MANSFIELD: “Testalying”

“Testalying”

By Mansfield Frazier

JEERS: To the PD (and local TV stations) for passing on covering the Feb. 5 debate in the race for county prosecutor, but rushing out to cover a killing at the same venue hours later. It’s hard to determine why assignment editors didn’t feel the debate (by candidates vying to win arguably the first or second most important elected position in the county) wasn’t worthy of attention… but it could simply have been the fact it was held at The Kitchen, in the middle of the African-American community on 68th and Superior Avenue. Granted, the facility would not be confused with Landerhaven; it is patronized by and popular with a wide segment of the diverse population of Ward 7.

Too bad… a genuine civic responsibility could have been carried out — I mean, since media outlets are always harping on civic responsibility, right? But obviously, like candidates Tim McGinty and Kevin Kelly (who didn’t show up either), they had “better” things to do.

Yet, three hours after the debate, when an armed irate customer showed back up at the establishment and threatened the owner, staff and customers (with not one, but two hand guns) because his fish dinner wasn’t to his liking (man, I’ve heard of tough restaurant critics, but this was way over the top)… it caused the owner to grab a shotgun and blast the would-be badass far into eternity… and all the media was there skippy-on-time. Thus once again proving the old adage “if it bleeds it leads,” and also proving the media isn’t afraid to go into the ‘hood — it just depends on the story to be covered.

All of this begs the question — does the media really want crime to go away or have they made us so jaded, insensitive and mesmerized by a steady diet of violence over the years that producers of the local evening news shows now feel they cannot hold our attention long enough to sell us the latest “miracle” cure being pushed by Big Pharma (to make us younger, or able to have regular bowel movements, or to stop us from pissing like antiquated racehorses) absent a large dose of gore and guts?

Just so there’s no confusion, unless I’m missing something here, the media would rather cover crime itself— instead of covering efforts by citizens to put in place an elected official that hopefully would help reduce crime. I guess they feel reducing crime simply won’t rivet our attention sufficiently enough, or in the manner desired by Madison Avenue marketers and pollsters.

Folks, the media (knowing or unknowingly — it’s hard to say which since they live in this country alongside the rest of us) is greasing our skids… making our national descent down that slippery slope to obliviousness, irrelevancy and mediocrity swifter and more sure. That hollow laughter you hear is emanating from the far corners of the globe where those who relish our demise watch our collective stupidity with glee and eager anticipation of our loss of hegemony.

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But I digress; this was supposed to be a piece about the debate. In spite of the lack of media coverage the show went on, and for many in the crowd of over 100 people it was their first opportunity to see and hear the four candidates who attended up close and personal.

As in most political debates (except presidential, where lunacy seems to sometimes rule) each of the candidates responded to questions in an appropriate manner… i.e. the one which they felt would curry the most favor with potential voters. However, the real purpose of getting each of them on record — as to their intentions if and when they assume the office — in a public forum was adequately fulfilled. No real surprises or no real gaffes. But a series of public debates is sorely needed.

One interesting twist… Subodh Chandra pulled a copy of the PD out from under his chair and held it up for the audience to see. The front page featured one of the November, 2010 series of articles “Presumed Guilty” which highlighted the flaws of the current prosecutor’s office. The fact the PD ran that somewhat amazing series critical of Bill Mason back in 2010 makes the paper’s failure to cover the debate all the more perplexing.

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Old joke among Blacks: We all look alike to White folks until they get on the witness stand… then they can always tell us apart and make a 100 percent positive I.D.!

I bet a fellow journalist that Tim McGinty would be a no-show at the debate and of course I won… he was nowhere to be seen in the ‘hood. But his “Failure to Appear” might have had something to do with a washcloth from 1988. It was a semen-stained washcloth that freed Michael Green from prison 13 years after he’d been sent up for 10-to-25 years for a rape he didn’t commit. The prosecutor on the case was Tim McGinty.

A bit of context is needed. When a white woman is raped by a black man at a hotel on the campus of one of the largest and most prestigious hospitals in the country, the pressure on police to arrest, try, and convict someone is absolutely tremendous and unrelenting.

The victim (who was being treated for cancer) told police the rapist, as he wiped his genitals off with a washcloth, said his name was “Tony.” Coincidentally, Green’s first name actually is “Anthony” but he’d never used it, and no one ever called him “Tony.” However, he’d been fired from the hospital’s maintenance department a few months prior to the crime, so, based solely on his name on his former work I.D. badge he became the prime suspect. Great bit of detective work there, right?

Oh, the victim did I.D. Green based on his work photo, but, years later, when the real culprit confessed to the crime (and DNA proved conclusively the man had committed the rape), he bore no physical resemblance to Green… not even the slightest. Go back and re-read the old joke.

Former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro explains how this often goes down in his frank and forthright 2011 book, False Justice: Eight Myths that Convict the Innocent: Police will show a victim an array of photos, including one of the person they suspect (or, in the Green case perhaps someone they really didn’t suspect, but were desperately attempting to find someone to pin the crime on to clear the case up quickly so their bosses won’t start giving them the fish eye, worried about the institution’s reputation).

Often none of the other photos provided to the victim look anything like the suspect. And if the victim doesn’t immediately pick the person the investigators want out of the photo lineup, no problem, not to worry, they’ll just come back the next day with more photos.

