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Tag: Mark Craighead

  • Worthy promises deeper look at past convictions after system failures exposed – Detroit Metro Times

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    Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Monday she plans to conduct more sweeping, system-wide reviews of past convictions after a newly released report detailed how an innocent Detroit man spent nearly nine years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

    The report lays out how numerous failures across the justice system led to the wrongful conviction of Eric Anderson, who was arrested in 2010 based solely on a single eyewitness identification later found to be unreliable. Anderson was exonerated in 2019 after another man confessed.

    “I think when mistakes are made it’s prudent to determine how and why they were made to ensure they are not made in the future,” Worthy said at a news conference Monday. “I like that this review is done in a blame-free environment to get to the heart of the problem. I am hopeful that the adoption of these recommendations will help prevent future wrongful convictions and increase public confidence in the criminal justice system.”  

    The 54-page review was conducted by the Wayne County Sentinel Event Review Team, a first-of-its-kind coalition of prosecutors, Detroit police, defense attorneys, judges, and innocence advocates coordinated by the University of Pennsylvania’s Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, a nonpartisan group designed to prevent errors in the criminal justice system. The group spent 18 months reviewing every stage of Anderson’s case, from an uncorroborated, high-risk identification to rushed pretrial hearings and missed investigative steps, to determine how each part of the system failed.

    Eric Anderson (left) served nine years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery, and Eron Shellman served 32 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of murder. Today the men support the work of the Organization of Exonerees, which held its third annual gala Oct. 27 in Detroit. Credit: Courtesy photo

    “By bringing stakeholders together across agencies, we can trace how a case progressed through the system, identify the points where checks and balances failed, and develop reforms that strengthen accuracy at every level,” John Hollway, senior advisor to the Quattrone Center, said. “This process was not adversarial. Everyone came to the table wanting to learn.”

    The review identified 40 contributing factors and 25 recommendations, including strengthening eyewitness identification procedures, improving investigative documentation, exploring alibi evidence earlier, enhancing training for attorneys, and ensuring key witnesses are secured before trial.

    Valerie Newman, director of the Prosecutor’s Office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, called the process “prickly at times” but necessary.

    “Mr. Anderson’s wrongful conviction resulted from systemic breakdowns despite the good-faith efforts of police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and jurors,” Newman said. “The review underscores that eyewitness misidentification remains one of the most powerful drivers of wrongful conviction. Strengthening procedures around identifications is essential to ensuring that the system protects the innocent and holds the guilty accountable.”

    Worthy launched the Conviction Integrity Unit in 2017. Since then, the office has secured relief for 43 people, most of whom were serving life sentences.

    “We do over 60% of all the cases in the state,” Worthy said of her office’s criminal case load. “We can always be better and do better, and we are committed to doing so.”

    Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison said the department welcomes the scrutiny.

    “My mantra is continuous improvement,” Bettison said. “I welcomed the review from the beginning. I’m all in. I would encourage other law enforcement agencies to do the same.”

    Newman said the importance of such reviews is learning what went wrong.  

    “We have to learn the lessons,” Newman said. “Nobody becomes a police officer or a prosecutor to put an innocent person in prison. But these mistakes happen.”

    Even as Worthy pledged more systemic reviews, families of men convicted under controversial former Detroit homicide detective Barbara Simon say they’re still waiting for the same level of transparency and urgency.

    Simon has been accused in lawsuits of using coercive interrogations, fabricating evidence, and relying on unconstitutional tactics that have led to at least 18 federal lawsuits, according to a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Justice. Four of those lawsuits have cost taxpayers roughly $25 million in taxpayer-funded settlements. 

    More than a year after Metro Times exposed widespread misconduct tied to Simon, and after Wayne County acknowledged that thousands of old case files were illegally destroyed before Worthy took office, families say they’ve seen little movement.

    In a new civil rights complaint filed with the DOJ, exoneree Lamarr Monson, who was wrongfully convicted based on a false confession Simon secured, warns that dozens of people remain imprisoned because of her tactics.

    “To this day, men whose convictions were tied to Simon remain incarcerated, unable to secure justice due to lost files, missing evidence, and institutional resistance,” Monson wrote. “Simon’s history is not an anomaly — it is symptomatic of a department that rewarded abusive tactics while ignoring accountability.”

    Advocates say the sweeping review of Anderson’s case shows what can happen when police, prosecutors, courts, and defense agencies collaborate honestly to figure out what went wrong. Now they want the same commitment applied to Simon-linked convictions, many of which cannot be fully reviewed because critical records were destroyed under former prosecutor Mike Duggan, Detroit’s current mayor.

    Worthy said she is reviewing patterns and trends and remains committed to freeing the innocent, but families say they are still waiting for concrete action.

