an evidentiary hearing in 2018. Attorney Dezsi was appointed to the case for that hearing, and has represented Searcy in “years of hearings, evidentiary hearings, and multiple appeals” since, as he told VOD.

Patrick Muscat, the Assistant Prosecutor at Searcy’s trial, also led the prosecutions of Wayne County exonerees Davontae Sanford  and Kenneth Nixon. None of the prosecutors and police involved in these and other Wayne County wrongful convictions have been charged or otherwise held accountable for their roles to date.

AP Patrick Muscat (r) led prosecution of exonerees (l  to r) Kenneth Nixon, Davontae Sanford, and now newly-exonerated Thelonious Searcy.

“It’s over–FREE–19–it’s over!” Searcy exulted on Facebook Live as he and Dezsi left court today. He referred to the total of 19 years, including two on tether, that he spent in the custody of the Michigan Department of Corrections. Judge Hathaway granted his release to home confinement in 2021 against strenuous objections by the prosecutor.

Thelonious Searcy with (l to r) daughter Shyra Searcy, wife Tyria Searcy, daughter Paige Braxton

“This win is dedicated to God and my family,” Searcy exulted in a Facebook post. “My faith in God empowered me to fight for my return. My motivation was getting back to my family. Under no situation was I willing to lay down and surrender my life to a system that systematically targeted inner city minorities in poverty stricken communities for crimes that they knew the suspect may be innocent of. Giving up when I knew I was wronged was something I just couldn’t do.”

Searcy said he went straight from the hearing and got the tether removed, which has restricted his employment and other opportunities.

See: Judge Thomas Hathaway’s complete order granting Thelonious Searcy Motion to Dismiss, Oct. 3, 2022 http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Thelonious-Searcy-Order-Gg-Defs-Mtn-to-Dismiss-10.3.20223311-2.pdf

Thelonious Searcy (bottom r) listens March 19, 2018 as Vincent Smothers (on stand with head bowed) testifies he killed Segars, not Searcy. Standing is defense attorney Michael Dezsi, at far right, AP Timothy Chambers. Asst. State Atty. Gen’l Oronde Patterson argued the case most recently against Searcy, but to no avail. Photo: VOD

Searcy fought his conviction from day one from his prison cells, researching every aspect of his case. His grandmother Edna Richardson filed a Freedom of Information Act request for him which led to the procurement of his homicide file. Suppressed forensics evidence he found in that file was key in overturning his conviction.

In 2016,  Searcy filed a pro se motion for a new trial with assistance from a “jail-house lawyer” friend. VOD discovered that motion in his court file in 2017, and has covered his story since.

VOD was the only media outlet to attend  every session of a powerful six-month evidentiary hearing in front of Third Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny in 2018. Despite Kenny’s denial of Searcy’s motion six months afterwards, testimony from that hearing led eventually to today’s dismissal of all charges.

Shawn Searcy’s grandmother Edna Richardson in early portrait. She helped him file FOIA.

Vincent Smothers, the self-acknowledged “hit man” who also admitted the murders of the four victims in the Davontae Sanford case, took the stand for two days. He described in great detail consistent with the physical evidence how he and a now-deceased partner caught Jamal Segars in the midst of a “Black Party” crowded with auto traffic held outside Detroit City Airport. Smothers said he killed Segars using a .4o caliber gun. The Wayne County Medical Examiner turned four bullets in Segars body over to the Detroit Police.

A state Court of Appeals panel ruled that AP Muscat and trial judge Kenny deliberately diverted the jury’s attention away from those .40 caliber bullets, which were not consistent with the .45 caliber gun that the prosecution claimed was the murder weapon. It said Judge Kenny “abused his discretion” by evaluating and disputing Smothers’ testimony himself, a matter that is reserved for a jury.

Judge Hathaway listed these reasons for granting Searcy’s motion to dismiss in his order:

“This Court finds the following violations of defendant’s due process rights: (1) the prosecution was aware of Witcher’s criminal history on account of DPD’s Hit List containing his infractions; (2) the prosecution intentionally violated defendant’s right under Brady by suppressing the forensic analysis of the bullet taken from the victim’s body which was not consistent with the gun offered at trial as belonging to defendant; (3) the prosecution suppressed the VHS tape; (4) the prosecution suppressed the criminal history and arrest record of the prosecution’s key witness, DeAnthony Witcher.”

