FRAMED IN LIFE, DENIED EXONERATION
IN DEATH
On November 20, 2010,
Laurie Bembenek died, following a brief battle with liver cancer.
Her pardon application had languished before Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle's
pardon advisory board for two years. When public pressure mounted
on Doyle, in the closing days of his administration, to do the right
thing, Doyle's lack of a spine and a conscience became obvious.
First, he claimed that she had to appear at a pardon hearing.
Then he announced he was doing away with pardon hearings during the
last six weeks of his term, only to change his mind the next day and
reinstate hearings. The next lame excuse was a claim that
Laurie's pardon application was incomplete, that she had failed to
notify the DA and the judge and get forms completed by them. But
Laurie's steadfast investigator, Ira Robins, had personally served
notice on both the DA and the judge. So while Florida's Gov.
Charlie Crist pardoned the late Jim Morrison of the Doors for exposing
himself at a concert 40 years ago, Wis. Gov. Jim Doyle grasped at one
bogus excuse after another, to avoid pardoning a woman who was
sacrificed to protect so many law enforcement, crime lab and legal
careers.
The state's intent, of course, is to shovel the dirt
covering Laurie's grave over the unconscionable crimes committed under
color of law and in the name of "justice" to frame her for a murder she
didn't commit. They presume they are safe from exposure
now. They are wrong. Ira Robins has undertaken the task of
making public all the
evidence of Laurie's innocence and the guilt of everyone from the
trigger man who committed the crime to the crooked cops who planted
evidence, the prosecutors who hid evidence of Laurie's innocence and
the crime lab analysts who altered tests to back up the
prosecution. Find out what really happened. Why?
Because it can happen to YOU.
LAWRENCIA (BAMBI) BEMBENEK
A former Milwaukee,WI police officer, Laurie Bembenek was convicted in
1982 of murdering her husand's ex-wife, Christine Schultz.
Although Laurie was cleared in the court of public opinion
following her 1991 escape from prison and subsequent extradition
hearings in Canada, Bambi is still running to prove her innocence with
DNA tests. (The initial tests have been inconclusive,
although none of Laurie's DNA was found.)
|
|
KEY EVIDENCE WITHHELD
IN BEMBENEK CASE
Information
from sworn statements by state crime lab officials shows
that Laurie Bembenek did not kill Christine Schultz, who was murdered
in 1981, Bembenek's lawyer said. The
lawyer, Mary Woehrer, contends that Bembenek's conviction should be
overturned because, "Put together, there's no evidence left to convict
this woman. The whole case was based on fabrication."
BEMBENEK
APPEALS MURDER CONVICTION
The
attorney for Laurie Bembenek asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court on
Tuesday to overturn her 1982 conviction, arguing "there remains no more
evidence linking her to the murder."
The appeal contends new DNA and ballistics tests show Bembenek is
innocent in the 1981 slaying of her then- husband's ex-wife, Christine
Schultz of Milwaukee.
BEMBENEK:
REVERSE MY MURDER CONVICTION
Can
a person who pleaded no contest to a crime have her
conviction overturned now that DNA and other forensic tests have
exonerated her? That's
the question former Milwaukee Police Officer Lawrencia Bembenek wants
the U.S. Supreme Court to answer.
EXONERATED
Captain Douglas
Prade
Former Akron, Ohio police
captain Douglas Prade had served nearly 15 years of a
life sentence after being convicted
of the 1997 shooting death of his ex-wife, Dr. Margo S. Prade. But
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Judy Hunter ruled on January 29, 2013
that
DNA test results exclude him as a suspect and he is “actually innocent
of aggravated murder.” Hunter ordered that Prade be set free
immediately.
Lt. Todd Chism
Okay, Lt. Chism isn't a cop. He's a 20-year veteran
fire fighter from Spokane, WA. In Todd's case, this works much
the same way being a cop has worked against the other men and women
featured here. His years of service made him a target. When
his wife's identity was stolen and used to download child pornography
from the internet, what did the Washington State Police do?
