OAKLAND, Calif. - Two men on Thursday filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against an Oakland homicide detective and the City after they were exonerated of murder.
Cartier Hunter and Giovante Douglas were convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2016 for the murder of a man after a traffic altercation in Oakland.
Years later, the chief witness in the case admitted that she was paid as much as $30,000 to lie on the witness stand at the urging of Oakland Police Homicide Det. Phong Tran.
"Two men who were robbed of close to a decade of their life, in the prime of their life, due to the unlawful illegal despicable and criminal conduct of an Oakland police officer," said their lawyer Adante Pointer.
Hunter and Douglas declined to speak on the steps of the same Alameda County courthouse where they were convicted.
But emotions were clear on the Douglas's face as his lawyer described the decade-long ordeal suffered by the two men and their families.
"As you can see from Mr. Douglas, this is not just a lawsuit written on a piece of paper. This is his life. This is the proof, the evidence, the carnage, that Officer Tran caused these young men, to have to suffer, through the torture, of being criminally prosecuted, convicted, label a murderer, all supported by lies," said Pointer.
Attorneys say along with compensation, they are hoping for systemic reform of the justice system.
Tran has been released on bail and remains on administrative leave from the Oakland Police Department.
Tran pleaded not guilty in April to felony perjury, bribery of a witness, and other charges.
At least 125 other cases involving Tran are expected to be reviewed, according to the district attorney.
Tran's preliminary hearing is on June 12."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.ktvu.com/news/exonerated-men-file-civil-rights-lawsuit-against-city-of-oakland-police-officer
In May 2021, attorney Matthew Dalton filed a state petition for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of Douglas. The petition said that Weber had recanted her trial testimony and admitted that she had not witnessed the shooting. Moreover, Weber said that Detective Tran had paid her as much as $30,000 for testifying.
In an affidavit, Weber said that at the time of the shooting, she had “significant money problems.” She had left her husband with her two children and moved from Fairfield, California to Oakland. “I was unemployed. Instead, I sold drugs in order to get money for myself and my children. We were basically homeless.”
Weber said she and the children were living in homeless shelters in nearby Richmond and San Leandro. After taking the children to school, she would visit the neighborhood in North Oakland and “sell drugs if I had the opportunity.”
At the time of the shooting, Weber said she was about seven blocks from where Butler was shot. “I never went to 46th Street,” she said. “I did not see the person or persons that shot Mr. Butler. I did not see any car that may have been involved in the shooting.”
She said she believed she could get paid and get housing if she agreed to be a witness in the case. She said she had heard on the street that police suspected Douglas and Hunter were responsible for the shooting. After seeing the news report about Butler’s family, Weber said she went to the police and talked to Tran. She said she falsely told them she saw the shooting and identified Douglas and Hunter.
She said she then began receiving payments from the police department. “Those payments came in cash and checks,” Weber said. She said Tran delivered the payments to her at a Starbucks coffee shop.
She said that at one point she and Tran had lunch with Butler’s family. “The family was very friendly and I sympathized with them,” Weber said. “I was very reluctant to continue to cooperate with the police, but I felt obligated to help the family. I was convinced that the police had arrested the correct men.”
Prior to the trial, she told a friend, Nate Reed, that she was testifying even though she had not seen the killing. Reed provided an affidavit for the habeas writ confirming that in 2013, after Weber told him what was going on and that she was working with Detective Tran, he urged her to tell the truth. “She told me that the police were paying her money and that she really could not get out of it,” Reed said. “She was worried she would lose her children if she did not help the police….I told her that she was doing a very dangerous thing.”
Reed said that in April 2021, Weber reached out to him to ask for help in finding a lawyer because “she was trying to fix the mistake she made…She said that she wonder[ed] if they were really involved and is very worried that she helped send two men to prison for something they did not do.""
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
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