Judge Thomas Hathaway talks to Searcy after his ruling Oct. 2, 2022. FB post

Regarding the forensics evidence, Judge Hathaway said, “At the time of the trial, the  prosecution’s forensic examiners were aware of the bullet caliber type removed from the victim’s body and that it did not match the handgun offered at trial.

“Defendant argues and this Court agrees that there is nothing more exculpatory than this single piece of evidence which was suppressed from the defense and the jury.”

Judge Hathaway said the two forensics technicians who examined the bullets in the case, David Pauch and Kevin Reed, had been involved in other cases of wrongful convictions. He noted the defense had objected to qualifying Reed as an expert witness because he had no training in ballistics, but that AP Muscat had him testify at trial anyway, saying falsely that the bullets from Segars’ body were too deformed to analyze. Reed’s faulty work and other factors led to the shut-down of the entire City of Detroit crime lab in 2008.

He said the prosecution had argued in their motion opposing the dismissal of charges that the defense could have discerned that the bullets involved were .40 calibers from the Medical Examiner’s report and claimed the defense had not exercised “due diligence.”

.45 and .40 caliber bullets

But Hathaway said, “To the contrary, the prosecution argues that defense counsel who had the autopsy report about the bullets, could have ascertained by process of elimination, that the .40 caliber bullets had to have come from the victim’s body. However, this Court disagrees as the Michigan Supreme Court rejected a diligence requirement as part of a Brady violation.

“In People v. Chenault, 495 Mich 142, 152 (2014), our Supreme Court concluded that ‘[w]e disagree with the prosecution’s suggestion that the diligence requirement is consistent with the Brady doctrine generally.’ In the instant case, the prosecution is asking the Court to ignore binding precedent and impose a diligence requirement to reject defendant’s Brady argument. However, this Court declines the prosecution’s suggestion to decide against precedent.”

Police seized a videotape from this store at Conner and Whithorn, directly adjacent to Jamal Segars shooting scene on Conner.

Searcy and his attorney said they had repeatedly requested a copy of a VHS tape from a store located adjacent to the shooting scene from the prosecution, but were told the tape did not exist. However, they cited multiple still photographs from the videotape provided as part of discovery earlier.

In his ruling, Judge Hathaway wrote, “Similarly, the VHS tapes confiscated by Officer Zwicker was clearly Brady material that should have been given to the defense. Defendant argues that the VHS tapes that were confiscated are another reason why his case should be dismissed. Indeed, [eyewitnesses] Edmonson and Holmes told Officer Zwicker that they saw the shooter run into the corner store. Zwicker went to the store to confiscate a VHS tape that he placed into evidence. To date, this tape has never been produced or viewed by the defense.”

Judge Hathaway quoted AP Muscat’s testimony at the evidentiary hearing: “In regard to discovery, there has been some off the record conversations about an in-store video. I’ve never seen a copy of that video and I’ve been told by Sgt. Anderson that there is not a copy.”

Private investigator and former TV 2 reporter Scott Lewis interviewed Vincent Smothers in prison about his role in the Segars killing. His audiotape (featured above) heightened public awareness of Searcy’s wrongful conviction and was played during the evidentiary hearing prior to Smothers’ direct testimony.

Scott Lewis testifies March 19, 2018 at Thelonious Searcy evidentiary hearing.

“I am happy for Thelonious,” Lewis told VOD. “Michael Dezsi did an amazing job on this case. He discovered new evidence in the middle of an evidentiary hearing erasing any doubt that Searcy was wrongfully convicted. I wonder how many other innocent people are languishing in prison with a life sentence because they can’t afford good attorneys and investigators, and there are not enough pro bono [advocates] to go around.”

Judge Hathaway’s ruling on suppression of Brady materials in Searcy’s case is expected to be cited in an ongoing case involving Searcy’s brother Derrico Searcy and his co-defendant Darrell Ewing. Ewing has filed an interlocutory appeal of 3rd Circuit Court Judge Darnella Williams-Clayborne’s denial of his request to dismiss their case due to continuing Brady continuing violations going back to his original trial in 2004. Williams-Clayborne also contended that Brady violations do not apply post-conviction. The appeal is currently under consideration by the Michigan Supreme Court.