When officers return on the following day, they have a different set of photos… well, almost a different set… the one exception being the photo of the prime suspect has once again been included in the lineup. They again ask the victim if any of the images look familiar.

The tactic is underhanded but not unusual; the victim this time usually points to the suspect and says something like, “Well, he looks very familiar.” Well, of course he looks very familiar — you just saw his photo yesterday! But of course the cops don’t say that, they just say “Bingo! We’ve got our man.”

Wham, bam, thank you mam… case closed. Well, almost… the evidence still has to be made to fit the crime. You read right… that’s how criminal investigations in some jurisdictions throughout the U.S. are carried out, especially if the alleged perpetrator is Black, poor or both: Find a probable suspect, and then force the facts to fit some scenario a jury will believe and buy into… the truth of the matter be damned. The joke among some detectives is, “hey, if he didn’t do this one, he’s done something else, right?… ha, ha, ha.” The disgusting aspect of American criminal justice is the liberty of “the other guy” is treated with such utter disregard and lack of respect. But it wasn’t always thusly in America, trust me.

What happened in Michael Green’s case is that he was flat-out framed — tried, convicted and shipped off to prison for a rape he didn’t commit.

Yet, even when admitting to a crime he didn’t commit would have shortened his sentence (the parole board always wants to see an acceptance of responsibility before they’ll even consider cutting anyone loose), Green steadfastly continued to maintain his innocence. So much so that a fellow prisoner one day told him about an organization that was helping prisoners prove their innocence.

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Barry Scheck is the co-founder and co-director (along with Peter Neufeld) of The Innocence Project, which was started at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in NYC back in 1992. It wasn’t long before he introduced a new word into the American criminal justice lexicon: Testilying. No, not testifying… but testilying, a practice they found to be so pervasive, so allopatric among police officers and others who swore to tell the truth from witness stands it boggled the mind.

The folks at the Innocence Project agreed to take a look at Green’s case and asked civil rights attorney Al Gerhardstein of Cincinnati to help. They ultimately regained the freedom of an innocent man, but first we need to examine how an innocent man went to prison in the first place.

One of the things the lawyers at The Innocence Project soon discovered after they began taking on cases from jurisdictions across the country is that some medical examiners and forensic analysts were routinely slanting evidence and flat-out lying to help prosecutors win their cases. Testilying.

Fortunately Green’s stepfather had gone to school at night to become a paralegal; he was able to locate the washcloth that had the DNA evidence on it (it was in a box among other evidence from the trial) yet it took two years of legal wrangling before Cuyahoga County prosecutors were finally forced to give it up for testing. When the DNA conclusively proved Green did not commit the crime, he was released from prison but it still took another two years after his release before he was given a penny the money falsely incarcerated individuals are entitled to.

After Green’s release, his subsequent civil lawsuit against the City of Cleveland revealed that Joseph Serowick, a forensic analyst employed by the city, falsified forensic tests and lied when testifying for the prosecution in Green’s case. The civil lawsuit also showed similar misconduct in Serowik’s work on other cases in Cleveland. As part of a settlement agreement with Green, the city began an audit of 16 years of cases to determine whether misconduct led to other wrongful convictions. Subodh Chandra was the law director for the City of Cleveland at the time and he took the charges very seriously. Serowick was suspended and subsequently fired when evidence of a persistent pattern of wrongdoing emerged.

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Of course McGinty now falls back on the oldest and most despicable excuse imaginable to explain away his culpability in the Green case: “I was just doing my job.” It’s akin to saying that if wrongdoing was done… it was done by others, not by him. Sure, yeah, right.

In criminal cases someone has to orchestrate the investigators, witnesses and experts, and that someone is always the assistant prosecutor.

In Michael Green’s case why did it take two years and a judicial order before the washcloth was released for DNA testing? Isn’t it a prosecutor’s job to seek out the truth, not to just win convictions? This is the type of stalling that routinely went on under Mason, and would continue if the wrong person is elected.

After it was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Serowick was a serial liar and probably a perjurer as well, McGinty still recommended him for a job teaching at Youngstown State University (he currently is on the Richmond Heights Secondary School Faculty, teaching physical and forensic science). Should someone who holds so little regard for justice and fair play hold a job where these values are critical?

At one point McGinty even suggested that Green was somehow responsible for his own conviction. Hey, after all, he was Black and his name was Tony, right? And this is the guy who wants to run the county prosecutor’s office.

 

From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.

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3 Responses to “MANSFIELD: “Testalying””

  1. John Ettorre

    As you no doubt know from your own TV talking head stint a few years ago, Mansfield, local TV “news” isn’t at all about news or the community’s need for enlightenment on the issues. It’s merely about who can be louder and more manipulative on the race to the bottom. Ten years ago, these shameless jackals at least pretended to have some journalistic component to what they did. But even that pretense has mostly burned away.

  2. Mansfield great article keep them coming. I had no idea how screwed up our justice system really is. I try to avoid it at all costs like most of us. We really need to elect some new blood. Why wasn’t Serowick tried and convicted? He is guilty of a crime here. How can a man live with himself knowing he falsified evidence and sent an innocent person to jail?

  3. Beth

    Umm, how can accuse them of missing a debate on Feb. 5? It’s not even Feb. 5 yet.

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