    Protesters gathered outside the prosecutor’s office in October to call on Worthy’s office to meet with the families of inmates who say they were wrongfully convicted because of Simon. Worthy offered to meet with them but has since backed down. 

    Mark Craighead, who was exonerated in 2022 for a murder he didn’t commit, says Worthy’s office has an obligation to investigate all of Simon’s cases. 

    “It seems like Worthy forgot about Barbara Simon,” Craighead tells Metro Times. “But we haven’t forgotten, and we’re calling on the prosecutor to meet with the families. Too many innocent people are in prison because of Barbara Simon.” 

    Worthy didn’t mention Simon by name, but said the CIU is reviewing cases tied “that have patterns and trends.” 

    “I welcome more of these types of cases,” Worthy said. “My job is to ensure no one else has to go through what Mr. Anderson did.”

    For many families still fighting to overturn wrongful convictions, that promise may now be the most important part of the report.


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    Steve Neavling

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

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    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.

    Related story

    Do conviction integrity units really work?

    This is the first installment in “Exploring Integrity: Reviewing Wrongful Conviction Remedies,” a series examining the impact of conviction integrity units on the American judicial…


    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.”

    Paris Jones is trying to prove her brother, James Jones, is innocent. Credit: Steve Neavling

    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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    Steve Neavling

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  • Civil rights complaint targets Detroit police misconduct and Wayne County records purge

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    Overview:

    Exonerees are calling for a “full federal investigation” of destroyed case files and the harsh actions of a homicide detective.

    A civil rights complaint is urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Detroit’s wrongful convictions and Wayne County’s illegal record purge that advocates say landed numerous innocent people in prison and blocked exonerations. 

    In a letter sent to the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, Freedom Ain’t Free, a Detroit-based nonprofit led by two exonerees, is asking for a “full federal investigation” under the Justice Department’s police misconduct authority. 

    “The people of Detroit deserve transparency and justice,” the complaint says, adding that years of “unchecked prosecutorial misconduct” and “abusive practices” have disproportionately harmed Black defendants.

    Central to the complaint is retired Detroit Police Homicide Detective Barbara Simon, whose deceptive and coercive interrogation tactics were the subject of a two-part Metro Times series in July 2024. Simon’s techniques led to at least four exonerations and five lawsuits, which so far have cost taxpayers about $25 million. All of the men were charged with murder, and some of them falsely confessed after they say Simon illegally isolated suspects without access to attorneys or phones, fabricated evidence, and threatened life prison sentences unless they signed statements she drafted.

    The letter cites 11 inmates who have reached out to Freedom Ain’t Free, saying they were also victimized by Simon’s tactics. 

    “This list demonstrates that Simon’s misconduct is not a matter of history alone, but an ongoing crisis impacting numerous individuals and families who remain trapped by wrongful convictions,” the letter, written by exoneree Lamarr Monson, states.

    In October 2024, Monson reached an $8.5 million settlement with the city after he alleged Simon tricked him into falsely confessing. Based solely on that false confession, Monson was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of a 12-year-old at a drug house in Detroit. He was 24 years old at the time and was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison.  

    According to the letter, Simon has been sued at least 18 times in federal court. Michigan courts, including the state Supreme Court, “have already found statements obtained by Simon to be unreliable and her credibility deeply compromised.”

    The complaint spotlights the case of Mark Craighead, who was convicted in 2002 and later won relief after new evidence showed a “common scheme of coercion and falsification.” Craighead alleged Simon told him he would “spend the rest of his life in prison if he did not sign” a confession written by the detective.  

    Under duress, Craighead signed the confession and was convicted of manslaughter in 2002. He was freed from prison in 2009 and exonerated in 2022.

    The letter also calls for an investigation into the illegal destruction of felony and misdemeanor case files when Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan was the elected county prosecutor. Between 2001 and 2004, while Duggan was prosecutor, most if not all records from 1995 and earlier were allegedly destroyed in violation of state law. 

    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. What makes the file purge especially concerning is that it involved records from a deeply troubling era in Detroit’s Homicide Division, a time plagued by rampant misconduct, false confessions, constitutional abuses of witnesses and suspects, and a widespread federal investigation. In the 1980s and 1990s, the misconduct among police, especially homicide detectives, was so pervasive and egregious that the DOJ demanded reforms to avoid a costly lawsuit while Duggan was the county prosecutor.

    Duggan has repeatedly denied that his office was behind the destruction of records. 

    Freedom Ain’t Free says the missing files have impeded innocence claims and post-conviction reviews, including work by the Wayne County Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), which was created in 2018 and has secured at least 15 exonerations since then. 