Darrell Ewing (l), Derrico Searcy (r)

“T’m overjoyed for the victory my brother and the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) just scored being completely set free and cleared,” Ewing told VOD. “Not only was he vindicated, but the illustrious Judge Thomas Hathaway issued an opinion that slammed the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office for the injustice and grave misconduct that took place in his case–knowingly entombing evidence of innocence from the gate.

“His victory was a two-for-one as the pen that freed him gave my Judge Williams-Clayborne all the authority she requested in deciding to dismiss my case. So, I’m beyond elated and giving all praises to God, those who labored and beat the ground for us, making noise and protesting and the Voice of Detroit who covered our cases from day one, when no other media outlet would dare.”

CELEBRATE JUNETEENTH! FREE DARRELL EWING, ALL OTHERS WRONGFULLY CONVICTED, UNJUSTLY SENTENCED | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

VOD’s legal advisor noted many other cases involving requests for dismissal due to Brady violations will be affected by Judge Hathaway’s ruling, which sets a precedent in particular for Wayne County criminal cases brought back to the trial court on post-conviction motions.

One of those cases is that of Ricky Rimmer, who has filed motions for a new trial and evidentiary hearings after 47 years in prison, citing violations of Brady v. Maryland due to the prosecution’s failure to disclose the extensive criminal histories of the chief Detroit police officers in his case. The motions are set for action in front of Third Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher Blount on Jan. 6.

MICH. LIFER RICKY RIMMER CITES RACIST, VIOLENT HISTORY OF DPD COPS HAIDYS, HARRIS IN MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

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Voice of Detroit 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. 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.

Please DONATE TO VOD at:

https://www.gofundme.com/donate-to-vod

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RELATED Documents and Stories:

Judge Thomas Hathaway’s complete order granting Thelonious Searcy Motion to Dismiss, Oct. 3, 2022: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Thelonious-Searcy-Order-Gg-Defs-Mtn-to-Dismiss-10.3.20223311-2.pdf

Michigan Court of Appeals order vacating Searcy conviction, 10/21/21 http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/COA-Thelonious-Searcy-20210211_C349169_62_349169.OPN-3-bullet-evidence-highlighted-2.pdf

Continue reading →

Michael Thompson Clemency Project Rallies families, friends of 12 Michigan lifers, applying for clemency with Mich. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

Michigan prison population has tripled over the last 40 years; clemency project is first step in battle against mass incarceration

Ricardo Ferrell (l), Mike McCurdy (r)

By VOD Field editor Ricardo Ferrell    and Mike McCurdy

FLINT, MI 9/16/22 – With momentum garnered during the Michael Thompson Clemency Project’s (MTCP) last event “Fighting for Freedom” on Juneteenth at Flint’s Capitol Theatre, advocates, family, friends and supporters again gathered, this time at the Vehicle City Social Club for a letter writing campaign.

Letters of support are being sent on behalf of the MTCP’s 12 applicants for commutation to the Office of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan’s Parole Board. On this night in a room where many tears were shed, the stories of MTCP’s constituents were told by friends and family members who got on stage and shared how having an incarcerated loved one has impacted them and their families as well.

Michael Thompson at Vehicle City Club September 15, 2022 ZClingenpeel Mlive.COM

Michael “Meeko” Thompson, Founder and President of the Board of Directors of MTCP shared his compelling story with the crowd, about his 25-year struggle for freedom after being given a 42-60 year prison term for selling three pounds of cannabis to a friend.

Now some 20 months after Gov. Whitmer signed his commutation, he went on stage as a clear example that clemency can help right the injustices of our system of mass incarceration. He vowed to continue to travel the country talking to crowds and advocate for prison reform and push for clemency for those left behind.

Some of the incarcerated men who were the subjects of the event, (including VOD editor  Ricardo Ferrell) chose to be there vicariously, telling their pre-recorded stories. Aside from Ferrell’s story, LeRoy Washington, who has known MTCP founder Michael Thompson (‘Meeko’) since he was a kid, shared his story as well. Washington said Thompson was a positive influence on him and always steered him in the right direction. He described how when he was 14, Meeko stepped in and deterred him from joining a gang.

