COMMENTARY: "Brevard’s wrongful convictions still need probing," by Scott Maxwell, published by The Orlando Sentinel on March 28, 2017.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Pam Bondi went on TV in 2010 and promised to probe cases involving a bogus dog handler expert that helped lead to convictions in dozens of cases. In 2017, a whole lot of nothing has happened."
GIST: Nearly a decade ago, Bill Dillon walked out of a prison cell
where he had spent 27 years of his life for a crime he didn’t commit. Dillon had been wrongly convicted by cops and prosecutors in Brevard County who were desperate to solve a gruesome murder. After he was convicted, a key witness recanted her testimony. Then,
the lead “expert” — a dog-handler whose dog supposedly placed Dillon at
the scene of the crime — was exposed as a charlatan who manufactured
“evidence” when cops couldn’t make legitimate cases. Finally, DNA evidence proved Dillon’s blood did not, in fact, match the murderer’s. In 2008, the nation watched as Dillon, who had entered jail a naive 22-year-old, walked out as a 49-year-old man. The story was almost inspirational. Except it is not. Instead, Dillon’s tale is just one chapter in a dark and twisted story of injustice that still isn’t fully told. Dillon,
you see, is just one of three men whose convictions were later
overturned — all three convicted by the same prosecution team with help
from the same fraudster dog-handler in the 1980s. Yet dozens more men were convicted in the same or similar way. At least one is still behind bars. The cases have never been formally re-examined. It is way past time. Florida Today has given new life to this cause with a 14-part series, “Murder on the Space Coast,”
where veteran journalist John A. Torres looks at the men who were
wrongfully convicted and one, Gary Bennett, who is still behind bars. The
stories are all similar. There was a heinous crime — a particularly
violent rape, stabbing or murder. There was a furious public. There were
cops and prosecutors desperate to make a case — but short on actual
evidence. And there was an unsympathetic suspect — a loner with a
history of pot use or maybe drunken driving who didn’t have many
resources to defend himself. In every case, the cops brought in
the same “expert” — dog handler John Preston, whose dog would supposedly
“track” the suspect’s scent, months later or even once underwater — to
magically place the suspect where cops needed him to be. Preston
did this in more than 30 cases in Brevard before judges in two states
declared him a fraud — a fact that should rattle the soul. I spent three years trying to raise attention for this issue from 2009 to 2012. I consider it one of the biggest failures of my journalistic career. No one — Charlie Crist, Rick Scott,
former Attorney General Bill McCollum or former State Attorney Norm
Wolfinger — would push for answers. They all said that anyone who was
wrongfully convicted should get his own lawyer, the same way Dillon did …
over the course of 27 years. Finally, I had an idea. In 2010,
there was a new race for attorney general. So I approached every
candidate running — every Republican and every Democrat. I gave them the
history of the cases and asked, if elected, if they would promise to
conduct a thorough investigation into every person Preston helped
convict. Not a promise of exoneration, mind you. Just a promise to fully
probe all the cases where juries had gotten bad information to see if
justice had truly been served. Every candidate promised they would … including the eventual winner. Pam Bondi
claimed to be so keen on probing the Preston cases, she went on
national TV to campaign on the issue. I still remember her calling me on
a Saturday night in August of 2010. It was three days before her GOP
primary, and Bondi was preparing to go on Geraldo Rivera’s show on Fox
News. She wanted all the background on the cases. I helped her. Not because I cared about her campaign, but because I cared about justice. Bondi then went on TV, acting outraged and indignant about Preston’s bogus testimony, telling Rivera: “This guy was using junk science, claiming that this dog could find weapons underwater. It was unreal. Now we learn that there are are at least four people in Florida still in prison!” Bondi made it clear that, if elected, she would conduct a thorough probe herself. But she never did. Though her office said it looked at the cases, it never released any kind of detailed report. A
thorough, independent probe is needed. Gov. Rick Scott could order one.
So could Bondi. But frankly, after all this time, I think only the feds
could provide a thorough, independent examination. One thing that is clear, as Florida Today is reminding us: Justice has not been carried out in Brevard County.
The entire commentary can be found at:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-bill-dillon-wrongful-convictions-bondi-scott-maxwell-20170328-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/
The entire commentary can be found at:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-bill-dillon-wrongful-convictions-bondi-scott-maxwell-20170328-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/