    The complaint points to incarcerated people like Carl Hubbard, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1992 without any physical evidence and “cannot prove his innocence after his case file vanished.” It also argues that the wholesale destruction of records undermines due-process rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments and constitutes obstruction of justice. 

    As Metro Times previously reported, Wayne County officials have acknowledged that large swaths of older prosecutor files cannot be found. Current Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office has said the purge occurred before she took office in 2004 and has hampered appeals and CIU work. 

    The complaint alleges that Detroit murder cases in the 1980s and ’90s were rife with coerced confessions, witness intimidation, and Brady violations, or when prosecutors fail to disclose evidence. It cites more than 30 wrongful convictions from that era and notes that “no officers, prosecutors, or officials have faced discipline, demotion, or termination.”

    The filing highlights three recurring problems: 

    • Reliance on jailhouse informants and scripted statements later recanted or disproved.
    • Detectives “concealed” leads and evidence in separate files that were not turned over to the defense. 
    • About 88% of exonerees from these cases are Black men. 

    The Detroit Police Department operated under a federal consent decree beginning in 2003 after the DOJ found unconstitutional arrests, detentions, and interrogation practices. Freedom Ain’t Free argues the civil rights abuses of those years kept innocent people in prison, particularly those with missing case files.

    The complaint requests subpoenas for records tied to the record purge, a review of convictions linked to discredited officers and jailhouse informants, and a top-to-bottom audit of cases that involved Simon. 

    “The people of Detroit deserve transparency and justice,” the letter states. “The destruction of evidence, unchecked prosecutorial misconduct, and the abusive practices by detectives such as Barbra Simon have perpetuated a cycle of harm, disproportionately impacting Black communities. We implore the DOJ to act swiftly to restore faith in the rule of law.”

    More than a year after a Metro Times investigation revealed the widespread misconduct of Simon and the destruction of prosecutor files, families of men still imprisoned because of her tainted cases are growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of accountability and action. 

    Worthy has pledged that her office would investigate Simon cases, but despite public promises, protests, and mounting evidence of wrongdoing, Worthy has yet to meet with victims’ families or launch a transparent investigation into their loved ones’ convictions.

    “To this day, men whose convictions were tied to Simon remain incarcerated, unable to secure justice due to lost files, missing evidence, and institutional resistance,” the complaint states. “Simon’s history is not an anomaly — it is symptomatic of a department that rewarded abusive tactics while ignoring accountability.”

    Whether the complaint gets any traction is another question. Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department has pledged to halt oversight of police misconduct cases. 

    “The DOJ under Biden found police were wantonly assaulting people and that it wasn’t a problem of ‘bad apples’ but of avoidable, department-wide failures,” Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “By turning its back on police abuse, Trump’s DOJ is putting communities at risk, and the ACLU is stepping in because people are not safe when police can ignore their civil rights.”


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    Steve Neavling

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  • Exonerated men demand criminal probe of ex-Detroit detective accused of misconduct

    Exonerated men demand criminal probe of ex-Detroit detective accused of misconduct

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    Steve Neavling

    Mark Craighead (left) and Lamarr Monson were both exonerated of murder.

    Two men who were exonerated of murder implored Detroit police on Thursday to investigate a former homicide detective who is accused of two decades of misconduct that led to false confessions and wrongful imprisonment.

    Mark Craighead, who spent more than seven years in prison after falsely confessing to murder in June 2000, alleges retired Detective Barbara Simon engaged in a pattern of criminal wrongdoing by committing perjury, illegally detaining suspects for long periods without a warrant, and assaulting and threatening witnesses.

    Simon was featured in “The Closer,” a two-part Metro Times series that exposed her aggressive and illegal tactics that led to false confessions and wrongful imprisonment. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Simon was known as “the closer” because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements. Her method of confining young Black men to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant, making false promises, and lying about evidence that didn’t exist led to the false imprisonment of at least five men.

    “We missed out on so much time with our families, and she’s still walking the streets and collecting a pension. She’s still free,” Craighead said in a news conference outside Detroit Public Safety Headquarters. “We’re demanding accountability. We want her arrested.”

    Craighead was joined by former Detroit Police Commissioner Reginald Crawford and Lamarr Monson, who spent 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Monson blames Simon for bungling the investigation in 1996.

    Crawford said everyone who was complicit in the wrongful convictions needs to pay a price.

    “They need to say to the world and to the media, ‘These are the people responsible for the wrongful convictions. They will be held accountable,’” Crawford said.

    Craighead filed a criminal complaint against Simon with the Detroit Police Department on Sept. 4, and DPD said it would investigate.

    Craighead said he’s committed to freeing innocent people who are still in prison because of Simon.

    “They’ll be in prison for the rest of their lives unless we do something about it,” Craighhead said.

