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Harold Levy;
Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
"Reformers have for years recommended that all forensic labs be independent from law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies' and this is a key reform promoted by The Justice Project (2008). But fixing these problems is only half the answer' because half of the wrongful convictions attributed to misleading forensic evidence involved deliberate forensic fraud' evidence tampering' and/or perjury.
From "The Elephant in the Crime Lab," by co-authored by Sheila Berry and Larry Ytuarte; Forensic Examiner; Spring, 2009;
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GIST: Chicago homicide Detective Frank Laverty was about to go on
vacation in May 1982 when he read in the Tribune that a murder trial had
started for a Fenger High School honors student charged with the rape and fatal bludgeoning of a 12-year-old girl and severe beating of her younger brother.
Shocked, Laverty picked up the phone and called the courtroom at 26th Street and California Avenue, asking to speak to George Jones' lawyers. "I told them don't go any further until you've talked to me," Laverty later said in a sworn deposition. Within hours, he was on the witness stand testifying for the defense that his fellow detectives had buried crucial evidence pointing to Jones' innocence in a clandestine file that was never turned over to the teen's lawyers. Laverty's bombshell decision to blow the whistle on the police practice of keeping secret "street files" not only led to the charges against Jones being dismissed but also prompted wholesale changes in how detectives documented homicide investigations. Now, 34 years later, evidence from the Jones case is expected to be presented to a federal jury in a lawsuit brought by a former El Rukn gang member who claims Chicago police kept his street file from his attorneys in an effort to frame him for a notorious 1984 double murder that sent him to death row. Nathson Fields' file — with potentially crucial evidence never disclosed to the defense — was found decades later in the basement of a South Side police station, stuffed in an old file cabinet filled with scores of homicide cases. Fields' lawyers contend the street file shouldn't have even existed because the practice was supposedly banned after the Jones case imploded. Fields was exonerated in 2009 of the double murder after a retrial was ordered because the judge in his original case had accepted a bribe. Attorneys for the city, however, have long maintained that Fields was guilty of the murders and vehemently denied that any damaging evidence was concealed from the defense. It's the third time that Fields' 2010 civil lawsuit has gone to a jury at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. The first ended in a mistrial in 2014 when a detective being sued blurted out a reference to the El Rukns while on the witness stand that U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly had ruled off-limits. The verdict in the second trial — which awarded damages of only $80,000 to Fields — was overturned after the judge decided jurors should have heard evidence that a key witness against Fields, a former El Rukn hit man, had been freed from prison years early in exchange for his testimony. Unlike the first two trials, jurors this time are expected to hear evidence about how the controversy surrounding street files first exploded in the Jones case. Kennelly has also allowed Fields' lawyers to go through hundreds of old homicide cases discovered in the basement of the Area Central police headquarters to try to prove that the Police Department had a pattern and practice of keeping street files even after they were supposedly banned. Earlier this year, the Tribune detailed in a front-page story how Fields' lead attorney had spent more than a year trying to determine how many of the approximately 500 street files contained evidence that police and prosecutors hadn't disclosed at trials years earlier. At the time, attorney Candace Gorman said discrepancies were found in more than 90 percent of the street files — ranging from names and accounts of eyewitnesses that apparently were never disclosed to statements in detectives' notes that contradicted later versions of typed reports.........As Jones' case made its way toward trial, other revelations followed that Laverty thought pointed away from him as the killer. Just two months after the killing, a 21-year-old woman was raped and bludgeoned to death four blocks from the Pointer home. A known gang member was arrested and confessed to the crime. The man went by "King George" and generally fit the description Purvy had given of his attacker, the court records show. When Laverty questioned the man about the Pointer crime, he didn't deny responsibility but said he couldn't be sure because of "frequent blackouts." Then in October 1981, lab tests on semen and blood in the Pointer case came back without a match to Jones. One of the hairs found