WEBVTT - #573 Guest Host Tiffany Reese with Patrick Brown 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:04.280 A warning for our listeners. This episode contains discussion of 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:08.800 child sexual assault and of suicide. Please listen with caution 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:18.320 and care. In February of nineteen ninety four, a six 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.680 year old girl living in New Orleans complained of pain 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:25.400 in her abdomen and pelvic region. When she was examined 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:29.360 at the hospital, the doctor suspected she had been sexually assaulted, 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.120 and the police were alerted. The child was questioned by 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:37.400 doctors and by the police without apparent present. According to 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.080 the doctor, when he asked who had harmed her, the 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:45.280 child named Patrick Brown, her mother's live in boyfriend. Patrick 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:48.720 insisted that he was innocent. He would never hurt a child, 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:54.280 let alone someone in his own family. Without any corroborating evidence, 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:58.280 the prosecution relied solely on the notes taken by the doctor, 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.160 and after just a day an hour half of trial, 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:05.360 the doctor's word was enough to convince the jury to convict. 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:29.280 But this is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.120 I'm Tiffany Reese, host of the podcast Something Was Wrong, 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:37.760 sitting in for Jason Flam. I am a documentarian, survivor, 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:41.360 and advocate, and on my audio docuseries podcast, I work 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:46.160 with survivors of abuse and crime. Today's case tragically impacted 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.480 the lives of two people, someone who was wrongfully convicted 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.080 of a heinous crime and the victim of that crime 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:55.040 who tried for decades to tell the truth that the 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:59.120 wrong person was in prison and was not heard. Thankfully, 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.160 there are two in this story, and one of them 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:06.200 is with us today, Patrick Brown. Patrick, thank you so 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:08.680 much for joining us and being willing to share your 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.680 story and your experience with us today. I'd like to 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.399 start by just saying how sorry I am for what 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:19.320 you've experienced. It was incredibly heartbreaking coming across your story 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.640 and the story of the survivor. It was clear to 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.320 me that you're both victims and survivors of so much 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.960 systemic and legal abuse within this story, and I think 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:32.160 it's really brave that you're willing to share with us 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:36.400 after everything that you've already experienced and overcome to be 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:38.880 here today. So thank you so so much. 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:40.680 You welcome, you welcome. 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:44.480 Thank you so much. To your attorney, Kelly Orion's, who's 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:47.200 also joining us today. Kelly, could you introduce yourself and 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.520 give us a little bit about your background before we 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:51.120 jump into Patrick's story. 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.840 Sure, sure, thank you so much for having both of 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.440 us here today. So I am the director of the 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.560 Decarceration and Commune the re Entry Clinic at the University 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:07.240 of Virginia School of Law. That is a mouthful in Charlottesville, Virginia. 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:11.959 Patrick, I'd love to go back a bit and talk 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:14.720 a bit about you and where you were born and 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:16.680 a little bit about your background and who you were 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.799 leading up to this horrific experience. 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.280 I was born in New Orles, Louisiana, raised in a 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.120 Laura and I. I come from a good family, were 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.720 a beautiful family. Family was full of love. So it 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.480 wasn't broken at all. You know, to where my family 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:37.080 the open armser whoever welcome and feed them, help them out. 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:37.480 Well. 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.840 I wasn't no bad person, but I took a turn 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:44.320 in my life as I was growing up. That's to 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:48.720 become street hung out all night, hung with the fellas, 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:51.920 doing this, doing that, to the point to where when 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:55.320 I met my kid mama a soldier. 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:57.280 You know, everybody got to have a soldier. 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:00.680 How did you meet Kathy? What was your reallyationship like? 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:01.920 Oh? 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:06.480 Man, I met Cathy. You know, I was just coming 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.640 at the club and she was walking up and she 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:10.720 was squirting me. So I was stopped and I say, 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.480 you know, shaw my conscience because she's a nice looking woman. 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.160 And when I talked to her, we had hooked up 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:19.320 and we know, we dated having. 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:25.680 Fun and you know, moved in with her like two weeks. 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.680 Then the relationships stuff like that, and from there to 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.599 where it was a beautiful relationship. She had my daughter, 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:36.599 and the whole time she was pregnant, I was just 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:41.000 so protective of her. I don't want nobody to smoke 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.760 around her. I don't want nobody doing that. Always pop 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:49.640 up at the house, She'll robot stomach, leave, vacuum, the screams, 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:52.760 didn't come back home. It was just like like no 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.840 tea for me. And she was all the way one 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.880 hundred with me. But what I was one hundred with her. 