WEBVTT - Chapter 6 | Something Rotten 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:08.360 Heads up, this series contains graphic descriptions of violence. That's 0:00:08.400 --> 0:00:11.240 why by Kab will be charged as per your international 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:13.399 plan to continue. 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:13.640 Please hold. 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:18.560 After several of my emails to journalist Tom Mangold went unanswered, 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:21.160 I found his phone number and gave him a call 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:25.400 in March of twenty twenty five. Hi is this Tom Mangold? 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.160 I tell him I'm a journalist working on the Jessica 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:32.239 Current case. Yes, sir, so you did a series of 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:34.720 stories about it. I say I'm covering how the prosecution's 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:38.519 case against Quincy Cross seems to be falling apart, and 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.400 that according to emails my team and I have reviewed, 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:46.120 it's clear he knew that the state's main witness, Victoria Caldwell, 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:50.560 had recanted parts of the story against Quincy Cross, yet 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.720 he still chose to publish his final piece without any 0:00:55.040 --> 0:01:02.120 mention of her changing narratives and admitted lies. He tells 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:09.200 me he hasn't seen my emails. Thank you so much, sir. Bye. 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:14.000 Tom Mangold did write back shortly after we hung up. 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:17.240 So he emails, Yeah, I have a credits I'm made 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.520 to folk in my computer and I called up my 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:21.800 producer Rebecca with the update. 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:22.959 What does he say? 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:28.320 The email says, Maggie, thanks for your note. 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:32.120 The Quincy Cross's Innocent movement in quotes has been running 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.760 in Mayfield for many years. People have jumped on and 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:38.000 off that bandwagon ever since Susan received her reward from 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:40.600 the State of Kentucky. I suggest you take the time 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.080 and trouble to discuss the case with Bob O'Neil first, 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.240 then go and get the transcripts of the court case 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.040 and read the entire prosecution case. If you sol think 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:50.680 Cross is innocent, that's your conclusion as a journal. 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:55.639 Okay, Bob O'Neil is the KBI agent who is still 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.080 in touch with Victoria and who declined my interview request. 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.000 I replied to Tom and tell him I actually found 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:08.240 his suggestion that I hadn't read all the documents patronizing, 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.480 and then I offer him the opportunity to reflect on 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:16.000 his work twenty years later, to which he shoots back. 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.679 Any publication or broadcast in the United States which infers 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.280 I may have behaved unprofessionally in the current murder will 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.720 of course be instantly sued for both libel, both myself 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:32.640 and the BBC. Now please don't pester me any further. 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:36.800 All you batty conspiracy theorists are the same. 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.600 When I was first approached with Quincy Cross's case, many 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:50.639 of the people fighting on his behalf told me that 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.560 Susan Galbreath had played a key role in Quincy's conviction, 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:59.080 that an everyday citizen helped craft the theory the prosecution 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:03.680 used at trial and helped find their most important witness. 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.839 And by Tom Mangled's own reporting, he played a big 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:11.840 role in Susan's journey from his very first trip to Kentucky. 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.400 We use my room at the somewhat humble Mayfield Super 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:19.079 eight motel as an office. We lived off toxic coffee, 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:23.280 fried food, and some smuggled in Sauvignon Blanc. I became 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.640 her news editor. She became my trainee cub reporter. I 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:28.560 taught her my trade from the bottom up. 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:31.959 I learned quite a bit from him. I learned how 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.880 to not follow every rumor. I learned better from him 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.680 how to distinguish rumor from fact. But it was a 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.480 hard call in this case. We started a friendship and 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.280 we became a team, and I felt an equal part 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.480 of that team. 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:51.720 Tom spoke publicly about how there was a lot of 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.960 interest in making a movie about the odd couple who 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.640 helped solve a murder, and according to the emails obtained 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:02.560 by the Kentucky Innocence Project, Tom was pursuing a movie 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:07.360 deal until at least twenty eighteen. When Susan Golbreeth died. 