Families and exonerees rally against Detroit detective tied to coerced confessions and false convictions – Detroit Metro Times

They aren’t going away. 

Fifteen months after Metro Times exposed coerced confessions and illegally destroyed criminal files, exonerees and families of people still locked up are demanding action and a face-to-face meeting with Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. 

In July 2024, Metro Times revealed widespread misconduct tied to now-retired Detroit homicide Detective Barbara Simon and the illegal purge of prosecutor files from 1995 and earlier. The records were destroyed while Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan was prosecutor between 2001 and 2004, according to Worthy’s office. 

Families and exonerees rallied outside the Wayne County Criminal Justice Center in Detroit on Wednesday, calling on prosecutors to immediately review the Simon cases and meet with the families whose loved ones have been victimized by corrupt law enforcement. Despite public assurances that her office would meet with the families, Worthy has refused to live up to her promise, families say.

Marlon Taylor has been struggling to find justice for his brother, Damon Smith, who has been incarcerated for 26 years and has maintained his innocence since. When Simon interrogated him, Smith said she was belligerent and threatening and told him he’d be charged if he didn’t admit his involvement.

He maintained his innocence, and as a result, he said, he was accused of pulling the trigger. After Smith’s trial, where he was found guilty, another of Smith’s brothers, Patrick Roberts, who was a prosecution witness, later recanted in a letter saying Smith was not involved in the shooting.

“We’ve been at these protests for over a year asking for Kim Worthy to sit and talk to us,” Taylor said. “She hasn’t done that. She hasn’t answered our emails or phone calls. She hasn’t kept her word. So I just wanted to let it be known that this fight still continues.”

The prosecutor’s spokesperson, Maria Miller, didn’t respond to why Worthy hasn’t met with families but said the prosecutor has hired additional resources for the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), which was created in 2018 and has secured at least 15 exonerations since then. 

“Prosecutor Kym Worthy has hired a full time CIU attorney and a full time CIU detective who are currently working on a review of Barbara Simon cases,” Miller told Metro Times in a written statement.

Evidence of Simon’s misconduct has led to the exonerations of at least four men convicted of murder. A fifth man, who falsely confessed after being unlawfully imprisoned, was freed before his murder trial because DNA evidence showed he wasn’t the killer. 

Protesters also demanded a solution for inmates whose records were illegally destroyed, which makes it next to impossible to prove their innocence. The records contained a wealth of vital information, including police and forensic reports, lab results, transcripts, video recordings, and witness statements, all of which are essential for mounting a defense against wrongful convictions. 

Wednesday’s demonstration was at least the fifth since the Metro Times’ series was published. Since then, numerous inmates have come forward to say they are innocent and were either railroaded by Simon or their prosecutor files were purged.

Paris Jones was demonstrating because her brother, James Jones, insists he’s innocent and was railroaded by Simon and her fellow detectives. He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2002. 

“There’s no justice in the justice system,” Jones says. “It’s only a system built on rules that are corrupt. Honestly, a lot of the police officers in his case are corrupt. A lot of them are being prosecuted now to this day, and they’re still not trying to take another look at his case.”

Reached by phone, James Jones says he was arrested without a warrant, and detectives coerced witnesses into identifying him. He also later found exculpatory evidence that police had never turned over to his defense attorney.

“These are the tactics they were taught,” James Jones says. “Instead of doing what’s right, they’re using these tactics. They do this so they can get a conviction.”

Darryl Dulin-Bey has been in prison for 35 years for a murder he says he didn’t commit, and his options are limited because his prosecutor files were destroyed. His mother and grandmother died while he was locked up. 

“All his records came up missing, so he’s still sitting in prison,” his brother Larry Dulin says. “It’s like they rigged the case against him. They talk about justice. What justice? All these records are gone, and people are still in jail. Where’s the justice?”

Exonerees Mark Craighead and Lamarr Monson, who started the nonprofit Freedom Ain’t Free to help others who were wrongfully convicted, organized the protest to demand immediate action. Since the Metro Times series was published, they say numerous other inmates have come forward with claims that they too are innocent and were victimized by Simon or couldn’t access their files because they were purged. 

“Since Kim Worthy wouldn’t talk to us, we brought the families back out so someone will listen to them,” Craighead says. “It seems like Worthy forgot about Barbara Simon and the purge. We’re here to demand something be done.”

Craighead falsely confessed after Simon violated his rights, denying him an attorney and holding him without a warrant.  

Monson, who spent 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit after Simon’s tactics led to his false confession, reached an $8.5 million settlement with the city in October. 

“You have the purged files. You have a person like Barbara Simon who was actively framing guys for murders and crimes,” Monson says. “So for her to go out of her way to get these guys in a position so they can be convicted, it’s just a travesty, and it’s the very injustice that she needs to be held accountable for.”

In 2022, Kendrick Scott and Justly Johnson, who spent 19 years in prison for a murder they didn’t commit on Mother’s Day in 1999, each reached an $8.5 million settlement with the city. In their cases, Simon was accused of coercing two young, intoxicated people into incriminating Johnson and Scott.

Craighead’s lawsuit is still in court.

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