in the pantyhose in the house was also ruled out as belonging to Jones but could have belonged to "King George," according to the court records. When Laverty again relayed his concerns about the case to his supervisors, he said he was told not to worry because Purvy's condition was worsening and Jones would never go to trial. By the next spring, Laverty had moved on to other cases. He was about to leave for vacation in Colorado when he read a Tribune article detailing the first day of Jones' trial, including a dramatic account of how Purvy had burst into screams and tears on the witness stand after the prosecutor held up a pair of his dead sister's bloody underpants. That morning, Laverty made his fateful phone call to the courtroom. Jones' lead attorney, Jeffrey Haas, was nearby during a break in the trial, and the judge's clerk handed him the phone. Haas would later recall Laverty told him point-blank that "they got the wrong guy." "I said, 'I think so, too, but who are you?'" Haas said in a 2006 interview with the Tribune after Laverty's death. "He said, 'I'm Detective Frank Laverty. I investigated the case and I found another suspect and I was told they weren't going to prosecute George Jones.'" Laverty drove to the detective headquarters, pulled the street file in the case and told his commander he was going to put a stop to the trial, according to his deposition testimony. Later that day, Laverty carried the street file into the courtroom and testified outside the presence of the jury about what he had found. Judge William Cousins Jr. ordered an immediate halt to the trial so the state's attorney's office could investigate Laverty's claims. Four days later, the judge dismissed the case......... Laverty came back from vacation to find he'd been ostracized by his own department. He testified in his 2006 deposition he went to see the commander of the Area 2 violent crimes division, Jon Burge — who would later earn infamy for torturing confessions out of black suspects — to explain to him that it was a "screwed-up case" and he did what he felt was right. Burge said, "You're working afternoons and ... nobody's going to work with you and the state's attorneys aren't going to approve charges on your cases, and you're going to be dumped as a detective," Lafferty testified. But the payback didn't end there. Laverty was brought up on administrative charges alleging he'd testified without clearance from supervisors. Ultimately, the allegations were dropped, but Burge made good on his promise: Laverty never worked homicides again. Eventually, he was transferred out of the detective's division and spent the rest of his days performing administrative duties, including overseeing new recruits as they gave urine samples.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-police-street-files-trial-met-20161121-story.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/c
Shocked, Laverty picked up the phone and called the courtroom at 26th Street and California Avenue, asking to speak to George Jones' lawyers. "I told them don't go any further until you've talked to me," Laverty later said in a sworn deposition. Within hours, he was on the witness stand testifying for the defense that his fellow detectives had buried crucial evidence pointing to Jones' innocence in a clandestine file that was never turned over to the teen's lawyers. Laverty's bombshell decision to blow the whistle on the police practice of keeping secret "street files" not only led to the charges against Jones being dismissed but also prompted wholesale changes in how detectives documented homicide investigations. Now, 34 years later, evidence from the Jones case is expected to be presented to a federal jury in a lawsuit brought by a former El Rukn gang member who claims Chicago police kept his street file from his attorneys in an effort to frame him for a notorious 1984 double murder that sent him to death row. Nathson Fields' file — with potentially crucial evidence never disclosed to the defense — was found decades later in the basement of a South Side police station, stuffed in an old file cabinet filled with scores of homicide cases. Fields' lawyers contend the street file shouldn't have even existed because the practice was supposedly banned after the Jones case imploded. Fields was exonerated in 2009 of the double murder after a retrial was ordered because the judge in his original case had accepted a bribe. Attorneys for the city, however, have long maintained that Fields was guilty of the murders and vehemently denied that any damaging evidence was concealed from the defense. It's the third time that Fields' 2010 civil lawsuit has gone to a jury at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. The first ended in a mistrial in 2014 when a detective being sued blurted out a reference to the El Rukns while on the witness stand that U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly had ruled off-limits. The verdict in the second trial — which awarded damages of only $80,000 to Fields — was overturned