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:05.359 I understand Somewhat I wasn't. Somewhat I wasn't because I 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:10.440 stood in the street all night, hustling, try to provide 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.599 for my family by the streets, and really I didn't 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:16.080 have time for my family at home. 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.080 Do you do you think like you did the best 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.960 you could in the situation you were in at the time. 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:26.520 I mean, you were only twenty years old, right. 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:28.120 Right, nineteen? 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:31.960 Yeah, I think that it's tough when you want to 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.040 be able to provide for your family and you feel 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:36.640 like you have limited options. I think sometimes on how 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:38.320 to do that right? 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.400 Well, you know, I really had no guidance on how 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:45.760 to raise a family, how to keep up with the 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:49.240 bills and make sure that the family had med a 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.359 care And I ain't know about all that, you know, 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:53.760 ain't nobody really hold my hand and showed me how 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.919 to become a man to provide for family like the 0:05:57.960 --> 0:05:58.680 man supposed to do. 0:05:58.760 --> 0:05:59.599 Because when I was. 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.640 Really young, my dad had died. I really ain't had 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:06.000 no fault to figure in my life. I just went 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.400 on my own, try to learn from the streets. 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.160 Did you have any previous run ins with the law? 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:16.040 You mentioned, you know the lifestyle, but did you have 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:17.520 any like did they know who you were? 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:20.200 When the system? 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:25.000 The system, they did know who I was because during 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:27.720 the time of arresting, during the time my trial, they 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:32.000 really gave me a figure how many times that I 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:34.880 had been arrested and the thirty seven times that I've 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:41.799 been arrested, was fighting, activated, battery, disturbing the peace, stuff 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:44.479 like that. It wasn't have really no major crime. It 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:46.880 was like mostly missed themeanor childs. 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:50.560 Yes, and nothing involving violence against children to be. 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.560 Clear, No, no, nothing involved. 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.440 Thank you, Patrick. We're going to talk about the events 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:00.160 that led to your wrongful conviction. Now, I'd like to 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.560 remind the listeners that we'll be discussing some triggering topics 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:07.400 involving a minor child. To protect the privacy of the victim, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.720 we are not using her real name. Instead, we'll call 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:13.760 her Sarah Kelly. Would you mind walking us through what 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:15.600 we know of the case, all. 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:20.240 Right, So, first, I think it's important to make clear 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:25.920 that this is a case where someone was horrifically victimized 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:32.360 and survived an awful assault, and then was revictimized for 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:36.720 twenty years after while she tried to tell the people 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:39.400 around her, including the district Attorney's office, that the wrong 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.280 person was in prison. I think it's important to acknowledge 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:45.360 the two ways that the victim in this case was 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:49.280 and the survivor in this case was harmed. So the 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:53.360 case starts in February of nineteen ninety four, when Sarah 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:56.520 was six years old. It was the day after Marti 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:00.800 Gras when she started complaining about discomfort and her abdomen 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:05.160 and her pelvic region. So they attempted some home remedies 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:08.720 and over the counter treatment, but that didn't work, and 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:13.200 so then she was taken in to see doctor Ronald Wilcox. 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:18.000 Doctor Wilcox immediately suspected that she had been reaped and 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:22.800 asked doctor Maria Menna, a pediatric specialist and child sex 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:27.320 abuse to evaluate Sarah. And so they start talking to 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:31.240 Sarah about what happened to her. What's really critical to 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:35.280 understand about what happens next is what is actually said 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:40.200 in the doctor's office versus what then gets put onto 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:43.680 paper and given to the police and given then to 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:48.720 the district attorney's office. And what the difference is is 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.560 you have in the doctor's office a lot of what 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:54.840 we would call, you know, leading questions because you're dealing 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.480 with a six year old girl at the time, it 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.840 was recorded in the doctor's notes that she's said, quote 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:05.640 Patrick put his penis in me down there. Sarah maintains 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.320 that is not what she said, and that at the 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:12.000 hospital she was only asked who is Patrick, to which 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:16.400 she responded essentially that he was her family member. When 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:20.640 NOPD detectives were called in. Sarah was also questioned without 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:21.880 a family member present. 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:25.040 Thank you, Kelly. So now Patrick, could you tell us 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.560 about what your experience was when you arrived at the 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:29.560 hospital that day with Sarah's mother. 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:32.160 Me and Kaja rive at the hospital to get it. 