WEBVTT - #477 Jason Flom with Roosevelt Myles 0:00:02.320 --> 0:00:06.160 On November sixteenth, nineteen ninety two, a teenage couple was 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:09.920 held up on West Washington Street in Chicago, and the 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:13.760 young man, Shahar and Brandon, was shot dead, but the 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.720 young lady said that she had not seen the shooter's face. 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:21.560 Another witness statement raised the name Blue, the nickname of 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.960 a local man named Roosevelt Miles. Soon the female victim 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:31.080 also identified Blue, sending Roosevelt away for sixty long years. 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:42.200 But this is wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has always given 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:44.960 voice to innocent people in prison, and now we're expanding 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.920 that voice to you. Call us at eight three three 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.640 two O seven four six sixty six and tell us 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:54.280 how these stories make you feel and what you've done 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:56.760 to help the cause, Even if it's something as simple 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:00.480 as telling a friend or sharing on social media. You 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:04.080 might just hear yourself in a future episode. Call us 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:07.000 A three three two O seven four six sixty six. 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:20.240 Welcome back to Ronfel Conviction. Today, we've got a Chicago 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:24.479 story involving another gang unit detective out of Area five, 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:29.440 the same notorious unit as Ray Guevera and Ernest Halverson, 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.480 which may give our regular listeners an inkling of what 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:38.039 our guests today Endured Roosevelt Miles. Thanks for being here 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:43.080 and joining us today, and along with him, Ashley Cohne 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.400 from the Bonine Law Group. We appreciate you being here 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.680 as well, of course. So let's get right into it. 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:52.760 Tell us about your childhood. What was it like growing 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:54.040 up in Chicago at that time? 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:55.320 Life is great. 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:57.800 Learned a lot of skills from my father, a lot 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:01.120 of cooking skills from my mom. Kid, you know, went 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:04.960 to school, boy scout, junior police officer, just did everything 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.000 that the kid does, graduated, went to college. 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:10.960 But his trajectory in life was interrupted by a mix 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:14.880 of cannabis possession charges, which most people agreed should never 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.639 have been a thing, and then the first of two 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:20.800 wrongful convictions when he was about twenty three years old 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:24.359 and charged for the actions of a juvenile family friend. 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:26.800 I was with a young man and a young lady. 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.320 I've been knowing a young man. His family's like family 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:33.440 to meet. They was like sixteen seventeen, so he couldn't drive, 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:35.600 So his mom gave me the car to take him 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:38.520 to the store. And they went to the mall and 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:40.600 we was all in there. I was doing something else 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:43.120 and so I went looking for him, and J. C. 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:45.240 Penny now said, I know I got bumba rushed by 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.760 the police. So apparently they had picked him and her 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.960 up from using a froggling credit card and they charged 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:52.200 me with So. 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.639 They stuck Roosevelt with his forgery charge rather than bothering 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:57.000 with the two juveniles. 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.840 But Daryl was on probation for maljuana offenses. Lawyer say, well, 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:02.640 you got this other case, so you need to cop 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.800 out now copped out, which I sunis should never because 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:06.760 that wasn't my case. 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:08.919 I did eighteen months. 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.480 These are the wrongful convictions that we rarely ever even 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:16.000 hear about, but they're probably the most prevalent where people 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.280 just plead guilty and take a short sentence as a 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:24.280 matter of being practical, they're avoiding the risk of losing 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.800 a trial and multiplying the length of their sentence. So 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.840 after eighteen months, Roosevelt parolled out and they began working 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:35.880 for the Chicago Parks District, but his record kept them 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.360 on the radar of police in November of nineteen ninety two. 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.320 So on November sixteenth, nineteen ninety two, a sixteen year 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.440 old by the name of Shaharan Brandon, who goes by 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:50.600 the nickname Tony, was with his girlfriend, Octavius Morris, who 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.120 is nicknamed Tweety. She was fifteen years old at the time, 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:57.640 and the two of them were at her mother's house 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.160 on the forty eight hundred block of West Washington Boulevard 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:04.280 in Chicago, Illinois, and they decided at two thirty in 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:06.680 the morning that they wanted to go get something to eat. 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:12.800 Once outside, according to Morris, a gunman came up, said 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:17.280 this is a stick up and fired several shots at Tony. 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.640 She actually ran and she came back to the scene. 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:26.279 Then police came and speak to any witnesses. So Octavia 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:29.279 says that there were two shooters. One a teenage boy 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.520 wearing all black clothing, that he was six feet tall, 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:35.599 and she also says that she didn't see his face. 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.400 And she said that she had seen another individual underneath 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.159 the porch and she also described him as a teenager. 