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.840 That year, her sister took over her estate for a 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:14.000 few months. She wrote Tom about Susan's last days and 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:18.560 about business. She talked about handling any future film deals, 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.760 and Tom told Susan's sister that he would fight to 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:28.280 keep the project alive, but eventually studios lost interest. That 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:32.440 was probably for the best, because knowing what we know today, 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:37.440 it's fair to say they got this whole murder story wrong. 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.240 Tom is ninety years old now. He's had a storied 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:47.719 career as a war correspondent, an investigative journalist. He's faced 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:52.400 down known gangsters and heads of state. I'm not looking 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:55.160 to drag his life's work in the mud, but the 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:58.600 story of Quincy Cross as the ringleader in this heinous 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:02.919 crime is simply not born out by the evidence, and 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:07.640 the main witnesses to this alleged crime are now all 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:16.040 on the record saying they lied. Perhaps none of This 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.240 is enough for Tom Mangel to say Quincy Cross shouldn't 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.320 be in prison, But if he had agreed to talk 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.680 to me, I would have asked him, shouldn't it take 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:28.640 more than the word of a few girls or the 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.279 theories of an amateur sleuth for a journalist to make 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:38.919 such ruinous accusations against everyday citizens. Shouldn't it take more 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:42.159 for the state to put a man in prison for life, 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:45.159 to take a mother from her children and a father 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:50.719 from his family. How far are cops and prosecutors allowed 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:54.680 to go in their pursuit of justice? And who do 0:05:54.720 --> 0:06:05.239 we hold accountable when their whole case falls apart? These 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:10.280 are questions that Tom refuses to answer, but that Jeff Burton, 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:15.719 Tamra Caldwell, and Quincy Cross live with every day. 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.840 For me personally, from two thousand and seven and until now, 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:20.839 this whole thing is my whole Life's been like an 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.839 everybody experience. I can't even explain, like an emotional fucking 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.360 wreck that I have not been able to overcome. 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:31.040 No, my trust in people is. 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:33.520 Like a loved one. 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.400 Now I don't trust anybody. 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.640 I don't trust nobody really, you know, since. 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:44.920 I've been incarcerated, you know, I've been further educating myself 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:47.480 on different things, but what I really want. 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:49.200 To do is start with family business and all they 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:50.000 care of my family. 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:50.360 Mostly. 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:51.760 I'm family oriented. 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:52.880 I was raised that way. 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.760 So that's what hurts the most out of do in 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.840 prison time for something you didn't do, being away from 0:06:58.839 --> 0:06:59.720 the people that you love. 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:11.040 And what about Tom's heroine, Susan Galbreath. According to Tom's 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:15.920 own reporting, she didn't get a triumphant ending. Sure she 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.640 got recognized by the Attorney General's office, but the people 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:23.480 of Mayfield didn't hold her up as a hero. Susan 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.240 ended up having to carry a gun for her own protection, 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:30.880 and she even contemplated leaving Mayfield for good, moving back 0:07:30.920 --> 0:08:14.160 to Chicago, but she never did. This is Graves County, 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:48.000 chapter six, something Rotten. Before telling you what the future 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.040 may hold for Quincy Cross, I'd like to take you 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:53.920 back one last time to the summer of two thousand 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:58.480 in Mayfield, Kentucky, because even though I never set out 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:03.479 to solve Jessica's case, I wanted to at least understand 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:08.920 how the investigation went so wrong. And in trying to 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:11.840 answer that question, believe it or not, I found a 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:16.520 common line of reporting with journalist Tom Mangled. Tom didn't 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.040 just zero in on Quincy Cross. He also went after 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:27.600 Mayfield law enforcement. Earlier in the season, you heard about 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:31.880 Tim Fortner, the rookie Mayfield police detective who led and 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:37.480 bungled the first investigation into Jessica's death. He's the man who, 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:42.319 according to Jessica's father, said this to his family. 