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:37.240 And when I got there, I passed the room the 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:41.400 examination room, and I seen family members in the room 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:47.680 with Sarah to the part to where when the detectives 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:51.400 them came out of another room and brought me into it 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.400 was questioning me about it, and basically it just question 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:59.240 me about you know something that happened to the victim. 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:02.400 And it was asked me a question by do I 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.079 know anything about it? And no, I don't know. That's 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:07.120 why I'm here at the hospital trying to find out 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:09.959 what is the problem. 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.440 At this At this time, mister Brown is completely cooperative 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:16.439 with the police and wants to know who hurt this 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.880 little girl that he loves and takes care of, and 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:24.439 so he is not at all thinking like a suspect. 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.440 He submits to various testing. He waived his rights to 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:31.400 an attorney and his right to remain silent, and spoke 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.480 to detectives without an attorney, where he denied allegations that 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:36.400 he had raped. 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:40.680 Sarah went out to the police station with him and 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.360 was in a room where Eric coropper with him as 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:46.960 to answering a lot of questions to the part to 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.160 where they asked me, did I actually do the crime? 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.320 And I think I can just tell her this, lamb, 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.199 I don't know nothing about it. 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:57.079 The more I know about it is what y'all telling 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.559 me right now. And I don't know nothing about it. 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:00.480 None of that. 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:06.040 However, based on the statements that Sarah made, or rather 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:10.679 was alleged to have made two doctors that day, mister 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.520 Brown was arrested on the charge of aggravated rape. 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:23.560 It was something unspeakable, you know, it's really speakable to 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.160 well get you off for something that you didn't do, 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:32.760 that didn't actually putting this charge on me, but some 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.880 kind of way that everything parted at me for some reason. 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:40.760 I don't know why, because maybe I probably do know why, 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.120 because the way I was to the type of person 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:45.680 I would and that side. 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.719 Of the family didn't really want me to be with 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:49.480 their daughter. 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.640 But like I said, she was my soldier, she was 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:55.240 my everything. 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.320 You know. I would protect car. I would lose my 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.440 life to give her and the kids. 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:22.320 So I never talked to nobody while I was in 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:24.240 jail about it, but I was going back and forth 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.559 to court with it and doing a pre trial investigation 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.880 and all that is really really kind of hurtful because 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.560 it was like, this is really actually happened. You know, 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:36.920 you're taking me to the trial behind something I did 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:41.960 not do. And where is the evidence because I ain't 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:44.920 seen evidence at all, because I know they're supposed to 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:46.680 do a rape kit and all that, and ain didn't 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.679 no rape kit and didn't no joining the blood and 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.840 that ain't did nothing to take down evidence DNA and 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:54.400 did not that. 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.760 After he was arrested, he was given a two hundred 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:03.600 and fifty thousand dollars bond. His family could not afford 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.720 the roughly thirty thousand dollars that it would have cost 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.160 him to pay a bail bondsman, so mister Brown spent 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.920 more than nine months in jail waiting to go to trial. 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:18.240 His family also could not afford an attorney, so Robert Jenkins, 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:22.319 an attorney from the Orleans Parish Indigent Defender Panel, was 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:24.319 appointed to represent mister Brown. 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:26.760 Can you give us a rundown of the details of 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:31.440 the trial December thirteenth, nineteen ninety four. Who was the judge, 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:35.080 the name of the prosecutor absolutely so. 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.880 Mister Brown went to trial in Section A of Orleans 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:42.199 Parish Criminal District Court in front of Judge Morris Reid. 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:46.160 The prosecutor on the case was David Wolfe. 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:49.120 And the District Attorney at the time was the notorious 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:53.240 Harry Connick Senior, who headed up the Orleans Parish DA's 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.520 office from nineteen seventy three to two thousand and three. 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:00.439 Jason's covered some of the many wrongful convictions that occurred 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:04.560 under Connick's watch on this podcast. His office was known 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:09.040 for withholding and suppressing evidence. In fact, the Innocence Project 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:13.600 of New Orleans estimates that during his tenure, favorable evidence 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.120 was withheld in the trials of one in four men 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:18.400 sent to death row. 