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:47.320 Was a dogs young man feet eight feet nine teenager. 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.120 Then there was another witness, she was a sex worker 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:54.520 and she was down the block, and she says that 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:59.080 she only saw one shooter, but both had described the 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:06.839 shooter as teenager six feet tall. So those facts remained consistent. 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.640 So the description these individuals never fit me at all, 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:14.080 age and nothing. She's say fifteen to sixteen young men. 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:16.240 I was twenty eight, so it could. 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:16.680 Never matchin me. 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.359 And that was more solidly confirmed shortly after the shooting. 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:23.960 The original reports say that there were many individuals in 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:26.479 the area on the sea. So Roosevelt he lived in 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:30.760 the neighborhood. So he is picked up by two officers 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.120 and taken over to the scene. 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:36.680 Well, they didn't force me, Walt, They just walked with 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.240 me over to the police car that was parked at 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:41.640 the crime scene. And so when we got over there, 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.440 they stum me back, come and the witness in the 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:46.400 car say it wasn't me. 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.520 Octavius and Sandra Birch, who is the sex worker down 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:52.640 the street. They both knew him from the neighborhood and 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:55.560 they both knew him as Blue, and they both tell 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:57.240 the police, no, that wasn't him. 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:58.520 I know, we know who that is. 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:01.840 That's Blue, that he was not the shooter, okay, and 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:03.000 the cops let him go. 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.120 The two witnesses agreed that it wasn't Roosevelt, who they 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.760 knew as Blue, but they did agree on the description 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.200 of at least one of the shooters, a six foot 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:16.360 tall teenager wearing dark clothing. But the investigation goes off 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.680 the rails as Sandra Birch, with the trappings of her 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.799 line of work, was vulnerable to coercion, and then Octavius 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:27.479 also had a vulnerability. After all, Remember it's a little 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.839 odd that despite her vantage point, she claimed that she 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:32.280 had not seen the shooter's face. 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.240 They assumed that Sweety knew more than she let on. 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:37.800 It was actually the victim's family who brought it to 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:39.880 the attention of the cops, and they thought that she 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.320 may have known who the shooter was a former boyfriend. 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:47.520 So there were some cops that were looking into that lead. 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:51.880 But at some point we see a very well known 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:58.640 disgraced officer, Anthony Wochik and his lackeys Rutherford and McDonald. 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:03.159 Once Wochick gets involved, there was some transformation in the 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:07.320 reports that instead of Sandra Birch saying I saw blue 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.040 at the scene and told the officers it wasn't him, 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:14.840 it turned into I saw Blue standing over the body 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:15.800 at the time. 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:16.160 Of the murder. 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:21.600 Simultaneously, it appears Wochik turned up the pressure on Octavius. 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:24.840 They went to her house multiple times and kept saying, 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:26.840 we know it was blue, just say it was blue. 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.520 And eventually she capitulated and she said it was blue. 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:32.880 I mean, she's fifteen years old. She's scared the cops 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.520 keep coming to her house. She does not have a 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.000 clean background. She was part of a gang herself. She 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:42.520 had a history of some criminal misconduct, and so they 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.960 use that to basically persuade her and Sandra Burt to 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:48.640 testify before the grand jury so that they have them 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.400 under oath and then if they change their story, they 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:53.840 can threaten them with perjury. 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:56.280 And with both of their statements, they arrest the same 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.560 man who both witnesses had cleared at the crime scene. 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:00.800 Troll me a police say. 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:02.760 You took me upstairs on the second floor into a 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.320 interrogation room and they immediately handcuffed me to the bench. 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:10.160 I was beaten by Detective Anthony Woji with a telephone 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.080 book and a maglight to say I'd done something that 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:13.480 I didn't do. 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:15.960 I was choked and this process. 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:17.800 Went on without being able to use to wash room 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:22.360 or eat for two days. And at one point I 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:24.600 told me, I started crying, you can kill me because 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:27.480 I'm not gonna say nothing that I didn't do. I 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:29.480 didn't allow them to be the confession out of me. 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:43.959 You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.720 and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.160 and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus 0:08:50.440 --> 0:09:00.920 on Apple Podcasts. I don't believe we've ever heard of 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:05.840 someone walking out of the Chicago interrogation room, which is 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:08.880 really a torture room, let's call it what it is, 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:15.400 having held on to their truth. It's remarkable, really, But nevertheless, 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:19.880 they still had two witness statements, never mind how far 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:25.240 their testimony departed from their original statements. But yet it 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:29.240 still took all the way until January of nineteen ninety 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:31.440 six to take Roosevelt to trial. 