after the judge decided jurors should have heard evidence that a key witness against Fields, a former El Rukn hit man, had been freed from prison years early in exchange for his testimony. Unlike the first two trials, jurors this time are expected to hear evidence about how the controversy surrounding street files first exploded in the Jones case. Kennelly has also allowed Fields' lawyers to go through hundreds of old homicide cases discovered in the basement of the Area Central police headquarters to try to prove that the Police Department had a pattern and practice of keeping street files even after they were supposedly banned. Earlier this year, the Tribune detailed in a front-page story how Fields' lead attorney had spent more than a year trying to determine how many of the approximately 500 street files contained evidence that police and prosecutors hadn't disclosed at trials years earlier. At the time, attorney Candace Gorman said discrepancies were found in more than 90 percent of the street files — ranging from names and accounts of eyewitnesses that apparently were never disclosed to statements in detectives' notes that contradicted later versions of typed reports.........As Jones' case made its way toward trial, other revelations followed that Laverty thought pointed away from him as the killer. Just two months after the killing, a 21-year-old woman was raped and bludgeoned to death four blocks from the Pointer home. A known gang member was arrested and confessed to the crime. The man went by "King George" and generally fit the description Purvy had given of his attacker, the court records show. When Laverty questioned the man about the Pointer crime, he didn't deny responsibility but said he couldn't be sure because of "frequent blackouts." Then in October 1981, lab tests on semen and blood in the Pointer case came back without a match to Jones. One of the hairs found in the pantyhose in the house was also ruled out as belonging to Jones but could have belonged to "King George," according to the court records. When Laverty again relayed his concerns about the case to his supervisors, he said he was told not to worry because Purvy's condition was worsening and Jones would never go to trial. By the next spring, Laverty had moved on to other cases. He was about to leave for vacation in Colorado when he read a Tribune article detailing the first day of Jones' trial, including a dramatic account of how Purvy had burst into screams and tears on the witness stand after the prosecutor held up a pair of his dead sister's bloody underpants. That morning, Laverty made his fateful phone call to the courtroom. Jones' lead attorney, Jeffrey Haas, was nearby during a break in the trial, and the judge's clerk handed him the phone. Haas would later recall Laverty told him point-blank that "they got the wrong guy." "I said, 'I think so, too, but who are you?'" Haas said in a 2006 interview with the Tribune after Laverty's death. "He said, 'I'm Detective Frank Laverty. I investigated the case and I found another suspect and I was told they weren't going to prosecute George Jones.'" Laverty drove to the detective headquarters, pulled the street file in the case and told his commander he was going to put a stop to the trial, according to his deposition testimony. Later that day, Laverty carried the street file into the courtroom and testified outside the presence of the jury about what he had found. Judge William Cousins Jr. ordered an immediate halt to the trial so the state's attorney's office could investigate Laverty's claims. Four days later, the judge dismissed the case......... Laverty came back from vacation to find he'd been ostracized by his own department. He testified in his 2006 deposition he went to see the commander of the Area 2 violent crimes division, Jon Burge — who would later earn infamy for torturing confessions out of black suspects — to explain to him that it was a "screwed-up case" and he did what he felt was right. Burge said, "You're working afternoons and ... nobody's going to work with you and the state's attorneys aren't going to approve charges on your cases, and you're going to be dumped as a detective," Lafferty testified. But the payback didn't end there. Laverty was brought up on administrative charges alleging he'd testified without clearance from supervisors. Ultimately, the allegations were dropped, but Burge made good on his promise: Laverty never worked homicides again. Eventually, he was transferred out of the detective's division and spent the rest of his days performing administrative duties, including overseeing new recruits as they gave urine samples.
In the end, the only material that was put in the
official police file that criminal defense attorneys could subpoena were
sanitized versions of the investigation typed up at a later date,
Laverty said."
The entire story can be found at:http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-police-street-files-trial-met-20161121-story.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/c