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:44.600 Told us me and my wife did he had no 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:46.840 clue what he was doing. He didn't know what he 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:47.240 was doing. 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:53.640 But Joe Kern says Fortner didn't just admit incompetence. He 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:57.240 went on to imply that he'd been set up to fail. 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:00.600 He said, I don't know what I'm doing. Place I go, 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:04.720 it's like somebody's already been there before me. That's his words. 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:13.120 So before his four tenure ended, they promoted him to 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:18.559 assistant chief. And when he saw my wife at Walmart, 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:21.320 he saw her and he started crying and he said, 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:24.240 I'm afraid for my life. And he said, I'm gonna move, 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.839 and he moved to Murray. He moved a few miles 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.320 down the road to another place and got a job there. 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:32.240 What do you think he was afraid of? 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:35.840 I don't know who you're afraid of When you're a 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:37.880 police chief and have a badge and a gun. I 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.920 don't know who you're afraid of. How could you be afraid? 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.080 From what I've been able to gather, one of the 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.199 people Fortner was afraid of was the assistant chief of 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:59.480 police at the time of Jessica's death, Ronnie Lear. Ronnie 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.360 Leir was the man who appointed Tim Fortner as lead 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.959 detective in the case. Even though Fortner didn't know the 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:10.600 first thing about investigating a homicide, and even though Fortner 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:14.960 declined my interview request, I do have him on tape 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.920 talking about his disdain for his former boss. 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:21.720 What's your opinion of Ronnie Lee right now? 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:24.440 This is from a two thousand and seven interview with 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.079 the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation or KBI. 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.440 My opinion of Ronnie is that he's which it's the 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:33.840 same opinion as it has been, that he's the son 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:36.600 of a itch for even given this to me. Because 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:40.839 it's been a total nightmare and I've just never done 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:45.559 anything such as investigated anything like, especially this horrendous. 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:50.960 Why wouldn't the assistant chief of police set this case 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:55.120 up for success? It was Mayfield's first murder in more 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:59.480 than a year. Jessica was a teenager, a new mom, 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.880 and Lear knew Jessica's family. He came up in Mayfield 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:04.680 with Joe Curran. 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.160 Actually we had been playing basketball together a year or 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:10.840 so before all of this, and he knew me. He 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:14.120 knew me for a long time. And I worked at 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.240 the fire department, he worked at the police department, and 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.160 we kind of, you know, see cases together and a 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:20.280 lot of times they go to it. 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:28.040 From the second I started investigating this case, I've heard 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.719 Ronnie Lear's name, like in one of my first interviews 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.320 with private investigator Nobel Faulkner. 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.360 Let me tell you something, these police around here are 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:38.720 so corrupt it's not even funny. 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.480 And Tamra Caldwell, I've been here in his name ever 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:46.400 since we got to Mayfield in ninety three. Everybody was 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:49.600 scared to talk about him. Scared, you know, everybody brought 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.319 up his name. He was just known to be corrupt. 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.760 Ronnie Lear is mentioned in records about the case from 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:01.319 the Kentucky State Police and even the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation. 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:08.160 Mostly people were saying he's crooked or worse. That's what 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:11.320 Tim Fortner told the KBI in two thousand and seven. 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:13.520 And I don't know how. 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.440 It's just my good feeling, but I just feel luck 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.120 in some way. And I'll say it from a long 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:21.360 time that he's involved in it. 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:24.440 I've told him a why they're involved in this case? 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:25.520 Yes, because Mark, Yes? 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:33.640 Especially why would Tim Fortner believe that, you know? 