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:34.960 There's reasons for why it was taking that long. So 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.800 one thing that happened is we know Sandra Birch she 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:42.480 had died. Another thing that happened. Roosevelt's public defenders go 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:47.600 to see Tweety and she provides a handwritten and a 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:52.560 typewritten statement to their investigators, basically saying, the police kept 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:54.480 coming to my house and telling me to say that 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:56.720 Blue is the one who did it and the only 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.080 reason I said that it was blue is because they 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.760 were forcing me to do and I don't know who 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:05.000 the shooter was, but it was not blue. So they're 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:08.600 scrambling to figure out their case, which is why continuance 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.600 after continuance. They're figuring out what they can do. And 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:16.600 what we see in the file is the victim's family 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.680 member comes into the police station and says, my wife 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.160 was out and was talking to a woman by the 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:26.239 name of Deborah Lenore who said she was with Roosevelt 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:28.880 on the night of the shooting with her brother at 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:33.240 the dragons Den. So Roosevelt he actually was like a 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.440 block and a half away when the shooting happened. 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:37.800 He heard the shots. 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:39.720 He was coming out of a friend of his house, 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:44.120 and he saw a buddy of his, Michael Hooker, and 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.960 then he went to the dragons Den later that night. 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:51.959 Yes, a motorcycle MC. They have pool tournaments. I shoot 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:54.680 pool and on Sunday nicest pool tournament time. 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:58.440 According to statements from Debra Lenore and her brother Oliver 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:01.400 in nineteen ninety three, they did see Roosevelt that night 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:04.040 when he was at the motorcycle club hours after the. 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:07.640 Shooting, but then in nineteen ninety five, two years later, 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.520 all of a sudden, there's this whole circumstantial story where 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.160 he ran up to Deborah and Oliver after the shots, 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:17.760 and it kind of just seemed a little sketchy that 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.080 he was running out from where the shootings came from, 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.480 and that ultimately ends up being the story that goes 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:26.199 to trial. And I mean, even according to Tweety, from 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:29.679 what we know now, Debora Lenor, who's also now deceased, 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.600 she had a drug problem, was apparently being provided some 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:37.640 drugs by the cops, at least that's what Tweety had 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:41.880 mentioned to us. And so they take these individuals who 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:46.360 are susceptible to coercion and they mold these stories into 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:48.920 something that they want to tell to a jury that 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:52.719 they think is sufficient to convict an innocent person like Roosevelt. 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:56.079 After more than three long years in Cook County jail, 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.240 the trial finally began in January nineteen ninety six, and 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:03.679 by this time, the state's attorneys Milkititchen Lynch, along with 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:06.760 the locked grand jury testimony and a threat of perjury, 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.400 had Octavius back on her coerce story again. 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.120 She flips back, and she says the reason she says 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:15.160 it wasn't Blue is because she was scared that he 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:17.199 was going to do something to her. So that's her 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.760 reason for initially not saying that it was him, then 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:23.840 saying that it was him, then saying that it wasn't him, 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:27.840 and now testifying that it was him. So she testifies, 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.920 and the jury hears that she provided a statement to 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:36.400 the investigators, and it's messy. There are two cops that testify. 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.400 One basically says, no, we only went to Octavius Morris's 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.559 house once, we didn't go there five to six times. 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:50.160 And then one officer testifies that after they interviewed a witness, 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:52.760 they went looking for Blue. 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.800 So the two officers testimony served to both clear up 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:59.959 the messiness around Octavius Morris's recantation and gave the appearance 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.480 that the suspicion of Roosevelt had come from an independent source. 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.559 So the judge didn't let in that there was this witness, 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.920 Sandra Birch. But there's an exception where it's like the 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.240 course of the investigation, so you know, it makes it 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.000 seem like there was a witness who identified Blue and 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.240 that's what made them go look for him and. 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.360 Without her there or even naming her, there was no 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.439 way to impeach that evidence, perhaps raising how she hadn't 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:28.280 identified Roosevelt at the show up and what made her 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.480 change her version of events. And then there was a 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:35.160 garbled and nonsensical, circumstantial evidence from Debra Lenore and her 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:35.800 brother Oliver. 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:38.959 Oliver had passed away actually at that point as well. 