    On Aug. 28, the exonerees and families of prisoners rallied outside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, calling for an independent and extensive review of all of Simon’s cases. Earlier this month, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said she plans to expand a unit dedicated to exonerating innocent people by hiring an attorney to review Simon’s cases.

    Craighead said it shouldn’t have taken so long for Simon to come under scrutiny.

    “Barbara Simon should have been investigated a long time ago,” Craighead said. “They knew what she was doing.”

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  • Prosecutor Worthy requests funds to investigate cases handled by detective featured in Metro Times series

    Prosecutor Worthy requests funds to investigate cases handled by detective featured in Metro Times series

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    AP Photo/Paul Sancya

    Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is under fire for failing to investigate cases handled by retired Detroit Detective Barbara Simon.

    A little more than a month after Metro Times published a two-part series exposing a former Detroit detective who used illegal tactics to elicit false confessions and witness statements, both prosecutors and police oversight officials pledged to take action Thursday.

    Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy plans to expand a unit dedicated to exonerating innocent people, and the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners is investigating complaints that Detective Barbara Simon engaged in a pattern of criminal wrongdoing.

    On Thursday, Worthy requested an increase in funding for her Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), which is tasked with freeing innocent people from prison, after she told county officials that news reports suggested that Simon “may have tainted many cases.”

    “My view is, if you’re running an office, you should never be afraid to look at old convictions to make sure they were done the right way,” Worthy said.

    Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, a former Detroit police chief, is proposing the increase in CIU funding in his budget that still needs approval from the Wayne County Board of Commissioners.

    Worthy said she was getting hammered in the media for declining to comment on investigating Simon’s cases. She said she wanted to wait until Evans supported the increase in funding for the CIU.

    “I wanted to make sure that funding was approved by you and that will give me an opportunity to hire someone to focus on those cases,” Worthy said.

    Worthy launched the CIU in 2018 to review old cases to determine if people were wrongfully convicted. But the unit is understaffed and overwhelmed with cases, according to Valerie Newman, head of the CIU.

    Since the CIU was created, she said, prosecutors have received 2,311 requests to review cases. Of those cases, the CIU reviewed 1,177.

    The CIU’s work has resulted in 38 inmates either being exonerated or their cases being dismissed. A disproportionate number of those cases occurred in 2020, the year Worthy was running for reelection.

    By contrast, only three cases were dismissed since January 2023.

    None of the CIU’s cases involved defendants who accused Simon of misconduct, leaving potentially innocent people with very little recourse.

    “Currently, there is a backlog of requests for conviction review that the CIU is working through,” Newman told Metro Times last month. “The CIU strives to handle all claims with care and attention as it works through its backlog.”

    Also on Thursday, four members of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners spoke in favor of an investigation into Simon, who was known as “the closer” in the 1990s and early 2000s because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements. Her methods of confining young Black men to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant, making false promises, and lying about evidence that didn’t exist led to the false imprisonment of at least five men. Many more innocent people are still behind bars because of Simon, activists and defense attorneys say.

    Mark Craighead, who was exonerated after spending more than seven years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit and has led the effort to investigate Simon’s cases, says he’s relieved that authorities are beginning to take action. But he’s skeptical of Worthy’s office handling the investigations, saying prosecutors tried to keep him and three other exonerees in prison for years before it became abundantly clear they were innocent.

    Craighead, another exoneree, and family members of inmates who say they were convicted because of Simon’s misconduct protested outside of Worthy’s office on Aug. 28, calling for an independent counsel to investigate Simon’s cases and demanding a meeting with Worthy.

    “We still want to meet with Worthy,” Craighead tells Metro Times. “And we want an independent investigation, not an in-house investigation. We don’t trust her office.”

    Craighead called the CIU’s proposed budget expansion “a good step, but it’s not the right step,” he says, to address the hundreds of cases that Simon handled during her career.

    On Wednesday, Craighead filed a criminal complaint against Simon with the Board of Police Commissioners. He alleges Simon repeatedly engaged in criminal conduct by committing perjury, illegally detaining suspects for long periods without a warrant, and assaulting and threatening witnesses.

    Some commissioners are asking the police department to investigate Simon’s actions while she was a detective and determine if anyone else was complicit in her misconduct.

    But Commissioner Linda Bernard said more needs to be done and called for creating a task force to investigate Simon. She said the task force could include Detroit’s Office of Inspector General, the Michigan State Police, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

    “I don’t think that what we’re suggesting is enough, quite frankly,” Bernard said. “I do not think this is something that is a casual situation. There are major civil rights issues that have been raised in this matter.”

    During the meeting, Commissioner Chairman Darryl Woods suggested that the board get into contact with the prosecutor’s office and the Michigan Innocence Clinic, which previously helped exonerate four people convicted as a result of Simon’s investigations.

