WEBVTT - #409 Jason Flom with Terry Ceasor 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.880 Michigan Child Protective Services maintains a central registry of anyone 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:07.400 who has ever been connected to an incident involving child endangerment. 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:10.479 When we initially released our coverage of Terry Caesar's case, 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:13.440 his name was fully cleared in court, yet still remained 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.919 on that list, leaving one final battle for Terry to fight. 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:19.600 Since then, I'm happy to report that Terry and his 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:23.360 team at Michigan Law were again successful in achieving justice, 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:28.520 clearing his name once and for all. Congratulations Terry, and 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:35.680 now our coverage as it originally aired. In the fall 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:37.839 of two thousand and four, Terry Caesar and his son 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.680 were living in Poor Huron, Michigan, occasionally staying with his girlfriend, Cheryl, 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:44.520 her six year old daughter, Darien, and sixteen month old 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.960 son Brendan. On the morning of October three, Cheryl and 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:50.640 her daughter were out while Terry stayed home with the 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:55.480 sleeping toddler. When they returned, Terry was panicked and Brenton 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:59.280 was unconscious and struggling to breathe. They rushed him to 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:01.680 the hospital. He was given a cat skin and then 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.960 transferred to Children's Hospital in Detroit. The child recovered after 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:09.840 a few days, but by then, a pediatric neurosurgeon had 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.800 ruled that bleeding on the brain indicated that Brendan had 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:16.880 been the victim of violence shaking, and Terry was immediately 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.679 the number one suspect, although he maintained that Brendan had 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:24.560 fallen from the couch. Terry was arrested in charged with 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:29.120 first degree child abuse. At trial, the doctor testified that 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.360 the findings associated with shaken baby syndrome were present and 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.720 could not have been caused by the shortfall that Terry 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:40.280 had described. It would seem highly unlikely that an experienced 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.320 pediatric neurosurgeon could be mistaken. 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:46.440 But this is wrongful conviction. 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:03.000 Welcome back to RO I'm Jason Flahman today once again 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:07.240 talking about a case that revolves around the hypothesis that 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:15.840 has never been tested, but somehow, inexplicably became the accepted orthodoxy, fallback, 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.000 whatever you want to call it, of the medical community, 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.760 and thankfully it's long since been debunked. And of course 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:26.919 I'm talking about shaken baby syndrome or SBS. Now Terry 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:29.600 Caesar spent almost four years in prison because of this 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:33.920 faulty diagnosis, and more than a decade trying to clear 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:36.799 his name, so Terry, I'm sorry for what you went through, man, 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:38.040 but welcome. 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:38.520 To Rafel Conviction. 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.200 Thank you well, you're welcome and joining us as the 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.720 co founder and co director of the Michigan Innocence Clinic 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:46.600 at Michigan Law School, Dave Moran. 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:47.679 Thanks Dave. 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:50.079 I understand that you and the Michigan Innisce Clinic have 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:54.919 already exonerated six people and counting of this non existent crime. 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.080 And we've talked about this so many times, most recently 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:02.280 with Zavi on Johnson, John jo Owns in Ohio, Robert Robertson, 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:04.960 who's on death row in Texas. To this day, the 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:09.160 list is long, and one case is more horrifying than 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.239 the last one. We did a full breakdown of sbs 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:14.840 SO Shaking Baby Syndrome on Wrongful Conviction Junk Science with 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.680 our host Josh Dubin and the executive director of the 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:22.080 Center for Integrity and Forensic Sciences, Kate Judson, and Kate 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:24.200 is going to join us a bit later. Now. Terry's 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:26.720 case happened back in two thousand and four, when most 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:30.880 of the medical establishments still seemed to just reflexively jump 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:33.440 to the conclusion that if a kid was in some 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.880 sort of terrible distress, and the triad of findings were 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.760 there brain bleed, brain swelling, and bleeding behind the eyes 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:44.160 that automatically well must be diagnostic of child abuse. 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.840 But already, by that point there were challenges to shaking 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:50.720 baby syndrome, and of course Terry's case revolves around that, 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.320 is that the challenge to shaking baby syndrome should have 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:53.920 been presented. 