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:38.240 Still emotionally is a red hot case in Mayfield. 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:43.040 Michael Grice served a very short stint as chief for 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:45.920 the Mayfield Police Department from two thousand and four to 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:50.800 two thousand and five, years after Ronnie Lear's tenure, Mayfield 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:55.240 officials hired Grice after searching the country for months. He 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:58.520 was a law enforcement veteran from Illinois with almost two 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:04.720 decades of experience. He had legitimacy Mayfield police desperately needed, 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:09.000 especially after the failure with the Jessica Current investigation. 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.560 When I started there, that was a past issue that 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:17.120 nobody would talk about, and anybody that had anything to 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:19.880 do with it denied having anything to do with it. 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.040 It was over time that I got some people to 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.360 tell me, oh, yeah, I was there that night, or 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.400 or I did this, or I did that, But they 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.760 don't want to admit anything to do with the investigation. 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:37.040 They didn't want to admit to having any part of 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:43.400 the case itself. Why because it turned into such a shambles. 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:48.800 After Mayfield detectives bungled the case, Gryce says, the town 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.040 was a buzz with rumors of a police cover up. 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.280 He spoke to my producer, Rebecca, there was. 0:14:55.320 --> 0:15:00.320 All kinds of stories going round at the time, and 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.520 just nothing good. Nothing good for the Mayfield. 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:09.720 Police Department who was telling Bee's stories general. 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:13.520 Public, you know, just not people in the field. You know, 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:15.640 people would say I heard that. I said, oh, yeah, 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.360 where did you hear that? Well, you know, I'm my 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:21.480 cousin's friend's uncle. You know, you get down the line 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:26.680 of things, and there was no finite source that could 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:29.800 ever be located to say yeah, that's true. 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.920 In listening back to old police interviews from Jessica's case, 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.320 there was a sense around town that the cops had 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:40.400 something to do with her death. 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:44.280 Somebody said, it's a police sent them word beause someone 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:44.600 don't know. 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:47.720 But mostly it was about that the cops was involved 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:49.520 in it, that she was messing with one of the cops, 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:50.480 they got her pregnant. 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:54.000 There's something in this town somebody knows, and people are 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:54.760 afraid to talk. 0:15:54.840 --> 0:16:01.400 I don't know why, but I might know why. The 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:06.160 top brass of Mayfield law enforcement had a reputation. People 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.760 said they were involved in illegal dealings with some of 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:12.040 the local drug runners. There were whispers that they sexually 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:16.280 harassed local women and teens. Jessica, on the other hand, 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.160 was dating a known drug dealer, and there were rumors 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:23.800 that she was a drug informant, though that was later refuted. 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:28.000 From what I can piece together, people took this information 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:32.520 and let their imaginations fill in the blanks. And it 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.520 didn't help that some of the rumors against the cops, 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:44.160 including Ronnie Lear, turned out to be true. Sometime after 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:48.400 Jessica's murder, Ronnie Lear was suspended without pay for selling 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:53.400 a VCR and stereo from the evidence room and pocketing 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:57.440 the money. A dispatcher at the precinct had also claimed 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:00.200 that Lear and one of his colleagues were misus using 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:05.600 city funds, including money confiscated from drug arrests. The same 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.320 dispatcher also claimed that Lear had coerced her into a 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:16.520 sexual encounter and then threatened her to stay silent. Then, 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:21.359 several months after Jessica's death, Lear resigned. He told the 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.480 press that he was leaving because his heart just wasn't 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:27.800 in the job anymore. But the Mayfield mayor at the time, 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:33.399 Wayne Potts, said Ronnie Lear tendered his resignation shortly after 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:39.679 Potts confronted him about the dispatcher's sexual harassment claims. And 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:44.560 when officers cleared Lear's desk they found around eighty baggies 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:48.560 and foils of suspected crack cocaine, a few bags of 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:54.280 suspected marijuana, and handguns that weren't police weapons or registered 0:17:54.400 --> 0:18:05.480 into evidence. And all this malfeasance raised red flags for 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:06.840 Tom Mangled too. 