Arrested Lt. Chism, of course. He's been suspended with pay since
January 29, 2008. The WSP may not always be right, but they are
never wrong. Even though no pornography could be found on Lt.
Chism's computers, WSP investigator Lt. Chris Gunderman says that
"doesn't mean he isn't guilty."
UPDATE: On May 1, 2008, the Stevens County (WA) prosecutor's
office announced that Lt. Chism will not be charged with possession of
child pornography. The Washington State Patrol reaffirmed that no
evidence of child pornography had been linked to Lt. Chism. The
officer who headed the investigation has been reassigned due to
"performance" issues.
Former Vancouver, WA police officer
Clyde Ray Spencer spent nearly 20 years in prison after he was
convicted of sexually molesting his son and daughter. Now, the children
say it never happened.
EVAN ZIMMERMAN
A
former western Wisconsin police officer on
trial for a second time in the murder of his
ex-girlfriend was cleared on April 29, 2005 after a district attorney
conceded he
couldn't prove his guilt. Eau Claire County District Attorney
Rich White
asked a judge to drop the first-degree intentional homicide charge
against Evan Zimmerman, whose previous murder conviction was overturned
on appeal.
UPDATE: Evan Zimmerman died of cancer on July 1, 2007, only two
years after his exoneration.
After he won his freedom, Zimmerman sued Eau Claire, WI Police for his
wrongful conviction. He lost that case in September, 2006.
TUNNEL
VISION
What drove the case against Evan Zimmerman is the same phenomenon that
drove the cases against Scott Hornoff, John Maloney and so many of the
other innocent men and women -- those who have been cleared and those
who languish in prison -- tunnel vision on the part of
investigators and prosecutors. Even when proven to be absolutely
wrong, they cling to theories that keep dangerous criminals on the
street and put us all at risk.
|
JEFFREY SCOTT
HORNOFF
Former Pawtucket, RI resident Todd Barry is behind bars after suddenly
confessing to the 1989 killing of Victoria Cushman, for which former
Warwick police detective Jeffrey Scott Hornoff has been in prison since
his conviction in 1996. Scott had exhausted his appeals and, with
the backing of the New England Innocence
Project and the National Police Defense Foundation, had been seeking
DNA testing in an effort to clear himself.
In
His Own
Words: Scott
Hornoff speaks out about his fellow officers, the media, prosecutors
and more.
Scott's Autobiography: WithPrejudice
|
REINSTATED:
On 1/6/04, RI
Superior Court Judge Joseph Rogers wrote, "An
innocent man should not have spent six years in jail for a crime he did
not commit, and an innocent man should not be burdened by a wrongful
conviction." With that, Judge Rogers ordered Scott reinstated to
the Warwick RI Police Department, with back pay and benefits.
CITY
STILL FIGHTING REINSTATEMENT: Two years after Scott's
exoneration, the City of Warwick continues to fight Judge Rogers' order
of reinstatement.
UPDATE: Scott and the City of Warwick have reached a settlement,
but there's a catch: Hornoff may lose
bulk of settlement to ex-wife.
JAMES
ANDROS, III
Returning home after an
evening out, James Andros, III, a veteran Atlantic City, NJ police
officer, the son of a police captain, calls 911 to say his young wife
is dead. The medical examiner rules the death a homicide — asphyxia by
suffocation — and the husband is charged with killing his wife, his
childhood sweetheart. Facing a life sentence, he loses his job and his
children, and finds himself vilified by neighbors and the news media.
Brutal wife killer? No. Botched autopsy.
Update:
Jim
Andros has filed a federal civil rights claim against Atlantic County
officials, alleging that they "conspired to concoct a
motive" with his in-laws and distorted or misrepresented evidence.
More Than a
Botched Autopsy
Update (4/20/07): Jim Andros has settled his claims against
Atlantic County for $2.3 Million. He will continue to press his
claims against Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey S. Blitz, First
Assistant Prosecutor Murray Talasnik, Sgt. Bruce DeShields, and Lt.