    In an interview with Metro Times on Friday, Woods reiterated his support for urging the proper agencies to investigate cases handled by Simon, who has been sued four times for wrongful convictions.

    “Communicating with the right entities that have the authority to look at the cases and make the decisions about them is the best thing we can do,” Woods says. “This situation is not lost on us.”

    Woods has a reason to be suspicious of improper investigations. He spent nearly 29 years in prison for a murder he says he didn’t commit. In 2019, Woods was released from prison after former Gov. Rick Snyder commuted his sentence. A trial judge determined that witnesses in Woods’s case may have committed perjury.

    “I understand the pain of the wrongfully convicted,” Woods says.

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  • Exonerated man files criminal complaint against former Detroit detective featured in Metro Times series

    Exonerated man files criminal complaint against former Detroit detective featured in Metro Times series

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    Mark Craighead, who was exonerated after spending more than seven years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, filed a criminal complaint Wednesday against the Detroit detective who elicited his false confession in June 2000.

    Craighead alleges former Detective Barbara Simon engaged in a pattern of criminal wrongdoing by committing perjury, illegally detaining suspects for long periods without a warrant, and assaulting and threatening witnesses.

    Simon was the subject of a two-part Metro Times series that exposed her aggressive and illegal tactics that led to false confessions and wrongful imprisonment. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Simon was known as “the closer” because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements. Her method of confining young Black men to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant, making false promises, and lying about evidence that didn’t exist led to the false imprisonment of at least five men.

    Many more innocent people are still behind bars because of her actions, activists and lawyers say.

    Craighead filed the complaint with the Detroit Police Department, alleging cops, prosecutors, and judges looked the other way while Simon repeatedly committed crimes and violated the rights of Black Detroiters.

    “What she did was criminal,” Craighead tells Metro Times. “If one of us did that, we’d be in jail. Yet Barabra Simon is still walking the streets. She should have been arrested.”

    Craighead pointed to a bombshell statement by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Shannon Walker when she granted him a new trial in February 2021. She said Simon “has a history of falsifying confessions and lying under oath” and that Craighead’s case demonstrated “a common scheme of misconduct.”

    “Not only has this Court already found statements obtained by Simon not to be credible, but so too has the Michigan Supreme Court,” Walker said.

    “This impeachment evidence demonstrates that Simon has repeatedly lied as part of her misconduct, which would allow a jury to evaluate whether to trust her testimony in light of information demonstrating a character of truthfulness,” Walker added.

    The Michigan Court of Appeals agreed with Walker.

    Craighead says the courts’ acknowledgements that Simon committed a pattern of crimes should have prompted an investigation.

    “It’s very powerful,” Craighead says of Walker’s statements. “That tells you that the courts and prosecutors know about her. So why hasn’t she been investigated? Now that I filed a complaint, they have to look into it.”

    At a Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Thursday, Commissioner Willie Burton asked why DPD wasn’t investigating Simon after the Metro Times series was published in July.

    Deputy Chief Charles Fitzgerald claimed the department was unaware of the allegations, despite the courts’ allegations and those made by numerous suspects and witnesses. In fact, Simon has been sued by four exonerated men, and each lawsuit laid out very specific allegations of criminal misconduct against her. Two of the lawsuits have been settled for an average of $8 million apiece.

    “I have not seen any of these complaints or allegations,” Fitzgerald told Burton.

    Burton responded that the alleged crimes occurred while Simon was a DPD employee and asked whether the department would investigate.

    “If those allegations are brought forward to us, yes, but they have not been,” Fitzgerald said.

    His response prompted Craighead to file the complaint.

    Craighead was assisted in filing the complaint by former police commissioner Reginald Crawford, a former Detroit officer and Wayne County sheriff’s deputy.

    “There can never be justice without accountability,” Crawford tells Metro Times. “DPD and everyone involved needs to be held accountable.”

    The complaint is just the latest action taken in the last month by Craighead, other exonerees, and families of inmates who say they were wrongfully imprisoned because of Simon’s misconduct.

    On Aug. 28, exonerees and family members of inmates marched outside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, demanding an independent investigation of all of Simon’s cases.

    In a written statement, Prosecutor Kym Worthy responded that she has “been working on a monetary way to address this situation.”

    “I will know more after my budget hearing on September 5th,” Worthy said. “I should be able to discuss this in more detail after the hearing.”

    The Michigan Innocence Clinic, which helped free four inmates who were victimized by Simon’s conduct, said many more innocent people are likely in prison because of the former detective.

    “All of the family members I talk to ask me, ‘Why isn’t Barbara Simon in jail?’” Craighead says. “Everyone knew this was happening, and no one did anything about it.”

