PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "That’s a question the investigative true crime podcast, "Proof," has been digging into during its current season, “Murder at the Bike Shop,” which launched earlier this year. And they aren’t the only ones. The Michigan Innocence Clinic, which has won relief in 45 cases on behalf of wrongfully convicted defendants since its inception in 2009, has also been digging into Kalamazoo’s old cold case team."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Looking at cases like Lard’s, as well as the others, Simpson said the cold case team displayed troubling patterns in how they went about their business. That included continuing to go back to witnesses with more information until they got the statement that matched their beliefs, she said. It appears they were more concerned with closing cases than objective truth, former defense attorney Susan Simpson said. “It’s not just Jeff. It’s not just Scott,” she said. “I don’t know how many more there are, but I think there needs to be a review of all these cases. “It’s just too big of a scale of a problem."
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STORY: "Did a Kalamazoo cold case team prioritize closing cases over objective truth?," by Reporter Ryan Bolder, published by Clive.com, on April 5, 2026. (Ryan Boldrey covers courts, community affairs and human-interest stories for the Kalamazoo Gazette and mlive.)
SUB-HEADING: "Earl O'Byrne's body was removed from the Kalamazoo Cycle Company on Harrison Street after he was found murdered in June 1988."
GIST: "Jeff Titus was arrested by a Kalamazoo County cold case team in 2001, accused of fatally shooting two hunters in 1990.
In 2002, despite numerous issues with his case, he was convicted of murder.
Titus always maintained his innocence, however. And after nearly 21 years behind bars and a lengthy legal battle, he was exonerated and released from prison in February 2023.
That cold case team was 15 for 15 in getting convictions among the cases it considered in the early 2000s.
Was Titus’ case the only one it got wrong?
That’s a question the investigative true crime podcast, "Proof," has been digging into during its current season, “Murder at the Bike Shop,” which launched earlier this year.
And they aren’t the only ones.
The Michigan Innocence Clinic, which has won relief in 45 cases on behalf of wrongfully convicted defendants since its inception in 2009, has also been digging into Kalamazoo’s old cold case team.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Jeff Titus poses in front of a billboard on Stadium Drive in Kalamazoo, Michigan, questioning whether there are more cases like his that a Kalamazoo County cold case team got wrong. Titus, convicted in 2002 for killing two hunters near his property in 1990, was exonerated and freed from prison in 2023."
In addition to representing Titus, the clinic has represented three other clients who were convicted after arrests by the Kalamazoo County cold case team. More are in the queue to be taken on, said clinical fellow Olivia Vigiletti.
One of those investigated by the clinic was the case of Scott Alan Baldwin, a central character in the podcast’s third season.
Baldwin, also arrested in 2001 by the cold case team, was convicted in 2002 for the 1988 murder of his former boss, 83-year-old bike shop owner Earl O’Byrne.
Like Titus, he always maintained his innocence.
Convicted based on testimony of an ex-girlfriend, and with no physical evidence tying him to the scene, Baldwin spent years attempting to appeal the jury’s verdict.
The Michigan Innocence Clinic, the Cooley Innocence Project and the Wisconsin Innocence Project all handled his case at different times.
There were red flags for appellate attorneys: DNA at the scene not belonging to Baldwin and changing key witness testimony. There were also silent observer tips not shared by the prosecution in initial trial discovery that suggested another suspect may be responsible.
“The fact that so many programs have looked at (and taken up) Scott’s case, it’s definitely a sign that this case smelled bad,” Vigiletti said. “Scott had to go through all our screening processes and all of us agreed that the case didn’t add up.
“It certainly is indicative of what I believe, and that is that Mr. Baldwin is innocent.”
Baldwin, who was 19 when his former employer was found murdered, would be released from prison in October 2025 after being resentenced as a juvenile lifer.
He died of cancer within days of his release.
“The first thing I knew about Scott’s case was that he was very, very sick and dying,” said Claire Ward, who represented Baldwin on behalf of the state appellate defender’s office at the time of his release. “The second thing I knew about Scott’s case was that he had quite a strong innocence claim that was likely not going to be able to be fully litigated in his lifetime.”
The only hope for Baldwin to be exonerated posthumously is through a governor’s pardon, Vigiletti said.
As Baldwin is now deceased, Vigiletti’s office is no longer working on his case.
A case her office is handling is the innocence claim for Jerome “Joe” Williams, one of five people found guilty in the August 2000 triple murder of the Polderman family: Sary and Marinus Polderman, who were in their 90s, and the couple’s daughter, Anna Lewis, 63.
Like Baldwin, Williams and the others were found guilty years after the incident in question.
Also, like Baldwin, DNA from the murder scene didn’t match any of the defendants. Furthermore, a lone set of boot prints found in blood at the scene didn’t match the foot size of any of the defendants, said Kevin Fitzpatrick, “Proof” executive producer.
That case is one of many from Kalamazoo County that Fitzpatrick, Jacinda Davis (episode “Evil Lives Here”) and former defense attorney Susan Simpson (episode “Undisclosed”) dig into as part of the 12-episode podcast season.
“One of the hard things about wrongful conviction is everyone loves the story on the day someone is getting out of prison, but no one really cares about it until that point,” Davis said.
By opening a number of these cases up, interviewing suspects, family members, attorneys and detectives involved, the “Proof” team hopes to change that.
One former Kalamazoo County sheriff’s detective, Rich Mattison, spoke out previously when the podcasters teamed up on Titus’ case. Mattison said he was removed from the case because he thought Titus was innocent.
Other detectives, such as former Kalamazoo Public Safety Sgt. Mike Werkema, who headed up the cold case team, stood by the team’s methods.
Werkema, who currently has civil action filed against him by Titus, declined an opportunity to speak on the podcast this time around.
Mattison stands firm in his belief that there are other cases the team got wrong.
One of those, he said, is Preston Lard Jr., who took a manslaughter plea and seven-year sentence to avoid trial for a 1994 murder.
The retired detective said he is certain Lard didn’t commit the murder.
It’s not unusual for someone to take a plea like Lard did, despite being innocent, Simpson said.
“He got a great deal, seven years versus the possibility of life,” she said.
Looking at cases like Lard’s, as well as the others, Simpson said the cold case team displayed troubling patterns in how they went about their business.
That included continuing to go back to witnesses with more information until they got the statement that matched their beliefs, she said.
It appears they were more concerned with closing cases than objective truth, Simpson said.
“It’s not just Jeff. It’s not just Scott,” she said. “I don’t know how many more there are, but I think there needs to be a review of all these cases.
“It’s just too big of a scale of a problem.
Of the 15 cases the cold case team studied, they got convictions in all of them, with 20 of 21 suspects being put away on charges.
Of those cases, three-quarters of them went to trial — much higher than the 20 to 25% of murder cases that get heard by a jury on average, Simpson said.
Each of those cases went cold in the first place because the original investigatory teams didn’t feel there was enough evidence to charge, Vigiletti said.
“They didn’t feel that they could, with any kind of certainty, say what happened here,” she said. “And the farther in time you get from a crime, it’s almost always much more difficult to solve. So, the idea that the cold case team could sweep in years or even decades later and solve everything does raise suspicions.”
To listen to the podcast, visit proofcrimepod.com or search “Proof” wherever you listen to podcasts."
The entire story can be read at:
did-a-kalamazoo-cold-case-team-prioritize-closing-cases-over-objective-truth.html
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. 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.
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;
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;