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.720 Half the top echelon of Mayfield Police that imploded with 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:14.640 grubby little fiddles and corrupt practices. But it got worse 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:16.399 for Lea mayor. 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:20.280 Potts died in twenty nineteen, but Tom spoke to him 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:24.560 a few years before about Lear's reputation and the drugs 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:25.119 in his desk. 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:28.080 My guess would be that he had taken them away 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:30.879 from some of the street runners and said, hey, you 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:33.359 know you got drugs. I'm gonna put you in jail 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.720 for five years, or give me that bag of drugs 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:38.879 and you hit the road run and don't ever come back. 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.600 Lear claimed that he was using the confiscated material for 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:46.200 show and tell visits in the public schools, but Mayor 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:48.119 Potts said he didn't buy it. 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.760 That's enough drugs to do half of Mayfield. The state 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.159 police sent a special investigator in. He had worked with 0:18:55.280 --> 0:19:00.760 drug investigations for years. He got into the accounting the money, 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:03.959 and he found where there was thousands of dollars taken. 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:11.200 Lear and his boss, the Mayfield Chief of Police, were 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:16.959 eventually indicted on felony charges of misusing public funds, but 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:21.159 Lear cut a deal with prosecutors. He didn't get prison time, 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.399 and because he stayed out of trouble for a few years, 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.320 the felony has been erased from his permanent record. That 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:32.080 means nosy journalists like me and Tom will never get 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:39.720 the full story on the extent of his malfeasance. When 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.120 Lear left his job as assistant chief of police, he 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.640 apologized to the community, paid some of the money back, 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:51.960 and eventually moved to Alabama. He left law enforcement altogether 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:56.720 and got a job at an insurance company. But Ronnie 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:01.679 Lear's presence and the failures under his leadership lingered on. 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:07.520 In Jessica's case. When the Kentucky State Police took over 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:11.800 the investigation, they actually asked Ronnie Lear if he ever 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:17.080 concealed information or was in any way connected to Jessica's death. 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:23.200 Ronnie Lear denied any involvement. He even agreed to take 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:26.800 a polygraph, but that appears to never have happened. 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.800 Okay, so we got a big box. 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:38.200 In the mail. 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:42.960 Rebecca and I requested Ronnie Lear's personnel file from ninety 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.399 seven to two thousand and three. Maybe we'd find a 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:53.000 smoking gun connecting leir to Jessica. Lear joined Mayfield Police 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.479 in nineteen ninety and worked his way to assistant chief 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:58.639 after a stint with the Army National Guard. 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.959 Is six' to, two brown, hair blue. Eyes he's got 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:05.719 a high school degree and an. 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:10.000 Associates he's married with, kids a, churchgoer. 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:13.880 Member Of rotary, club president Of mayfield And Graves county 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:15.119 Child advocacy. 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:19.520 Program there's a lot of everyday paperwork in the. Box 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:24.200 this is a. Payroll there's for seats for, travel, reimbursements 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:28.280 certificates of completion from courses like leadership for The New, 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:35.240 century insurance. Documents there's record of his disciplinary hearings that 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:37.760 match up with what has been reported in the, press 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:41.800 like stealing A vcr from the evidence room and a 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:46.159 spattering of complaints going back to ninety. Seven but what 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:50.320 catches our eye is what isn't There no mention of 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:54.119 the piles of drugs reportedly confiscated from his, desk or 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:59.359 the reported sexual harassment claim against, him and no mention Of. 