    In 2000, Simon accused Craighead of fatally shooting his friend three years earlier. He was locked in a small room for hours without a warrant or access to an attorney, food, or phone call. When he refused to incriminate himself, he was held in a vermin-infested jail cell.

    A day later, Craighead says Simon falsely claimed they had evidence tying him to the murder. They did not. He ended up signing a confession that Simon wrote after she claimed he would spend the rest of his life in prison if he didn’t admit to a story she concocted, according to his lawsuit.

    “I was tired, dirty. I had a migraine,” Craighead said on the local podcast ML Soul of Detroit after the Metro Times series ran. “Everything was going wrong. I was terrified.”

    Phone records later showed that Craighead was working at Sam’s Club at the time of the shooting, which resulted in his exoneration.

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    Steve Neavling

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  • Families and exonerees rally against former Detroit detective accused of misconduct, wrongful convictions

    Families and exonerees rally against former Detroit detective accused of misconduct, wrongful convictions

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    Protesters gathered outside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday, calling for an independent and extensive review of all cases handled by a former Detroit detective accused of putting innocent Black men behind bars for two decades.

    Demonstrators also urged Prosecutor Kym Worthy to file charges against retired Detective Barbara Simon for allegedly committing perjury and unlawfully detaining suspects and witnesses while working in the homicide division in the 1990s and early 2000s.

    The protest was prompted by a two-part Metro Times series that showed how Simon confined young suspects and witnesses to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant. She also elicited false confessions and witness statements that were later recanted.

    Four men have been exonerated so far, and a fifth was released before his murder trial because DNA evidence cleared him.

    “We want Barbara Simon locked up,” said Mark Craighead, who was exonerated after spending seven years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. “She repeatedly committed perjury, illegally detained suspects without warrants, and threatened witnesses.”

    Craighead falsely confessed to fatally shooting his friend in June 1997 after police detained him without a warrant and refused to let him call an attorney. After spending a night in a rodent-infested jail cell, Craighead was worn down and signed a confession written by Simon, who was known as “the closer” because of her ability to secure convictions.

    Protesters chanted, “Free the innocent,” and “No justice, no peace,” while marching outside the new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center in Detroit. They held signs that read, “Kym Worthy is unworthy of your vote,” and, “We want independent investigations.”

    They’re urging Worthy to meet with them.

    After the protest, Worthy told Metro Times in a statement that she is working on a potential solution.

    “I have been working on a monetary way to address this situation,” Worthy said. “I will know more after my budget hearing on September 5th. I should be able to discuss this in more detail after the hearing.”

    Among those marching were relatives of Black men still in prison after Simon handled their cases.

    Latonya Crump’s brother Damon Smith has been behind bars since Simon interrogated him in 1999 for a murder he insists he didn’t commit. He said Simon was belligerent and threatening and told him he’d be charged with pulling the trigger 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, Smith’s brother Patrick Roberts, who was a prosecution witness, later recanted in a letter, saying Smith was not involved in the shooting.

    “It’s very frustrating to know that he’s locked up for something he didn’t do,” Crump said. “I want a proper investigation. It’s important that everyone who was improperly convicted get a new trial.”

    Steve Neavling

    Protesters hold up a sign in support of Damon Smith, who has been in prison for 25 years.

    Lamarr Monson, who spent 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, blames Simon for bungling his investigation in 1996. Like Craighead, Monson had no criminal record, was interrogated for hours by Simon, and was denied access to a phone and a lawyer, according to court records. He was convicted of murder based on a false confession that was later contradicted by evidence that should have been presented at his trial.

    Monson, who was exonerated in 2017, said he owes it to the innocent people still in prison to continue fighting for their release.

    “This is what humanity is about,” Monson said. “Everyone should be fighting for the innocent people in prison. Barbara Simon set up young Black men to go to jail, and she needs to be held accountable.”

    Detroit Police Commissioner Willie Burton said he supports an extensive investigation.

    “This tragic case shows why we need effective oversight in Detroit,” Burton said. “We cannot afford to have even one citizen’s rights violated and wrongfully spend even an hour in jail. I will continue to fight on the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners to ensure we eliminate the backlog of citizen complaint reviews and hold the department accountable.”

    Also among the protesters was former Detroit Police Commissioner Reginald Crawford, who used a megaphone to call on Worthy to meet with demonstrators.

    “Kym Worthy, come down and talk to us,” Crawford said. “Let’s have a conversation. You are stealing the lives of the unlawfully incarcerated.”

    Worthy’s office has a Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), which is tasked with freeing innocent people from prison, but the unit hasn’t worked on cases related to Simon, despite her troubling history.

