Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Baltimore man sues police for wrongful conviction


Alleges witnesses were coerced to identify him in 1986 murder

By Heather Cobun
HCobun@TheDailyRecord.com

A Baltimore man exonerated of murder in January is suing the Baltimore Police Department for his 1987 wrongful conviction.

Gary Washington, 58, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Faheem Rafig Ali and served 31 years before his conviction was vacated, according to the complaint, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Washington alleges his conviction was the result of an “unjust and underhanded process” by police that involved “pointed and repeated threats” to witnesses.

Washington always maintained his innocence and filed multiple appeals, according to the complaint. Eventually a witness who was a child at the time of the murder came forward and said he had been coerced into fabricating testimony implicating Washington.

“After spending more than 31 years locked in a cage for a crime he did not commit, Plaintiff was finally cleared of the charges against him and released from custody,” the complaint said. “This lawsuit seeks redress for his injuries.”

Washington, who claims the police department’s policy of conducting flawed investigations led to his conviction, cited past cases that eventually resulted in exonerations due to withheld exculpatory evidence, such as inconsistent witness statements.

Ali was killed on Dec. 27, 1986, during an argument with two men on the street, according to the complaint. Homicide detectives found two child witnesses days later who said that they had seen two men speaking to Ali just before he was shot but claimed that they did not know the men’s identities.

Police threatened the mother of one child when they learned he was a witness and said they would take him away from her if she did not bring him to the police station, according to the complaint. At the station, the 12-year-old boy was questioned alone and shown pictures, including Washington’s; he maintained that he did not know who shot Ali, the complaint said.

The officers told the child they would take him from his mother and charge him with a crime if he did not cooperate and identify the shooter, according to the complaint, which said the boy signed a statement falsely identifying Washington.

The second child witness was isolated and questioned near the crime scene and also denied knowing who shot Ali, according to the complaint. Officers later questioned the girl at the police station, demanding that she cooperate and threatening to take her from her mother or arrest her mother, the complaint said.

The police never disclosed to the prosecution or defense the initial statements by both children that they did not know the shooter’s identity.
Washington was arrested and indicted less than two weeks after the murder. He was convicted in June 1987.

One of the child witnesses recanted nearly 10 years later and said his statements had been coerced, according to the complaint. A judge granted Washington’s petition for writ of actual innocence in August 2018, and in January 2019 the state dismissed the charges against him.

“The BPD’s failure to train, supervise, and discipline its employees effectively condoned, ratified, and sanctioned the kind of misconduct that the Officer Defendants committed against Plaintiff in this case,” the complaint alleges. “Constitutional violations such as those that occurred in this case were encouraged and facilitated as a result of the BPD’s practices and de facto policies.”

The lawsuit seeks damages for violations of Washington’s state and federal due process rights, malicious prosecution, detention without probable cause, failure to intervene and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Washington also argues that the city is responsible for the police department, despite its status as a state agency, for having a policy or practice of violating constitutional rights.
Baltimore City Solicitor Andre M. Davis declined to comment on the case Wednesday.

Washington is represented by Gayle Horn, Jon Loevy, Roshna Bala Keen and Renee Spence of Loevy & Loevy in Chicago. Attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The case is Gary Washington v. Baltimore Police Department et al., 1:19-cv-02473. 

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