Davontae Sanford: Michigan: Bulletin: He says the Detroit officer who was the linchpin in the case, 'literally ruined my life' - and, on the heels of a decision by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to not seek perjury charges against former Detroit police officer James Tolbert, he tells the Detroit News that he still feels victimized by the criminal justice system..."Despite having his case vacated in June, his murder charges have yet to be dropped, as the judge overseeing his case continues to review unspecified elements of the case. “Having these charges hanging over my head ... it’s like I came home with chains on still,” Sanford told the News."...Investigators found Tolbert, more recently an ex-Flint police chief, had allegedly lied during sworn testimony, saying Sandford drew a crime scene map, when in fact he drew the sketch. The statute of limitations for perjury charges expired Wednesday."

"Davontae Sanford, a Detroit man who was released last month after serving several years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, said this week the Detroit officer whose testimony was the linchpin in his case “literally ruined my life.  On the heels of a decision by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to not seek perjury charges against former Detroit police officer James Tolbert, Sanford told The Detroit News in an interview that he still feels victimized by the criminal justice system. Despite having his case vacated in June, his murder charges have yet to be dropped, as the judge overseeing his case continues to review unspecified elements of the case.  “Having these charges hanging over my head ... it’s like I came home with chains on still,” Sanford told the News. Following an 11-month re-investigation by the Michigan State Police into the four homicides that landed Sanford in prison when he was 15, Worthy, in concert with Sanford’s attorneys, moved to dismiss his charges. Investigators found Tolbert, more recently an ex-Flint police chief, had allegedly lied during sworn testimony, saying Sandford drew a crime scene map, when in fact he drew the sketch. The statute of limitations for perjury charges expired Wednesday. ........The prosecutor said Sanford’s attorneys had conveyed in a letter he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights. “At this time, the case has not been dismissed by the court,” the prosecutor’s office said in a release. “The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office cannot issue charges knowing that there is a possibility that Mr. Sanford will not testify.” Sanford’s attorneys immediately pushed back on Worthy’s characterization of the letter. “Friday afternoon when I was out of the office, the prosecutor’s office dropped off an investigative subpoena for Davontae Sanford to testify Monday afternoon in an investigation of James Tolbert for perjury,” a statement from the attorney team reads. “I objected to this short notice by letter, and Mr. Sanford did not appear for an interview yesterday.” The statement continued: “Kym Worthy’s statement released today did not include an important part of the letter that I sent to her office.  I advised Ms. Worthy’s office in my letter that Mr. Sanford indeed would be willing to testify after the charges against him were dismissed.  “My letter stated that Mr. Sanford’s testimony would be ‘that contrary to Tolbert’s testimony before Judge Sullivan, James Tolbert drew the diagram of the house and Mr. Sanford drew the bodies based on information provided to him by the police because Mr. Sanford had no first-hand personal knowledge of his own as to their location.........Sanford told the News that he had every intention of testifying against Tolbert. “This man literally ruined my life,” he told the newspaper."

 http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/archives/2016/07/14/davontae-sanford-cop-who-investigated-case-literally-ruined-my-life

Related Michigan Radio story - "Davontae Sanford: exonerated, but not yet free, at the link below: "Davontae Sanford has been home for a little over a month now. One month -- after nearly nine years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Now, Sanford says he just wants to build a normal life. But he’s still got legal restrictions on his freedom........ .Sanford was arrested at age 14 after a brutal killing near his neighborhood in Detroit. He was interrogated without a parent or lawyer, and says police coerced him into giving a false confession. There was even a hit man, who told police: wait, no, you got the wrong guy, I killed those people. But it still took nearly 9 years for the prosecutor and judge to throw out the case against Sanford. Now, Sanford says, he’s taking life a day at a time. He gets up, goes to work, school… Tries to figure out Facebook and smart phones and all normal the things he missed.... The convictions have been vacated – but the murder charges still haven’t been dismissed But the thing is, Sanford can’t go to Cedar Point (that’s an amusement park in Ohio, by the way.) Because he still can’t leave the state. See, the judge in his case, Judge Brian Sullivan, let him out of prison, vacated his convictions…. But still hasn’t officially cleared the murder charges from Sanford’s record. So he’s still  on bond. That means no travel, and any violation could send him right back to jail. Sanford says he’s still on guard – he takes his ID with him every time he leaves the house, and he gets nervous when he sees police. “Because it’s like, I don’t want to go back to that place I just left,” he says. “And I don’t think I should I have to feel that. I’m out. Just let me go. What are you still holding me for? It’s like you let me out of prison, come home, and instead of living in a prison cell, I’m living in the city still. A bigger room. A bigger room.” So we’ve been calling the judge’s office a lot the last few weeks. Trying to get any explanation or comment about why the judge still has Sanford out on bond. Is the case just taking a long time to wrap up? Is this a paperwork thing? We keep getting the same response: no comment. We asked legal experts; they’re not sure what’s going on. But for Davontae Sanford, it feels pretty simple. “They say I’m a free man,” he says. “Well, let me be that. Let me be that. Let me be free.”"
http://michiganradio.org/post/davontae-sanford-exonerated-not-yet-free#stream/0