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:05.240 Jessica the Allegations i've heard Against Ronnie lear go beyond 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:09.160 misuse of funds and stealing, evidence yet many of them 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:13.080 have been made by the same unreliable witnesses that first 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:17.280 Implicated Jeremy adams and the murder and Then Quincy. Cross 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:23.920 according to the emails obtained by The Kentucky Innocence, Project 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:28.159 Victoria caldwell made a formal complaint Against lear to The 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:32.600 Attorney general's, office And Tom mangled followed up on our 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:36.440 claims to no. Avail The AG's office eventually told him 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:41.359 That victoria dropped the, complaint And tom did not Publish victoria's. 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:48.960 Claims we've reached out to The Kentucky Attorney general and 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:52.720 The Kentucky State police for any records they may have On, 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:57.320 lear hoping to confirm any further. Allegations of, misconduct but 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:00.960 they either don't have them or haven't made them available to, 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:05.040 us And Ronnie lear hasn't agreed to an. 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:11.919 Interview casefully, Solved SOMETIMES i wonder whether there's still something 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:12.520 rotten In. 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:23.000 Mayfield In tom's final, piece broadcast in twenty, Twelve tom 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:25.919 says he was left with the sense that something was 0:23:26.040 --> 0:23:29.879 rotten In, mayfield even if he could never get to 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:33.520 the bottom of. It i've grappled with all of this 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:38.359 in my many calls with my trusted, Source daryl Woman. 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:41.400 Lear From Jump. Straight that's ALL i heard Was, Lear Lear, 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:43.040 lear AND i was, like. 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:44.360 Okay but. 0:23:45.920 --> 0:23:49.080 Everyone has tried to make him happy that there he's 0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:52.439 the wizard brought in the, curtain AND i don't believe. 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:56.280 It what if all of this shit About Ronnie lear 0:23:56.560 --> 0:23:59.280 is just made? Up like what if this is all 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:00.280 just rumor. 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:01.920 Just a? 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.080 Rumor like that's WHY i told you that gossip is 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:08.879 the gospel in his, ath baby or? All and so 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:12.080 everyone for so long has told themselves the same story 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:15.240 and the same story and the same. Story this is 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:18.359 a crime that wasn't meant to be, solved. 0:24:18.720 --> 0:24:21.960 And Joe curran has had to reckon with these rumors 0:24:22.000 --> 0:24:25.080 surrounding his daughter's. Death do you think he could be? 0:24:25.119 --> 0:24:29.320 Involved most people THAT i talk to that's around here 0:24:29.520 --> 0:24:30.480 feel like he, is. 0:24:31.920 --> 0:24:32.480 BUT i don't. 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:39.080 Know my team AND i have gone back and forth 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:42.840 on whether to present the details of these. Allegations but 0:24:42.880 --> 0:24:45.199 if there's something that has been made clear in my 0:24:45.320 --> 0:24:49.040 reporting of this case is that the stories we tell 0:24:49.320 --> 0:24:53.000 matter in our, communities in the, courts and in the. 0:24:53.040 --> 0:24:57.240 Press there's a danger in trying to write a neat 0:24:57.400 --> 0:25:00.840 ending for a murder case, that in many ways seems so, 0:25:01.080 --> 0:25:07.040 senseless and the need to find someone to blame can 0:25:07.119 --> 0:25:10.320 come at a great cost to the lives of people 0:25:10.520 --> 0:25:16.119 Like Tamra, Caldwell Jeff, burton And Quincy. Cross but WHAT 0:25:16.240 --> 0:25:20.000 i do know is that the incompetence and corruption From 0:25:20.119 --> 0:25:24.560 Ronnie lear and his police department tainted the investigation Into 0:25:24.680 --> 0:25:29.600 jessica's death from the. Start it added to the countless 0:25:29.600 --> 0:25:32.880 allegations that law enforcement had to parse through in order 0:25:32.960 --> 0:25:37.520 to separate fact from. Fiction it bred mistrust around, town 0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:41.480 leaving the doors wide open for someone Like Susan gallbreath 0:25:41.600 --> 0:25:44.720 to come in and test her, theories and it meant 0:25:44.760 --> 0:25:49.119 prosecutors under pressure to close an eight year old, case 0:25:50.000 --> 0:25:54.080 pushed to get a conviction at all, costs ignoring the 0:25:54.119 --> 0:26:05.840 fact that the truth may actually be impossible to. Find and, 0:26:05.880 --> 0:26:11.000 so after twenty five years of looking for, Answers Joe 0:26:11.080 --> 0:26:15.520 kurrn has, none just daily reminders of the void his 0:26:15.680 --> 0:26:19.879 daughter's death has left in his. Life how do you feel? 0:26:19.920 --> 0:26:23.359 Now you survive, It you never get over. It, now 0:26:24.400 --> 0:26:28.520 don't let nobody ever tell you you get, closure because 0:26:28.800 --> 0:26:31.399 you'll always miss a person like that the rest of your. 0:26:31.440 --> 0:26:33.600 Life there is no such thying as. 0:26:33.640 --> 0:27:06.560 Closure more after the, BREAK i end this investigation with 0:27:06.640 --> 0:27:10.280 more questions than answers about who may have Killed Jessica 0:27:10.359 --> 0:27:13.880 curran and. Why but my goal was to find out 0:27:13.920 --> 0:27:17.520 if there was any truth To, Tamra jeff And quincy's 0:27:17.560 --> 0:27:21.639 claims of. Innocence AND i THINK i could say with certainty, 0:27:21.880 --> 0:27:24.840 that based on all the Evidence i've presented to, YOU 0:27:25.760 --> 0:27:28.040 i do not believe they're guilty of the crime the 0:27:28.080 --> 0:27:33.560 prosecution accused and convicted them. Of Still quincy lingers in. 0:27:33.600 --> 0:27:37.840 Prison getting out has been a slow moving, fight riddled with. 0:27:37.960 --> 0:27:45.080 Setbacks in late twenty twenty, Four Miranda, Hellman quincy's, attorney 0:27:45.600 --> 0:27:51.560 left The Kentucky Innocence. PROJECT i, mean, okay so many, 0:27:51.640 --> 0:27:55.359 questions are you? Okay so do you. 0:27:55.359 --> 0:27:57.960 Want the kind of quick as version of the. 0:27:58.080 --> 0:28:01.880 Story WHILE i was surprised by the, news the discontent 0:28:02.040 --> 0:28:06.160