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:44.760 So Deborah just testifies that basically this story of her 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.480 walking down the street and Roosevelt just comes running up 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.679 behind her and it's around the time of the shooting, 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:55.120 and that's it. It's so far fetched, but these pieces 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:59.560 being put together, apparently back in ninety six was sufficient 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:00.959 for to convict him. 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:04.520 Thinking I was gonna get a fair trial, thinking the 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.840 lawyer that I had, mister even would represent me to 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:12.000 the fullest. And when I sit down and heard the testimony, 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:15.400 he barely object to a lot of what was brought out, 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:18.680 especially things dealing with the dead prostitute that shouldn't have 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:19.560 never been brought out. 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:21.560 But they allowed Jewurry to hear this. 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.400 Halfway through, I'd say, I I know I'm going to prison. 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.680 If the jury would have knew how they all played 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.440 out the scenario his whole case, I would have never 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:32.160 been found. 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.360 Guilty, but I didn't have a representation to do that. 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.520 One thing about Roosevelt's public defender, he did try to 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.040 get in a lot of things that the judge just 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.080 would not allow him to get into. There were early 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:49.240 on statements about the potential third party offender who was 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:54.440 Octavius's former boyfriend, but he didn't do the work of 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.960 really trying to explore that as much as she should have. 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:02.000 And because he couldn't give the judge enough of a 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:05.240 proffer related to that, he borrowed it from coming in. 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.720 In addition, Roosevelt's attorney could have called his alibi witness, 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:13.760 Michael Hooker. So that left Octavius Morris's fabricated identification and 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:18.520 the circumstantial support, and somehow that was enough to send 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:20.440 Roosevelt away for sixty years. 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.560 So when they found me guilty, I just stood then shop, 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:24.920 you know, I just stood. 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:25.600 Dn't shop. 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:29.240 The day I got sentenced, I asked Judge porter, can't 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:30.080 see my parents? 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:30.840 He denied me. 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.000 Tell me they could pass me through. Why would you 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.880 say that these are elderly people. He's my mom and dad. 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:43.520 So that was the last time I saw my mom, 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.480 and she passed away. Well, I was in prison, and 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:48.560 she didn't ever come to see me because I didn't 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:49.400 want to come see me. 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.360 And that was the last time I saw it was 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:53.000 a trial. 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.760 Being shipped to Stateville was a whole different avenue. You 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.400 ever been in a place and you just numb. I 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:19.560 felt numb. And I got into sale with a guy 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:21.920 I knowed. He was a little guy from the neighborhood. 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.040 I come to find out his auntie's was my neighbors. 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:26.920 I didn't even know that until we got to talking. 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.960 But I felt somewhere okay, But you never okay. My 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.560 life is never the same, you know, And s one night, 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.920 I'm I'm in the sale, my CELLI at work by 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.480 two and the more instorment and my next little neighbor 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:41.240 killed his selling. 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:42.920 That's trauma. 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.720 Man being a m a grown man hollering, screaming, that's trauma. 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:50.520 And I'm in here for somebody, and do I can 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.720 honestly say that most of the staff was very supportive 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.680 of my innocent because if you didn't see me at work, 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:58.240 I was in the law light Berry. If I wasn't 0:16:58.240 --> 0:16:59.720 in a law light Beary, I was on a visit. 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.240 I barely went to the yard, and that's how I 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.600 gave him a bit. You know, my days was spent researching, 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.040 and as she would tell you, I did so much work. 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.320 I ran through three typewriters, you know, because I knew 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.520 I was innocent. You know, Anderson fight for life, the 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:19.400 guilty fight for a short period. I'm still fighting. 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.439 After the boiler plate denials on direct appeal, Roosevelt did 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.880 his post conviction fileingx pro sey, meaning on his own 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.800 without an attorney, and that began with an affidavit from 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.680 Michael Hooker, who had not only been with him, but 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:36.560 had also seen him come out of his house after 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:37.919 the shooting had already occurred. 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:42.800 Michael Hooker was an alibi witness that Roosevelt had told 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.919 it public defender about at the time, and he didn't 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:46.960 call him at trial. 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:49.639 He didn't get his affidavit and he didn't get his testimony. 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.560 Yeah, the infant Custy accouncil fulfilure called my alibi witness. 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.399 It was denied, and I peeled it and the season 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.879 came back December two thousand and once I ready, I 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:01.840 say I'm going home. 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:06.640 Ultimately, Roosevelt was granted a hearing and evidentiary hearing after 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:10.639 he did provide a affidavit from Michael Hooker basically saying 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:12.560 that he was with him on the night when they 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:14.320 heard the shots were fired. 