(L to R) VOD Field Editor Ricardo Ferrell (l) and Leroy Washington (r), 2 founders of “My Life Matters Too.”

Like the others, Washington is hoping that his application for commutation, prepared by the law offices of Kimberly Kendall Corral, will receive the required recommendation of the Michigan Parole Board and prayerfully be granted by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer soon thereafter, bringing to an end his 28 years behind bars.

The dire need for both prison and criminal justice reforms was a major topic at the event. Flint’s Mayor Sheldon Neely spoke about the need to give incarcerated individuals a second chance, and for legislatures to finally step up and reform the system.  Neely once held the seat as a Michigan State Representative before being elected mayor of Flint.

Flint Mayor Sheldon Neely

Never before had the families and supporters of MTCP’s incarcerated constituents gathered to tell their stories in one spot.

“The event was a huge success,” said Marshall Clabeaux, Codirector of MTCP, “We collected several letters on behalf of our constituents and were able to get a glimpse into the lives that are so drastically affected by the continued draconian and unnecessary incarceration of these men. Every story is different, but each of these men have proven they are ready to re-enter society and each of them is counting on the Governor to hear their pleas.”

The event made it clear that Michigan has a real problem with elderly prisoners being held beyond a reasonable time. At what point is enough, enough? Thompson asked, referring to the cruel and unusual nature of continuing to incarcerate the elderly for crimes they were convicted of in their youth, and in abusive conditions, while they no longer pose a threat.

Claudia Perkins-Milton at court hearing on Flint water settlement.

Flint resident and candidate for Flint School Board Claudia Perkins stressed that there exists a noticeable disparity in sentencing practices for People of Color. And the sole person that can do anything about it in many of these cases is Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

In 2019, Governor Whitmer issued an executive order, creating the Michigan Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration. The stated goal of the bipartisan task force was to examine why the prison population has tripled in Michigan over the last 40 years, and what can be done to reduce the population. If one of the aims of the Michigan Prison Task Force is to reduce the population of those incarcerated, finding candidates like the listed 12 applicants should be a starting point.

These men combined have served around 400 years and counting. When is enough ever enough, especially when they have aged out of criminality, are elderly and sick, and struggle each passing day just to get out of bed and hope for another day?

MICHAEL THOMPSON PROJECT FIGHTS FOR CLEMENCY FOR 11 MICHIGAN PRISONERS WHO HAVE SERVED 30-40-50 YRS. | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

LEROY WASHINGTON, DAUGHTER CO-FOUND NATL. ANTI-BULLYING PROJECT TO CHANGE, SAVE LIVES | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Thousands of protesters shut down Hall Rd. in Sterling Heights June 6, 2020 after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN, showing it is possible to mobilize against racism in Macomb County. Are such mobilizations needed to support Terry Wilson and others whose lives have been taken by Macomb Co. courts and police?

TERRY WILSON RE-TRIAL SET FOR FEB. 14, 2023 IN MACOMB COUNTY

Have issues of predominantly white juries, racist prosecutors been addressed before trial?

Family called earlier for change of venue

Wilson testified he was defending himself, but AP Jurji Fedorak told virtually all-white jury he “wanted to show how big of a man he is in his neighborhood.”

Ferrell

COA overturned Macomb County conviction of Reinaldo Jemison Sept. 15 citing defense failure to investigate and raise self-defense argument

By Ricardo Ferrell

With Editor Diane Bukowski

September 24, 2022

Channel 4 coverage of Terry Wilson’s overturned conviction in 2019.

MOUNT CLEMENS, MI – The fight to get justice for Terry Lamont Wilson of Clinton Township has been going on for nearly a decade. Family, friends and other supporters say they want to see him get the new trial that was granted in 2019 by Macomb Co. Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Faunce, after a 2014 trial was shown to be tainted by racism.

But they want a fair trial in front of a jury representative of the population of Macomb County, and a prosecutor who does not make racially biased statements at trial. They say Macomb County AP Jurji Fedorak is clearly planning to sabotage the case.

Terry Wilson’s mother LaShanda Kelley (r) and brother in court Aug. 16, 2022 (Photo Jameson Cook/Macomb Daily)

Court records show that Judge Faunce has set a trial date in the case for February 14, 2023.