Eladio Ortiz.
KENNETH
CONLEY
On
Jan. 25, 1995, Kenneth Conley was a young patrol officer from South
Boston, MA dispatched to a shooting and foot chase. Pursuing one
of the shooting suspects on foot, Conley was so focused on his prey
that he didn't see other Boston police officers beating an undercover
officer. When he testified to what he saw -- and didn't see --
the U.S. Attorney charged Conley with perjury. His conviction was
overturned twice after it was
learned Asst. U.S. Attorney Theodore Merritt withheld from the defense
evidence that his star witness actually couldn't remember where Conley
was in relation to the location where the undercover officer was beaten.
WILDER
"KEN"
BERRY
In December, 1991, Ken Berry was a newly-hired officer with the
University of Chicago Police Department. But his world came
crashing down when a woman with whom he had consensual sex accused him
of rape. Thanks to a defense attorney later described by U.S.
District Judge Robert Gettelman as "clueless" -- he never prepared for
trial and failed to call witnesses who could exonerate Berry -- Ken was
convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison. In 1999, his
habeas was granted and he was retried. It took the jury less than
2 hours to acquit Ken. He has distinguished himself as a
litigation paralegal and in his pro
bono (free of charge) work with the poor and elderly, but what
he really wants is a pardon.
UPDATE: Police and court records relating to the arrest and
conviction of Wilder "Ken" Berry for a crime he has since been
exonerated of have been ordered expunged by Cook County Chief Criminal
Judge Paul Biebel. Gov. Rod Blagojevich refused Berry's request
for clemency, prompting Berry to seek a court order. "I may never
be financially compensated for losing those eight years, but my name
restoration means much more," Berry said.
STEVE
MANNING
A
federal jury has awarded
nearly $6.6 million in damages to former
Chicago police Officer Steven Manning, finding two veteran FBI agents
framed him for a Cook County murder that put him on Death Row.
The jury also held that one of the FBI agents also framed Manning in a
Missouri kidnapping case. Manning spent 14 years in prison before both
convictions were overturned and the prosecutions were dropped.
GARY
ENGEL
Along with Steve Manning, Willow Springs, IL police officer Gary Engel
was framed by an FBI agent and a Buffalo Grove, IL cop in the Missouri
kidnapping case. He spent 19 years in prison, was finally
exonerated in April, 2010, and has filed a lawsuit in federal court
against the FBI agent, the cop and the Village of Buffalo Grove.
OTHER WRONGFULLY CONVICTED COPS
AREN'T AS FORTUNATE AS THESE
-- THEY'RE STILL IN PRISON
A veteran Green Bay, WI police
officer, John Maloney was convicted of murder, arson and mutilating a
corpse in the 1998 death of his estranged wife, Sandra. But the
only
evidence of arson was concocted by the Wisconsin Department of Justice
investigators, who used forensic fraud and perjury to help a
now-disgraced prosecutor get the first conviction of a Wisconsin police
officer for the most serious felony under the law. Despite
compelling
evidence of his innocence, Maloney remains in prison for lack of legal
representation.
|
|
Defense attorneys for James A. Kulbicki
offered a
string of
alibi witnesses, and he flat-out said he didn't do it. He was, after
all, a Baltimore police sergeant, and, he insisted, not a killer.
But a state police ballistics expert named Joseph
Kopera helped
convict the officer by saying that bullet fragments found in his truck
and in his mistress' head could have come from his gun - testimony that
is now being questioned. Kopera recently killed
himself after being confronted with evidence that he lied about his
credentials. Kulbicki's attorneys challenged
Kopera's findings and assertions in
court papers filed a year earlier, arguing that the firearms examiner's
testimony did not match his notes. And that was before they discovered
that Kopera claimed to have degrees that he never earned.
Related: Baltimore
City public defenders have identified 55 felony cases
in which Kopera testified and have begun collecting the police reports,
court transcripts and other documents needed to determine what role his
analysis played in the defendants' convictions. Perjury by Forensics
Expert Throws Cases into Turmoil.