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:23.280 The trial started that evening with opening statements and it 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:27.440 concluded the next day. We don't actually know the full 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.840 extent of what happened during the trial, because, as mister 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.040 Brown learned over the nearly thirty years that he fought 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:38.040 his conviction. Since his direct appeal, no trial's transcript has 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:41.880 actually been made available. When the case was reopened by 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.120 the District Attorney's office in twenty twenty three. We still 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:50.600 could not find a transcript despite many, many, many efforts. However, 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:53.680 what we do know is that the whole trial lasted 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.200 about a day and a half from the time of 0:14:56.320 --> 0:15:00.760 jury selection to the time a verdict was delivered, which, 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.640 when you think about it, is deeply concerning considering the 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:08.480 mandatory sentence for aggravated rape at the time and still today, 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.160 is life without the possibility of parole. 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:17.360 Kelly who testified in the trial and whose behalf did 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:18.160 they testify on. 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:22.560 Zarah was twice brought into the court to testify, and 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.400 twice her nose started to bleed as soon as she 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:29.120 took the stand and questions began, which was something that 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.840 was really common for her at the time whenever she 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:36.320 was in a very stressful situation, and so she was dismissed. 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:41.080 No accommodations were made for her to testify in private, 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.840 and instead the state called doctor Wilcox to testify in 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:49.760 her place, and recalled doctor Wilcox was the first physician 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:51.160 to examine her. 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.480 The child being questioned in front of the whole court 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.320 instead of the judge's chambers. Like what is your opinion 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:02.520 on that. I mean, it's obviously so traumatic and stressful 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.000 to the child that they're having this physical reaction after 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:11.160 being raped. It just seems that the victim wasn't being 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:11.560 thought of. 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:16.040 I completely agree. I think, you know, cases like this 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:22.200 are really tough because we keep courtrooms public for really 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:26.560 important reasons, to make sure that crucial decisions in our 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:31.360 justice system that carry serious consequences that compromise people's liberty 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:36.480 interests do not happen in private. And when witnesses testify 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:41.840 juries are empowered to make a decision about that witness's credibility. So, 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:46.280 to answer your question, I think there's a tension because 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:49.760 we want to make sure that people are safe. We 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:51.960 want to make sure that children who have been harmed 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:56.720 are not re traumatized, but we also have to ensure 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:01.760 that the Constitution is followed, that liberty interests are not 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:06.399 compromised in private. That being said, I do believe that 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:10.880 accommodations could have been made to make Sarah more comfortable 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:15.560 and less stressed, and that is crucial here because as 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.200 we know, as Sarah has told us in the decades 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:22.240 since this happened, she did not say what doctor Wilcox 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:25.520 alleged that she said, and so had she had the 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:30.200 opportunity to testify, she would have been able to say 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.439 the truth. She would have been able to testify that 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:38.520 she did not accuse Patrick of rape, and that was 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.600 a very crucial fact for the jury to have. Instead, 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:43.480 adults testified for her. 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.480 And instead, what did the jury hear from doctor Wilcox. 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:53.600 Doctor Wilcox testified to what was in what was recorded 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:58.120 in his notes that Sarah had told him that Patrick 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.240 put his penis in me down there, a statement that 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.359 we now know and knew at the time had the 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:08.800 police disclosed it, that was not was what was actually 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.600 said in the doctor's office. So they were able to 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.960 introduce the doctor's report with no scrutindy with this statement 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:19.320 that never got to be cross examined. So what happened 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.120 then is she never got a chance to tell her story. 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:28.560 So the jury convicts mister Brown of aggravated rape in Louisiana. 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.919 Age of the victim as an aggravating factor, and she 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:34.680 was six years old at the time that she was raped. 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:37.240 So he was sentenced to Manna Story life without the 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:42.000 possibility of parole and was sent to the Louisiana State 0:18:42.040 --> 0:19:05.400 Penitentiary at Angola. 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.879 The hardest part being inculcerated is that you lose a 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:16.439 family member while you're in now and I lost several 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:17.280 family members. 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.200 My mom, she went to three. 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:26.040 Open house surgeries who I was incarcerated, and some people 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.480 that really loved me, like my grandmother, my aunt's cousins, 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:32.480 they passed away while I was incarcerated. And that's the 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:35.760 hardest part to where they didn't want let you go out, 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:38.359 to go to any funerals. 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:38.359 Or none of that. 