“It’s been three long agonizing years waiting for Terry to get another trial and chance to hopefully prove that he never planned to kill William Clark, and that he only shot Willie because he feared him,” Corey Kennedy, a longtime friend of both Clark and Wilson, told VOD. He said he believes the jury got it wrong and his friend should have have been convicted of manslaughter, at most.

The U.S. Census reported in 2021 that 23.5% of Macomb County residents are from communities of color, including with 76% listed as white.

U.S. CENSUS 2021 REPORT ON RACIAL DEMOGRAPHICS OF MACOMB COUNTY, MICHIGAN

A jury of 11 whites and one Asian convicted Wilson of first-degree murder and felony firearm possession in Clark’s 2014 killing. Judge Faunce overturned the conviction in 2018 on appeal, after an evidentiary hearing on his motion for relief from judgement revealed that jury foreman Harvey Labadie called Wilson a “n—–r” during deliberations. Faunce did not address the issue of the racially exclusionary jury. Most mainstream media coverage has focused solely on Labadie’s remarks.

Macomb Co. AP Jurji Fedorak (l) MCCC Judge Jennifer Faunce (r)

According to a legal brief filed by appellate attorney Wade Fink, a juror believed to be Labadie also said “he believed defendant was guilty because he was ‘ghetto’ and ‘black’ and (murder) is what (ghetto black people) do, and this is the way they are.”

During Wilson’s first trial, Assistant Prosecutor Jurji Fedorak reinforced that depiction, telling the jury that Wilson “wanted to show how big of a man he is in his neighborhood.”

During a pre-trial hearing held August 16, AP Fedorak reneged on a plea offer that was originally discussed on July 15th with Gary Kennedy, the appointed appellate attorney now representing Wilson. The offer had a reported deadline of August 16th. If Wilson declined a plea to the lesser charge of second-degree, with a supposed cap of 25 years, he said the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office will take him to trial.

Macomb Co. AP, former Clinton Twp. police officer Vincent Collura

Homicide detective Gilbert, who investigated the death of William Clark, was present in the courtroom August 16. Clark’s brother DeAnthony Rodgers was also present in addition to Wilson’s mother LaShanda Kelley, and brother.  Vincent Collura, a former Clinton Township Police Officer who handled the original case, who is now assistant prosecutor, sat next to Fedorak.

Fedorak asked that the proceedings be adjourned until August 22, to give Wilson an alleged “last chance” to think about the 25 year offer. But an earlier upon offer given to Wilson’s previous attorney Robbie Lang consisted of 18 years and the mandatory two years for the firearm.

Lang, from the Law Offices of Michael J. Smith & Associates, wrote regarding that offer, “…We have also discussed with the prosecutor, what at this time, is the lowest possible sentence cap that would be approved by the mother of the victim and the higher authorities in the prosecutor’s office that controls these negotiations, being 18 years, plus the two years on the Felony Firearm… if in fact, this type of plea bargain and sentence cap can be agreed upon by all sides, it is our strong recommendation that you accept it…”

COA reverses Macomb Co. Judge Joseph Toia’s ruling in case of Reinaldo Jemison, remands for new trial including self-defense investigation

During the first trial, Judge Faunce herself included a possible charge of manslaughter for the jury’s consideration. It is not known if Wilson’s defense attorney at trial asked for that charge to be considered.

Reinaldo Jemison (l) MCCC Judge Joseph Toia (r)

On Sept. 15, 2022, the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed the 2019 second-degree murder conviction of Reinaldo Jamison, citing defense counsel’s failure to properly investigate or pursue a self-defense claim. The COA said Macomb County Judge Joseph Toia  erred when it accepted the “patently incredible testimony” of defense counsel David Cripps regarding evidence that Jemison had raised the self-defense claim to him from the beginning.

“Defense counsel was ineffective when he failed to properly investigate or pursue a self-defense claim,” the court said. “The trial court clearly erred when it accepted defense counsel’s patently incredible testimony on this issue. Moreover, defense counsel’s deficient performance in this regard is sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome of defendant’s trial. We therefore vacate his convictions and sentences, and remand for a new trial. We do not retain jurisdiction.” See: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-ontent/uploads/Warren-murder-conviction-reversed-by-the-state-Court-of-Appeals-–-Macomb-Daily.pdf.