UPDATE: It's easy to understand why the Baltimore DA wanted to
blindside James Kulbicki and his attorneys. They have to be
steaming mad after Kulbicki's lawyers exposed the systematic forensic
fraud committed by police ballistics expert Joseph Kopera. But
their reach exceeded their grasp when they did DNA tests -- without
court approval or notice to Kulbicki's lawyers -- on bone fragments
that were contaminated 14 years ago when they were collected. Will One-Upsmanship
Replace Law and Science? [Includes full texts of state and defense
motions]
A
joint project by the Washington Post and 60 Minutes reviews the
conviction of James Kulbicki, in which key testimony and the science
behind it has been discredited.
People around the world are learning how the U.S. legal system works
based on James Kulbicki's case -- a web of lies woven around junk
science and blatant prosecutorial misconduct, a politicized judiciary
unwilling to correct injustice, and an apathetic public more interested
in entertainment than in truth. As Ludwig
De Braeckeleer capably demonstrates for South Korea's Oh My News, The Whole World is
Watching.
|
|
PATRICK BRADFORD
Patrick was a police officer in Evansville, IN, convicted of murder and
arson in the death of his girlfriend, Tammy Lohr. Irrefutable
records including a traffic stop and bank surveillance video confirm
that Patrick was nowhere near Tammy's house when she was killed.
Find out how absurd the prosecution's case was -- with no
physical evidence to support it
-- and ask yourself how jurors could be so gullible. Ask
yourself, too, how his appeals could fail.
|
|
JIM BARTON
Ten years after Vickie Barton was murdered on the farm she and her
husband, Lt. Jim Barton of the Springboro (OH) Police Department owned,
Jim was charged and convicted of masterminding her death. The
evidence? The word of a jailhouse snitch and notorious liar and
the prosecution's interpretation of Barton's 911 call for help.
Listen to the audio -- decide for yourself whether Barton said "I gotta
call for help" or "I gotta call Phelp."
|
Cameron Todd & Son
|
CAMERON
TODD
Cameron
Todd was a police officer in Houston, MS. He stood out in the
small community because his wife at the time, was
an Asian-American and
the couple, both from California, had no prior ties to Mississippi.
Cameron stood out even more when he began asking questions about gang
activities. One of the juveniles he questioned, a 13-year-old girl,
alleged Cameron had sex with her. He was convicted of sexual battery
and sentenced to 12 years in prison. The girl subsequently wrote to a
friend, admitting she had lied, that nothing had happened between her
and Cameron. A handwriting expert says the letter was signed by the
victim. The state crime lab says its tests were inconclusive and asked
to see more of the girl's handwriting. The Supreme Court of Mississippi
has decided not to allow the letter into evidence. Cameron remains in
jail.
Click HERE
to visit Cameron Todd's website. |
DAVID CAMM
On
Sept. 28, 2000, Kim Camm and her two children were victims of a triple
murder in New Albany, Ind. They were found shot to death at home in
their garage. But
just hours after the memorial service, police arrested their prime
suspect, David Camm, for murdering his wife and two children.
Camm, who claims his innocence, has a very good alibi. Eleven witnesses
say they were with him at the time of the murder. Nonetheless, he
was convicted. His conviction was overturned in August, 2004 --
but the charges were reissued and Camm was convicted again at retrial.
|
David Camm
|
|
UPDATE
- June 30, 2009 - David Camm's second conviction has been
overturned. Prosecutors say they intend to retry him.
For details and
updates, please visit Justice
for David Camm
|
Links
|
NATIONAL
POLICE DEFENSE
FOUNDATION DEFENSE CASES
The
National Police
Defense Foundation (NPDF), through its expanded
legal referral service program, provides legal and medical consultation
to any law enforcement
officer or
member in need. It is
the belief of the NPDF that the defense cases
posted
at its website reflect
alleged police injustices wherein the civil
rights
of dedicated law enforcement officers may have been violated.
|
|
|