    “This exposes the Conviction Integrity Unit for not having integrity if they are not holding people like Barbara Simon accountable,” Crawford said.

    Craighead and other protesters said they don’t plan to stop rallying until a full investigation of Simon’s cases is completed.

    “If we don’t speak out, wrongfully convicted people are going to spend the rest of their lives in prison,” Craighead said. “I get calls all the time from people who say they are innocent and in prison because of Barbara Simon.”

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    Steve Neavling

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  • Pressure mounts on Wayne County prosecutor to investigative detective’s misconduct cases featured in Metro Times series

    Pressure mounts on Wayne County prosecutor to investigative detective’s misconduct cases featured in Metro Times series

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    The Detroit Police Department said it’s “fully committed to cooperating” with prosecutors to review cases handled by a former police detective who terrorized young Black men for nearly two decades.

    The former detective, Barbara Simon, was featured in a two-part series in Metro Times that revealed she had confined young suspects and witnesses to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant. She elicited false confessions and witness statements that were later recanted.

    So far, four men have been exonerated for murders they didn’t commit, and a fifth was released from jail after DNA showed he wasn’t the killer.

    Attorneys for the Michigan Innocence Clinic, which handled the cases, say many more people are likely imprisoned for murders they didn’t commit because of Simon’s investigative misconduct.

    “If true, the allegations against retired Detective Simon are concerning,” Detroit police spokesperson Dayna Clark told Metro Times in a statement. “The Department is fully committed to cooperating with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, which is empowered to examine the legitimacy of convictions.”

    However, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who is running unopposed for reelection this year, wasn’t as enthusiastic.

    “It would be irresponsible of me to respond at this time without gathering more information,” Worthy said in a statement. 

    In the series, Metro Times found multiple people still imprisoned who say Simon either coerced them into making false confessions or were convicted based on statements from witnesses who were threatened. Defense attorneys, activists, and private investigators say evidence is strong that more Black men are behind bars after getting interrogated by Simon.

    Only a prosecutor or judge has the authority to reexamine cases involving potentially innocent people. In each of the exoneration cases involving Simon, Worthy’s office tried to prevent the men from getting free, despite overwhelming evidence that they were innocent.

    Worthy launched the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) in 2018 to review old cases to determine if people were wrongfully convicted. Since then, 38 inmates were either exonerated or their cases were dismissed as a result of the CIU. A disproportionate number of those cases – 13 – occurred in 2020, the year Worthy was running against a reform-oriented opponent.

    But this year, Worthy is running unopposed, and the CIU has only been involved in getting new trials for two men. Valerie Newman, head of the CIU, acknowledged the unit is understaffed, though she said there were plans to hire more attorneys.

    None of the cases that the CIU intervened in involved Simon, who worked closely with Worthy’s office in the 1990s and early 2000s.

    Simon, who was known as “the closer” because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements, was a detective in the 1990s and early 2000s, when the U.S. Department of Justice found that homicide detectives trampled on the constitutional rights of suspects and witnesses for decades to get confessions. According to the DOJ, the department had a history of subjecting suspects and witnesses to false arrests, illegal detentions, and abusive interrogations. Despite what was at stake, the detectives weren’t properly trained, and bad cops were rarely disciplined, the DOJ concluded.

    In 2003, to avoid a massive civil rights lawsuit claiming suspects and witnesses endured false arrests, unlawful detentions, fabricated confessions, excessive force, and unconstitutional conditions of confinement, the Detroit Police Department agreed to DOJ oversight in 2003. Because of the harsh interrogation tactics, DPD agreed in 2006 to videotape interrogations of all suspects in crimes that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

    After 13 years of federal government scrutiny, the DOJ finally ended its oversight, but only after DPD agreed to sweeping changes in a consent decree to overhaul its arrest, interrogation, and detention policies. Detectives could no longer round up witnesses and force them to answer questions at police precincts and headquarters.

    At no point since those findings have prosecutors or police tried to reexamine the cases during that troubling period.

    And, it’s unclear why Worthy is not pursuing those cases. Other cities, including New York and Chicago, have conducted wholesale investigations of corrupt detectives, leading to numerous exonerations.

    In response to the Metro Times series, the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners called on the police department to conduct a thorough investigation of all of Simon’s cases. Detroit Police Deputy Chief Tiffany Stewart responded that it’s ultimately the CIU’s responsibility to review the cases.

    Worthy told Metro Times on Monday, “With all due respect, DC Stewart is not in a position to task the CIU with work.”

    Mark Craighead, who was exonerated in 2022 after spending more than seven years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, says Worthy has a moral responsibility to review Simon’s cases.

    “I think it’s important for both the police department and prosecutors to work together to get this done,” Craighead tells Metro Times. “Those entities have the capability to right the wrongs, and the police can’t do it alone. They have to get the prosecutors involved.”