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:44.320 And with the type of charge that they placed me on, 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:48.080 you know, kind of restrict me from everything to where 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:50.840 at a certain age I had to see my daughter 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:54.320 once she get older, and any one of my family 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:58.119 members they can't come in as a child. Those certain 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:00.719 things I couldn't do. I couldn't go around certain people, 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.560 certain jobs I can't have because of the charge. 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:11.720 I'm incredibly sorry that you experienced that. That must have 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.240 been so hard to be stigmatized like that and for 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:16.640 something you did not do. 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:20.639 From the time my clceration. You know, I had to 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:22.720 try to make it work for me. 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:23.960 I had to. 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:27.800 Due to times didn't let the time do me. So 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:30.280 at the time I was in there, you know, I 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:33.840 educated myself. I become a better person, becomes a mentor, 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:37.439 and I'm becoming helping a lot of people out there 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:43.160 at a goaler, even down to from the ofenity security staff. 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:45.760 To where I got. 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:47.119 To know them and they got to know me, and 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:51.080 they see that I'm not a really bad person, you know, 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:55.080 from that part from being that goal being, it's separate 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:59.240 criticism from a lot of dudes that's around there. Really 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.000 nothing really case hurt me no more because I'm all 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:08.199 crowd out from that and anything that's not positive, I 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.679 just don't want to be around it. But on my 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:13.399 coasure that you know, they had those there and they 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:15.119 were going through a lot of things that they need 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:19.560 mentor that they talked to, and especially that's what I did. 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:23.920 At one point in time in my life. I did 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:26.840 lost hope. I did lost I hope to where I 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:29.480 wouldn't come home. I wasn't gonna be with my family again. 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:33.040 And I had looted in my mind to not be 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:38.480 a commodity to the system to where you just holding 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:42.639 me there and collecting money off of me. And I'm 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:45.000 doing this and doing that to keep a prison function 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:49.880 to where dang, I ain't had the more hope because 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:52.960 you know it ain't goal inside of prison. Contraband comes 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:57.439 and goes in there, and the most dealy contraband that 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:01.200 they had in there was that fit now and that 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:05.359 fit now into the person to where I did wanted 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.159 to take that just the end this life because I 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:11.760 didn't want that type of life inside of a system 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:13.000 behind something I. 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:13.520 Did not do. 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:16.280 And then you know when I got there, dude, say life, 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:21.840 I mean lock in forever. Man, ain't no going home. 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:23.919 The next place I would be was a party lookout, 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:29.680 mister penitentious cemetery. That's why I was gonna be and 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:31.160 I was still going to be incocerated. 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.000 What kept you going, Patrick? What gave you hope? 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:39.399 My family kept coming and fishing me talk to my 0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:42.320 daughter every day on the phone. My daughter was a 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:45.680 month and eight days old when I got arrested. From 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:48.560 that time that she would just obaby she don't know 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:50.680 nothing about the charge. And she fought for me too. 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:55.960 She fought to keep me well, I keep hope going. 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.639 She wanted her daddy. That kept me going down with 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:03.280 my heart. She kept me going, She kept me fight, 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:07.639 ca me find this to be with them, so she 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:09.080 could have a fault in our life. 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:14.879 So if you could, Kelly speak to uh, if you 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:18.639 recall when you first heard about mister Brown's case, what 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:22.439 stood out to you like as a human and what 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:25.120 drew you to essentially work on the case and kind 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:28.560 of like how your relationship started those early days. 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:32.640 So I got a call on March twenty fourth of 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:37.119 twenty twenty three from the District Attorney's office, Jason William's office. 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:40.960 It was specifically from Assistant District Attorney Emily maw who 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:44.679 is the head of the civil rights division in the office. 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:47.520 And I was asked if I was available to come 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:51.399 in immediately, and I was told that a young woman 0:23:51.760 --> 0:23:55.800 had just come into their office and had essentially said 0:23:55.800 --> 0:23:58.720 that the wrong person was in prison for raping her. 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:02.040 That's a pretty extraordinary call to get. You don't often 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.600 say no when a district attorney's office calls you as 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:08.320 a defense attorney and says, we think we have someone 0:24:08.359 --> 0:24:10.840 in prison who shouldn't be there. I didn't need much 0:24:10.880 --> 0:24:11.840 more information than that. 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:15.560 Yeah, wow, So what did they tell you when you 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:17.479 got to their office. 0:24:17.160 --> 0:24:20.880 On that day? What we knew is that in two 0:24:20.880 --> 0:24:25.199 thousand and two, when Sarah was fourteen years old, was 0:24:25.240 --> 0:24:28.520 when she first attempted to get the District Attorney's office 0:24:28.520 --> 0:24:30.920 to listen to her about the fact that the wrong 0:24:31.000 --> 0:24:34.840