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.200 But I waited eighteen years is hearing. 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:21.560 The judge just basically allows it to languish, So he 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.840 is tossed around from public defender to public defender. He 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.480 has one public defender who is actually doing really good 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.800 work for him, but unfortunately he also died. The amount 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:34.240 of people who have died in Roosevelt's case is actually insane. 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.080 But another one takes over and just sits, and it 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:41.639 sits and sits, and finally, in twenty seventeen, Roosevelt finds 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.560 us the Bonjin Law Group. I remember it like it 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.000 was yesterday. I was new from out of law school. 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:51.520 I get this massive file from the public Defender's office 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:57.119 that was fifteen thousand pages. And part of our responsibility 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:01.560 as post conviction attorneys is we have to find new evidence, right, 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.720 so we make efforts to go to Octavius's house multiple times. 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:08.000 It seems like we weren't the only ones. The state 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.640 was also trying to talk to her. At that time, 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:14.040 there was a new conviction integrity unit at the Cook 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.000 County States Attorney's Office, and we wrote to them, said, 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:18.200 this case is so weak. 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:19.240 There's no evidence. 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:24.200 There's just this one recanted eyewitness identification that is not 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:27.880 even legitimate because she says she didn't see the shooter's 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:29.960 face in the beginning, and why are you sticking to this. 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:32.160 So we thought we would maybe get played there. 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:33.040 We didn't, and. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.639 We kept striking out with Octavius, and then all of 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.640 a sudden, one day she decided to call our office 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:43.120 and she said, I told. 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:45.359 The police I knew who Blue was, and I knew 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:46.240 it was not Blue. 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:49.200 And she says, I remember the guy the officer's name, 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:51.720 because it was my brother's name, and my brother's name 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.720 was Tony, and Tony kept coming to my house and saying, 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:56.440 this is the person who did it. And if you 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:59.359 don't testify, then we're going to say that you were 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:01.200 involved in the sho shooting and you knew who did it, 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:02.800 or you had some responsibility. 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:05.560 So you have to testify and say that it was 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:09.159 Roosevelt's end of story. Done deal. So ultimately she. 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:14.240 Does, and of course Tony was Detective Anthony Wochick. Octavius 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:17.440 Morris later swore an Affidavid to exactly what she had 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:21.240 said over the phone, exactly has she had said it 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:25.280 when she recanted all those years ago to Roosevelt's trial attorney, 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:29.960 And so Ashley amended Roosevelt's two thousand filing with this 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:30.800 AFFI David. 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:33.960 And one of the biggest things in our post conviction 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:36.879 petition that we had filed. A lot of the new 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:40.440 evidence was related to Anthony Wochik's pattern and practice of 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:44.040 misconduct that has come to light over the years. Anthony 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:48.119 Wochk rose the ranks through his thirty years at the 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:52.280 Chicago Police Department with little to no supervision or discipline. 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:57.960 There were scores of allegations and findings of misconduct against Wocheck. 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:01.840 So I did afore you request and somebody gave me 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.720 at the new Woji Police complain history, which they don't do, 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:09.120 and I found out that he had forty three complaints 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:09.719 against him. 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:15.320 Early on in Wocheck's career, he was criminally prosecuted for 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:19.879 beating up a man who was found in bed with 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:24.280 some female lover of his and the case was dismissed. 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:26.720 That was the beginning of his career, and he still 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:31.480 rose the ranks. He went police officer, detective, sergeant, lieutenant, 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:35.120 like they did nothing about this problem officer all these 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:39.280 years and the exoneration project in Chicago, you know, Carl 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.520 Leonard and David Owens, they did a lot of legwork 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:46.840 getting will Check pattern and practice witnesses. And during one 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.880 of our post conviction hearings for two other individuals Canaan 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:54.920 Abrago to here, victims of Detective will Check, we put 0:21:55.000 --> 0:22:00.520 on I want to say, fourteen different witnesses, former police officers, 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:07.440 to public defenders, to inmates, who provided compelling evidence of 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:12.359 misconduct throughout his career and he was untouchable. And he 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:19.080 used that to corese confessions, manipulate witnesses, to frame innocent people, 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:23.119 and he got away with it. Detective Willcheck eventually retired 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:27.040 in May twenty sixteen after the Office of the Inspector 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:31.120 General found that he had committed a litany of violations, 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:35.080 including making false reports, during the investigation of the events 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:36.960 that led up to Laqwan McDonald's shooting. 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:40.320