Related:

COA ruling overturning conviction of Macomb Co. resident Reinaldo Jemison

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Reinaldo-Jemison-COA-9-15-2022.pdf

LIFER TERRY WILSON FACES NEW TRIAL IN HISTORICALLY RACIST MACOMB COUNTY; CHANGE OF VENUE NEEDED | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Deadline Detroit | Selweski: Ugly racial politics resurface in Macomb primary attack mailings

VOD must pay its quarterly web-host fee NOW! Or, it will fold and DISAPPEAR, taking 12 years of stories with it.

DONATE TO VOD NOW!

https://www.gofundme.com/VOD-readers-up

CASH APP at 313-825-6126 $MDianeBukowski

VOD Editor Diane Bukowski, Field Editor Ricardo Ferrell

By Diane Bukowski

September 5, 2022

DETROIT — The Voice of Detroit was founded in 2010, by its editor Diane Bukowski, when the Michigan Citizen newspaper dumped her after publishing 10 years of her ground-breaking stories, then went out of business three years later. Bukowski was known for her articles on prisons and the police, the dismantling of the City of Detroit, its departments and neighborhoods, the Detroit Public Schools, and multiple other issues.

Published pro bono, the Voice of Detroit has forged on, focusing since 2021 on articles related to the most dispossessed among us, whose lives are taken by mass incarceration and street executions by law enforcement. VOD Field Editor Ricardo Ferrell, incarcerated for decades, has helped keep that coverage going, with more than 40 articles from inside the walls of the MDOC. Photos of the subjects of those VOD stories appear in this post. To read the articles, put any name in  the VOD search engine at the top right of this page.

VOD ‘s first series of articles on the wrongfully convicted include these men.

VOD is financed out of the minimal fixed incomes of its editor and staffers, f0r the benefit of the people. Every quarter, we must pay a web-hosting fee which has now increased to $465.00, to keep VOD on-line, in addition to multiple other expenses.

VOICE OF DETROIT HAS LED THE WAY IN THE BATTLE FOR JUVENILE LIFERS,, PARTICULARLY FROM WAYNE COUNTY.

VOD DOES NOT EXIST WITHOUT THE INTERNET. If $465.00 is not paid this month, VOD and twelve years of its stories will DISAPPEAR from view. 

We are calling especially on the families and friends of those featured in VOD, prisoners in the Michigan Department of Corrections and the Wayne County Jail, and those killed by police, such as seven year-old Aiyana Jones,  to step forward and donate to keep VOD going. We implore other justice-seekers to step forward as well, including attorneys, advocates, and activists everywhere.

VOD has led the way particularly in fighting for Wayne County’s juvenile lifers, 50 of whom Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy has forced to continue battling for re-sentencing ten and more years since the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the practice. JLWOP is unknown across the globe, except in the United States.

Screenshots of Wayne County Jail detainess interviewed in March, 2022. Eleven detainees filed suit against the County in June, citing gross violations of their rights, led by Darrell Ewing (bottom right).

This year, VOD has covered the heroic battles of detainees in the Wayne County Jail, many held for up to four years in violation of their constitutional right to a speedy trial. The County has held trials at a snail’s pace, limiting them only to selected courtrooms.

The detainees have been denied even a “breath of fresh air” in recreation outside the jail, and even inside in the gym, since the COVID pandemic began in 2020, leading to severe deterioration of their health. They are denied in-person family visits, and their right to receive mail in a timely and legal fashion has been severely curtailed.

VOD Editor Diane Bukowski’s 10-year career with the Michigan Citizen was highlighted by her breaking stories on Serial Killer Kop Eugene Brown, and Detroit’s Booty Boys rapist cops Michael Osman and Michael Parish, as well as many others which exposed murderer police. VOD has continued that record, particularly with its coverage of the horrifying murder of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones in 2010 and continuing through the years of trials involved in the case. VOD was the ONLY media outlet which told the whole truth about the murder and the trials, while the mainstream media devoted itself to maligning Aiyana’s family. 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/DETROITERS-KILLED-BY-POLICE-1992-2020-merged.pdf

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                   DONATE TO VOD at

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