    In June 2000, without a warrant, Simon confined Craighead to a small room at police headquarters for hours, denying him access to an attorney, phone call, food, or water, he said in a lawsuit against the city. When he refused to speak, he was forced to spend the night in a vermin-infested jail cell.

    The next morning, Simon claimed she had evidence tying Craighead to the murder, which turned out to be untrue, and she coerced him into falsely confessing to accidentally shooting his friend during a fight, according to his lawsuit. The false confession was contradicted by forensic evidence, which showed his friend was shot four times in the back execution-style from a distance of at least two feet.

    Phone records later showed Craighead was nowhere near his friend when he was murdered.

    Craighead says he’s disappointed with Worthy.

    “She’s unwilling to budge, and that’s a problem,” he says. “For the young guys in prison, they need this. The evidence is indisputable that they are innocent. Why can’t the prosecutor see this? She’s unwilling to.”

    Craighead and the Metro Times series were featured in a nearly 90-minute episode this week on ML Soul of Detroit, a podcast by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter M.L. Elrick.

    Detroit police say they have cleaned up the homicide division when they signed an agreement with the Department of Justice in the early 2000s.

    “Many of the issues underlying the practices of concern were addressed by the city in the course of its two consent judgements,” Clark says.

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    Steve Neavling

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  • Metro Times two-part series on Detroit detective featured on popular podcast ML Soul of Detroit

    Metro Times two-part series on Detroit detective featured on popular podcast ML Soul of Detroit

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    Steve Neavling

    Mark Craighead, who was exonerated of murder in 2022, is interviewed on the podcast ML Soul of Detroit.

    Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter M.L. Elrick’s popular podcast is shining a spotlight on “The Closer,” Metro Times’s two-part series about a Detroit detective who terrorized young Black men and elicited false confessions and witness statements for two decades.

    The nearly 90-minute episode on ML Soul of Detroit explores the series with Mark Craighead, who was exonerated in 2022 after spending more than seven years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

    In the 1990s and early 2000s, detective Barbara Simon was known as “the closer” because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements. Her method of confining young Black men to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant, making false promises, and lying about evidence that didn’t exist led to the false imprisonment of at least five men.

    Many more innocent people are still behind bars because of her tactics, activists and lawyers say.

    On the podcast, Craighead described Simon’s interrogation of him as “unbearable.” He was locked in a small room for hours without access to an attorney. When he refused to incriminate himself, he was held in a vermin-infested jail cell.

    “I was tired, dirty. I had a migraine,” Craighead said. “Everything was going wrong. I was terrified.”

    The podcast provides new details about Craighead’s case and Simon’s handling of suspects and witnesses.

    Craighead also described how difficult it was to get out of prison, despite having evidence that he didn’t murder his friend.

    “I had to pick myself up spiritually, and I had to pick myself up physically because it’s a challenge. All these movies you see about prison, it’s pretty much true,” Craighead explained. “It’s a fight for the fittest.”

    After the series was published, neither the Detroit Police Department nor the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office has shown a willingness to investigate the cases of men who are still in prison after they said they falsely confessed because Simon had used illegal, terrorizing tactics during the interrogations.

    Craighead was among four Black men who have been exonerated after evidence showed they didn’t commit murder. In each of those cases, Simon was accused of investigative misconduct. A fifth man was freed from jail after DNA evidence showed he couldn’t have committed the crime.

    All five men have sued the city.

    Despite dozens of other inmates saying they too are innocent, judges and prosecutors have kept them in prison.

    In response to the Metro Times series last week, Detroit police commissioners called on the department to conduct a comprehensive investigation of all the cases handled by Simon. But police declined, saying that task belongs the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy responded that she doesn’t have enough information to investigate the cases.

    “This is just a nightmare for everybody,” Elrick said on the podcast. “First of all, Detroit police don’t have enough resources, and now you’re asking them to reinvestigate cases and investigate their own. It’s going to undermine confidence in the Detroit Police Department. It’s going to undermine confidence in the prosecutor’s office. It’s going to lead to lawsuits. … There really is no incentive whatsoever for the people who need to clean this mess up to clean it up — except for it’s the right thing to do. And that’s the problem.”

    Elrick, a longtime investigative reporter, shared the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting with fellow Detroit Free Press reporter Jim Schaefer in 2009. The Pulitzer committee praised them for uncovering “a pattern of lies by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that included denial of a sexual relationship with his female chief of staff, prompting an investigation of perjury that eventually led to jail terms for the two officials.”

    ML Soul of Detroit airs weekly on Tuesday. More information is available at mlsoulofdetroit.com.

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    Steve Neavling

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