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:58.120 John Plunkett had already done his seminal project on the subject, 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.640 and biomechanical research into our seat safety had already begun 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:04.320 to shred the viability of what was thought to be 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:07.320 established science. We now know it was junk science. But 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:12.360 unfortunately Terry's attorney didn't realize the court was constitutionally bound 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:14.840 to provide funding for an expert defense witness. And we're 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:16.919 going to get into that a bit later on. But first, Terry, 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.640 you grew up in Port Huron, Michigan, right all my 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.400 life now, way before this happened. You had a son 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:24.560 named Cody, and a little after he was born, you 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:26.320 had a brush with an event in which there was 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.479 a sick child that a young woman had claimed was 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.559 your child. This was all the way back in nineteen 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:31.279 ninety five. 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:33.600 So it was a girl. She was already three or 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.719 four months pregnant when we had slept together. One day 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.600 in like Juna ninety five, this girl shows up at 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:41.919 my house with this baby in the stroller, telling me 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.479 it's my son, and something was wrong with the baby. 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:46.960 The baby wasn't breathing right. Ambulance took the kid from 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.440 my house. So they tried saying that I was the 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.120 father of this child. So I went through everything proven 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:54.200 that I wasn't the father. I took a DNA test. 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:56.599 But unbeknownst to you, your name had been on this 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.920 central registry in Michigan ever since nineteen ninety five, just 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:02.600 for having been mentioned in the same breath of another 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.440 child who had been brought into a hospital from your home. 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:06.000 Right. 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:08.880 So this is the craziest thing is I found out 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:11.320 about this in twenty twenty one. This was never brought 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:13.640 up in my two thousand and four case. But they 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:15.680 did use this against me in my two thousand and 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.240 four case, and I have paperwork to prove it. 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.640 Right. And as we so often see in ropic conviction cases, 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.840 is that sometimes the police are motivated by someone's criminal record, 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.800 and in this case, a perceived criminal record. Now, like 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.159 you said, you didn't find out about this in twenty 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:32.960 twenty one, and we're going to get back to that later. 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.279 But Terry, let's go to your life at the time 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:37.200 of this incident. In two thousand and four. You were 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.240 thirty three years old, a single dad. Your son Cody 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.880 was around thirteen, right, tell me about him and about 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:44.760 your life together. 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:51.080 He was an honorable student, all star athlete. He wrestled football, basketball, baseball, 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:53.760 We played hockey. We would go camp and fish and 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:56.240 it was a great father son but we were like 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:57.560 best friends at the same. 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:01.120 And at that time, you were also in a relationship 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:03.279 with a woman named Cheryl Ganna, and she had a 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.160 couple of kids too, Darien, her six year old daughter, 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:08.520 and Brendan, who was about sixteen months old. 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.040 The kids got along great. We had weekends where the 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:14.239 kids would be with us, and then we had weekends 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:17.200 where the kids would go with the other parents. So 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:21.360 we had our time, we had family time. Everything was good. 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:23.560 Were you living together at the time. 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:26.320 No, she had her own place. We would stay like 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:28.160 back and forth between the two. 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:32.200 So let's go now to October third, two thousand and four. 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.080 You and Cheryl were together with her kids at your place. 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:37.840 Tell me about that. 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:41.240 Sunday morning, my son Cody spent the night at his 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:45.520 friend Tyler Brown's house. Darien, Brendan, and Cheryl were with 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:48.599 me at the house, and while we were eating breakfast, 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:51.159 Darien was talking about that she wanted to go swimming. 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.440 Brendan's still sleeping at this time because he's been sick. 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.920 He had fallen at daycare the Thursday before this weekend 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:00.480 that he was with us. So she was gonna have 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:03.880 Brendan go to his grandma's house, and I told her, 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:05.240 I says, if you guys are only gonna be gone 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:06.960 for like an hour hour and a half, just let 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:09.680 him sleep a little over an hour after they left, 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:11.880 Brendan woke up. I took him out of the bedroom, 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.600 got him some stuff to eat. I finished up feeding them, 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:16.840 went into the kitchen to put the spoon in the 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.720 sink and throw the stuff away, and he was standing 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:22.239 up on my couch with his back towards me, looking 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.160 forward at the TV. So I got down on my 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.120 hands and knees and came up around the couch and 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:29.560 was playing Gotcha. This was something that we did all 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.040 the time he was going back and forth on the couch, 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:33.960 you know, trying to get away from me tick on him. 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:36.200 And while I was doing that, I had to use 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.800 the bathroom. It was like right around the corner. I'm 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:42.119 like five feet away, but I just can't see because 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.440 there's a corner there. From while I'm going to the bathroom, 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.120 I hear a thang thud, and then it's just complete 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:53.239 silence besides the TV going, and you knew something was wrong. 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:56.240 So I came out and I don't see Brendan. I 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.120 take a couple more steps into the living room, and 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.440 then I see Brendan in between my couch and my table. 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.080 His legs are going up the couch, his butt is 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:08.400 on the floor and his left shoulders like propped up 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.720 against the leg of my table. But he's like he's 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:14.640 like slouched back in his head's back like limp noodled. 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.080 And with this fall happening between the couch and the 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.080 coffee table, potentially there was an impact on the table 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.360 before the impact with the floor. So you ran over 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:26.600 to him, like any loving parent would. 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:28.640 I grab his head and support his head, and I 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:30.920 picked Brendan up, and as soon as his head comes forward, 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:32.920 some blood trickles out of his mouth, so I look 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.360 in his mouth, and he bit his tongue, so I 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.840 can start to see like a bruising on his forehead, 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:40.480 and then it looked like a carpet mark, like little 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:43.520 like little red dots on the spot in the back 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.480 of his head. And you know, he's like barely breathing. 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:49.520 And I understand that Cheryl and Darien got home right 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:50.120 after this. 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.319 Happened, and I told her Brendan fell and he's unresponsive. 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.720 We go support, you're in hospital, and within a minute 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:00.040 or two they have him alert, crying, you know, so 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:01.840 I'm relieved. 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.320 Right good. So it seems like this is where that 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:06.040 story really should have ended. 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:08.760 The hospital staff kept telling me like, don't worry, your 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.120 son's gonna be fine, and I'm like, I'm not the father, 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.840 I'm her boyfriend, and everything from that point changed. 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:17.800 Meanwhile, the emergency room position, doctor Hunt noticed that one 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.440 of Brendan's pupils was dilated more than the other, so 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.760 he ordered a cat scan, and that scan showed a 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.280 subdualhematoma or bleeding in the brain that was having a 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:28.400 mass effect, meaning that it was pushing the brain to 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.480 one side. So he ordered to transfer to Children's Hospital 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.680 in Detroit by ambulance to see a pediatric neurosurgeon. With 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.200 the first of the findings showing up, it appears that 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:42.719 suspicion was aroused that only continued to grow as they 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.680 were hearing back from the specialist, doctor Gilmer Hill. 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.240 In some of these hospitals, you have people who are 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:52.160 really firmly committed to the shaking baby hypothesis. It's kind 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.440 of like the hammer looking for the nail, and they're 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.360 quick to diagnose it. Doctor Gilmer Hill is the one 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:01.319 who concludes this is child. Abases comes the star witness 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:02.960 against Terry at his trial. 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:05.839 And then, of course they've called in CPS and detectives 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:09.640 at this point, and unfortunately Cheryl made an unfortunate choice. 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:12.840 Cheryl spoke with the detective and the CPS before I did, 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:15.679 and said that they want to talk to me, and 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.280 that she told them that she was there and she 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:19.200 picked up Brendan. 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.680 That wasn't true. Of course, why do you think Cheryl 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:23.480 said that so? 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.000 I think she panicked. She was afraid that it would 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.400 somehow look bad on her if she admitted that Brendan 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:32.240 had been injured while he was in the care of 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:32.840 a boyfriend. 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:35.880 I have no idea what to say now, I'm already 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.280 being looked at here and being detained, So like a dummy, 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:41.520 I agreed and said that she was there, and she 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:45.880 picked them up. So Cheryl's brother was a deputy sheriff 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.040 and his wife at the time. She took it amongst 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:51.360 herself to call the sheriff's department and talk to a 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:53.160 detective and let them know that you might want to 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:55.440 talk with Cheryl again because the story she gave you 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:56.720 wasn't the truth. 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:13.120 This episode is underwritten by global law firm Greenberg Trauig 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.199 through its pro bono program. Greenberg Trowig leverages its more 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:19.440 than twenty six hundred lawyers across forty four offices to 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.600 serve the greater good of our communities and provide equal 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.960 access to justice for all. In the field of criminal justice, 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:30.760 Greenberg Trowrig attorneys have exonerated and freedomanded Philadelphia represent numerous 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:34.439 individuals previously sentenced to life for crimes committed as juveniles 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:38.439 and resentencing hearings, and received the American Bar Association's twenty 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.680 twenty one Exceptional Service Award for Death Penalty Representation for their. 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:44.520 Work on five death penalty cases. 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.319 GT is reimagining what big law can be because of 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:49.440 a more just world. 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:50.880 Only happens by design. 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:58.600 So even though Cheryl was trying to be helpful, she 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:02.360 made things worse. But that wasn't the only thing inflaming 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:04.920 the suspicions of the detectives and CPS agents. Of course, 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.120 I'm referring to what they were hearing from the pediatric 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.319 norosurgeon at Children's Hospital in Detroit, who was now examining 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:12.480 Brendan doctor Gilmer Hill. 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:15.520 Who sees the swollen brain of the rtal hemorrhages and 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.880 a subteral humanitoma. And she's been taught in medical school 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.960 that you see those things. There's no other explanation for 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:25.360 it other than some really far out there things like 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:28.880 an unrestrained high speed crash or being dropped out of 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:29.920 a third story window. 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.880 Right short falls had not yet made it to the 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:37.120 list of potential causes of the findings previously reflexively associated 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.120 with the farce known as shaken baby syndrome. But since 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:43.400 that time, we've learned that that triad of findings can 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.880 be caused by a growing list of Currently, they might 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:50.880 have had eighty one non traumatic medical conditions in addition 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:54.959 to short falls, and unfortunately, in two thousand and four 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:58.280 these causes were just beginning to be discovered. And since 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:01.400 it's become abundantly clear that in the absence of a 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:05.040 spinal injury, shaking cannot provide sufficient. 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:06.640 Force to cause this tria. 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:09.600 Out of findings, it just can't be done. That's how 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.600 wrong the medical establishment had it. So with that, you 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:15.160 might not be surprised to hear that doctor Gilmour Hill, 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.800 in examining Brendan and his cat scan for head trauma 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:21.439 being the hammer looking for the nail, they completely missed 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.720 the mark on his forehead. She reported no external bruising, 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:28.280 scalp swelling, or other signs of trauma. That's in her report. 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.640 Yet Cheryl her family all folks who had no reason 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.040 to protect Terry. They're obviously going to be taking the 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:36.400 side of the baby. But they all noticed the mark 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.400 on Brendan's forehead that was about the size of a 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.959 fifty cent piece that would corroborate his version of events. 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:44.160 They saw it at Port Heeron, and they saw it 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.040 in Children's Hospital, and there was a nurse at Port 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:49.200 Heroon who had seen the mark on the forehead, but 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.959 mysteriously doctor gilmour Hill didn't. If there's an impact, you 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:54.599 would expect there to be some kind of mark or 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.439 some kind of bruise or an abrasion. If it's shaking 0:13:57.520 --> 0:13:59.720 and then slamming on a saft surface, you wouldn't necessarily 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.640 expect to see any marks. And so at trial then 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:06.320 the prosecutions argument is that you see, there's no marks 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:08.920 in this baby. This baby didn't fall, this baby was shaken. 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:10.960 They contact me, told me that I had a warrant 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:13.240 for my rest, So I went, turned myself in, bonded 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.839 myself out, you know, I was right back to Dad's 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.160 at home, Dad's working, you know. 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:24.040 And this arrest was inexplicably delayed until January two thousand 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:26.600 and five. Brendan had made a full recovery by then. 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.840 Now neither Cheryl nor her family were pressing charges, so 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:33.400 perhaps they had to wait until Brendan's father would. Either way, 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:36.240 the state seemed hell bent on taking this to trial. 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.000 And I understand that your mother retained an attorney who 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.160 she knew from her mail carrier, which was a guy 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:42.160 named Ken Lord. 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:44.360 My mom retained him for me. He told me it 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:46.000 was going to be ten to twenty thousand dollars for 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.320 me to retain this doctor to come speak in my behalf. 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:50.720 And like I said, I'm a single father with a 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.080 thirteen year old kid at the time. I'm living check 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:54.800 to check. I don't have a couple grand in my 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:56.520 bank account. I'm not living like that. 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:56.960 Yeah. 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:01.760 So, ken Lord's mistake here, which which we eventually many 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.120 years later confirmed with the Michigan Supreme Court, was believing 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:08.400 that he couldn't ask for money to help hire an 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:12.240 expert if his client was retained as opposed to being appointed. 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:16.400 That's just constitutionally wrong. The US Supreme Court had established 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:18.680 a decade and a half earlier that there is a 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.960 constitutional right to have an expert if an expert is 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.520 needed for the case, and kin Lord had already consulted 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.000 with a renowned expert, doctor Ferris Bandak. 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.440 Doctor Ferris Bandak, a renowned figure in the field of 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:34.480 biomechanics who testified in the very high profile Michael Peterson case. 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.480 Who was prepared to give very helpful testimony explaining the 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.920 problems with the shaken baby syndrome hypothesis, explaining why this 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:44.720 case wouldn't fit within it, and because Terry's mom had 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.080 retained Ken Lord, she was tapped out. She didn't have 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:51.160 the money to hire an expensive expert. 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.320 So you went to trial in December of two thousand 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:55.280 and five, and the trial was overseen by Judge of 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.600 Dare And of course the state was leaning heavily on 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.240 the testimony of doctor Gilmer Hill, the neurosurgeon who had 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:02.400 seen Brendan had Children's Hospital in Detroit. 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:06.200 I'm Kate Judson, the executive director of the Center for 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:09.920 Integrity and Forensic Sciences. In the case of Terry Caesar, 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.400 there were conflicting reports about whether sixteen month old Brendan 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.920 had any external injuries. The external injuries that were reported 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:19.360 could account for a potential impact site on his head 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.120 with either the coffee table, the floor, or both. A 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:25.920 CT scan showed subdural hematoma, and upon further investigation by 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:29.840 the state's star witness, pediatric neurosurgeon doctor Gilmour Hill, she 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:32.960 also noted brain swelling and retinal hemorrhage, the triad of 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:36.720 findings often associated with the faulty hypothesis of SPS. She 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.880 reported no external injuries and importantly, the absence of any 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:43.400 fractures or neck injury. She concluded that Brendan's injuries were 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.120 the result of violent shaking and could only otherwise be 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.760 caused by a fall from a second story window or 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.560 a high velocity car crash, and not by the shortfall 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:55.320 Terry had described. Now Terry's attorney had consulted with an expert, 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:58.120 doctor Bandeck, who put a background at engineering, he would 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.400 have testified to a current understanding of injury kinematics that 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.679 a short fall could cause injuries just like Brendan's. Terry's 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:07.760 attorney also raised the work of doctor Gettis and doctor Plunkett, 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.520 as well as doctor Gregory Riber, who had testified for 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:14.120 the state against Zavion Johnson just three years prior. At 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.040 Zavian's trial, he said that a shortfall with an impact 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:19.640 could not cause the triad, but now he had learned 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.160 that the opposite was true. Had any of them taken 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:24.320 the stand, they would have been able to impeach doctor 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:27.200 Gilmour Hill. 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.080 It's really hard to believe that you wouldn't have gotten 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:34.560 an acquittal if the Jerry heard from a very well credentialed, 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:37.280 renowned expert who had studied shaking baby syndrome, like doctor 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:38.520 Bandack had so. 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:40.600 As a result of not asking the court to obtain 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.840 funds to help Terry, ken Lord ended up cross examining 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.040 doctor Gilmer Hill himself based on his notes from consulting 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:49.840 with doctor Bandak. But I think we all know that 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.680 cross examination of an expert witness doesn't pack the same 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:55.800 punch with the jury as having your own. 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:59.440 Expert, Because who's the jerry going to believe the doctor 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.800 who insists that there's really no other explanation for these injuries, 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:05.639 or the lawyer who's not a scientist, not a doctor, 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.240 who tries to poke holes in that theory. And so 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:14.040 unless the expert is exceptionally bad, cross examination will very 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:18.960 rarely poke enough holes in an expert's certainty to cause 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:20.359 the jury to have reasonable doubt. 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.960 So the state had this in the bag, but presented 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:27.399 the child's mother, Cheryl as well, with the assumption that 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.240 raising the specter of her lie in the emergency room 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:31.480 would seal the deal. 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:35.399 Cheryl did testify for the prosecution, but her testimony was 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:39.119 actually very helpful to Terry, explaining that she trusted Terry. 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:41.760 She explained the way the lie about whether she was 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:45.680 there or not confirmed that it was her lie, not Terry's. 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.200 And she also testified that Brendan had had a fall 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:51.600 at daycare a few days before. As you told us earlier, Terry, 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.679 we now know that a child could experience a lucid 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.320 interval for a few days before coming to the results 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:02.320 of an initial trauma. For years, medical expert was testified 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:05.360 that the most recent caregiver must be the culprit, when 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.919 that was not true either. And Terry, I understand you 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:10.240 took the stand as well. 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.800 I told him, but I didn't hurt Brendan. You know, 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.440 I've never even corrected him, and he wasn't a bad 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:19.080 kid that needed corrections. Honestly, he was a good kid. 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.280 And there were no character witnesses allowed to understand, which 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.840 would have gone a long way towards backing you up 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:25.520 on all of that. 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:30.280 I had over half the courtroom full, my mother, father, aunts, uncles, 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:35.240 my son, my son's mother, employers, friends of family. I 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:37.960 had a ton of people there, and Judge Dare didn't 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:40.639 allow anybody to speak on my behalf. So it's like, 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:42.679 how can I even feel that I had a fair trial. 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.240 This case, even without anybody for the defense, was a 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:49.160 extremely difficult case for the jury to result it took 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:50.760 them days and they were deadlocked. 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.920 Right and this, by the way, is right before Christmas, 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:57.560 when these people could have really, probably very badly wanted 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:00.320 to be spending their time with their families getting ready 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.720 for the holidays. So who knows how that played into 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:08.040 how they eventually came around to side with doctor Gilmer. 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:11.560 Hill, and so they come up with their unanimous guilty. 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:16.800 I'm devastated. So now I get to spend Christmas and 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:20.720