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Thursday, August 18, 2005
Ind. Courts - Amazing story from Evansville federal court
Maureen Hayden of the Evansville Courier& Press writes today of a police blunder in a federal drug trial Tuesday. Some quotes:
Zach Butler is a second-year law student from Indianapolis who spent much of his summer as a law clerk in the Evansville federal courts, but on Tuesday he mistakenly was identified by an Evansville police officer as the defendant in a drug-conspiracy case.[Update 8/19/05] The Louisville Courier Journal has a shorter AP version today, headlined "Man convicted in drug case was misidentified: Detective pointed to judge's clerk."The mistake occurred during a federal trial in which a portion of the evidence was thrown out because of an illegal search by city police officers. The officers, according to a judge's ruling, coerced occupants of the home to agree to the search by threatening to arrest them, and then threatened to jail an elderly resident of the home and take away her 8-year-old grandchild if she refused to sign a form that said she had voluntarily agreed to the search.
Neither incident stopped the three-day trial of federal defendant Raymond Walker III, 33, of Evansville, who was convicted late Wednesday on drug conspiracy charges.
While prosecutors lost part of their drug evidence, they still had phone recordings of Walker discussing drug deals and the testimony of Rose McCray, who was arrested after delivering drugs to an undercover officer. She testified Walker set her up with a "crack cocaine starter kit" in the spring of 2004. * * *
During [defense attorney John] Brinson's closing arguments, he noted the defendant had been misidentified in court by a drug detective, and asked jurors to disregard the rest of the officer's testimony. Brinson called the misidentification a "travesty" and a "disgrace."
The incident occurred Tuesday as Evansville Police Department detective Michael Kennedy was testifying about his role in a drug investigation last year, which was conducted by a joint task force of local, state and federal agents. Kennedy testified he took part in the surveillance of a controlled drug buy last December between a confidential informant and a suspect that he described as a black male. Kennedy testified he arrested the suspect minutes after the drug buy took place.
When asked by the prosecutor if the suspect was in the courtroom, Kennedy nodded affirmatively, but instead of pointing to the defendant and describing him, Kennedy looked toward Butler, a Valparaiso University School of Law student who spent the summer working as a law clerk in the federal courts in Evansville.
"He's wearing a dark suit with a purple tie," Kennedy said, describing Butler's clothing.
Butler is also black and was the only other black male in the courtroom at the time of Kennedy's testimony. Butler and other court officials appeared surprised by the statement, and Kennedy quickly apologized. He testified that a podium in the courtroom blocked his view of the defense table, where Brinson was sitting with the defendant.
Brinson asked U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young to stop the proceedings momentarily, and requested the record reflect that Kennedy had just mistakenly identified a member of the judge's staff as the drug defendant.
Young responded, "It certainly will." Brinson raised the issue again during closing arguments. "He (Kennedy) looked around and saw a black man and picked him out and said, 'That's the defendant,'" Brinson said. "... How much else in this case is guesswork?"
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Brookman told jurors that Kennedy's mistake was "inexcusable," but asked the jury to overlook it.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 18, 2005 08:14 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts