WEBVTT - #286 Jason Flom with James King - RE-RELEASE 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.000 Thankfully, many of our guests have been released from prison, 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.960 either before or after our coverage has been released, but 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:09.200 others have not been so fortunate, including the man whose 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.840 case we'd like to highlight again today, James King. Since 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.840 our initial release of his story, the California Supreme Court, 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:20.599 while providing no reasoning, denied James's habeas petition after sitting 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.439 on it for a year. His attorney, Ian Graham assures 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:25.400 us that he will not give up and is now 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.040 seeking clemency for the governor. Luckily, they've got a very 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.160 good man in office, Gavin Newsom, who we hope will 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.199 do what others have lacked the courage and conviction to do. 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:38.479 Here is his story of how a man's freedom was 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.960 literally stolen away by the provable lives of a child 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:48.600 at the insistence of her criminally vindictive mother. While renting 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.560 a room in Selinas, California, a woman named ruth Ann 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.440 supported her drug habit and her thirteen year old daughter 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:59.120 Jamie with welfare and prostitution. James King previously rented a 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:01.240 room in the same house else where he still received 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:05.679 mail and maintained friendships, including with ruth Ann's boyfriend Eric Barton. 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:09.399 And the landlord Doug do Bell. James would come by 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.200 occasionally to pick up his mail and socialize, as he 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.039 did on August first, nineteen ninety seven, for the Salinas Airshow. 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.319 A few days later, while Landlord Dug do Bell was 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.319 in Las Vegas, James intervened when he saw ruth Anne 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:26.120 trying to sell Doug's moped. Ruth Anne, who had already 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:29.160 pawned Doug's TV, threatened James that she would get back 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.319 at him if he ever told Doug. When Doug returned 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.399 for Vegas on August eleventh, James found himself accused of 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:39.039 stealing Doug's TV, which he firmly denied while reporting the 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.919 story about ruth Anne and the moped. When Eric Barton 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.759 confirmed that ruth Anne was the culprit, James found himself 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:49.400 accused once again, this time for the alleged August first 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:52.960 sexual assault of thirteen year old Jamie, during which time 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:57.480 he allegedly ejaculated on a tan carpet. When confronted with 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.560 the carpet testing negative for seamen, the young girl said 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:03.800 that her dog must have eaten it. She later changed 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:07.200 the story to a blue carpet that Dobell confirmed did 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:11.839 not exist. Despite these glaring red flags that DA used 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:15.560 Jamie's story and a medical experts testimony that has since 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:20.000 been characterized as absurd to send James away from thirty 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:39.360 five years to life. This is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:43.320 Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. Today you're 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:47.360 going to hear a story that is disturbing in so 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.320 many ways. This story is the story of a man 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:53.560 who's been in prison for a quarter century for a 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.760 crime that never happened. And it's got so many lies 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.359 in it that you'll you may need a pen and 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:03.040 paper to keep the lies. I mean, it's just absolutely 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:07.680 breathtaking the web that was woven in order to not 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:11.640 only convict but also keep this innocent man in prison 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:14.800 for this long. The attorney is Ian Graham. He's a 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:19.200 civil rights attorney with Cravis Graham and Zucker in California. Ian, 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:20.520 Welcome to Rafel Conviction. 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:23.119 Thanks Jason. It's a real pleasure to be here. 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.280 And soon you'll be hearing the phone ring and we'll 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:29.800 be hearing from the man himself. James King will be 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:33.160 calling in from the California Men's Colony, which is a. 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.760 I mean, it seems like sort of a benign name 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.400 for a place that is no place for an innocent 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.880 man to be. Oh, and here we go. We're going 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:42.920 to our call right now. 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:47.480 This is Global telling you have a prepaid call from 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:52.960 an inmate at the California Men's Colony, San Luis Obispo, California. 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.560 This call and your telephone number will be monitored and recorded. 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:01.400 To accept this call, say or dial five now. Thank 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:03.360 you for using Global tail Link. 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:08.120 Hello James, Hi, how finally get to talk to you. 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.720 Well, I'm so glad you're here too, even though I 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:14.440 really hate why you're here, or more to the point, 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:15.360 where you are. 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:16.040 Thank you. 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.400 So tell us a bit about your life growing up. 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.040 Yeah, okay, I grew up in Actually I was born 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:24.400 in Germany. My dad was in the army for twenty 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:27.200 five years and we came back to the United States 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:29.599 when I was like six years old, and then we 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.880 moved to California, and I've been in California all my life. 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.920 So you grew up in a military family. And we've 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:39.160 spoken with your mom, Lilyan, many times, and it sounds 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.200 like you had a relatively normal life working in the 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.040 moving business until you had a run in with the 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.800 law for burglary. Now that's a serious crime, but when 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:51.280 you hear the details of it, it was actually a 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:52.800 bit more benign than it sounds. 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:55.440 Go only three hundred dollars. So I was mad and 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:57.160 I shouldn't have done it, and I went in the 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.720 house and took a VCR. When I took it, I 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.240 even call her it, told her I took your VCR 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:04.880 and she called the police call me. That's how that happened, 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:06.520 and they got me for burglary. So I had to 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:08.440 plead guilty to it. I got a year in prison 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:10.440 for that. That was all it was to it. And 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:11.520 I should never done that. 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:14.960 So, okay, you knew this person and they owed you money, 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:17.800 and you obviously shouldn't have done that. You've acknowledged that 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:19.760 that was a dumb thing to do. But now you've 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:21.320 got one strike for burglary. 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:23.600 But I have no six grids in my life at all, man, 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.039 not even allegations that I'd done anything right. 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.960 So this was a non sexual crime. So why did 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.279 I even bring it up? You might be asking yourself. Well, 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.880 at the time, with the newly minted nineteen ninety four 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.640 Crime Bill, what this meant was that you had one 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.960 strike against you, so a second offense would mean doubling 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:45.120 any sentence. But for now you just got the one 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.039 year sentence. So you get out, go back to the 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.640 moving business doing odd jobs, and you're renting a room 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.520 from a man named Doug Dobell and Selenas, California. 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:55.600 Yeah, I was living in duglam Bill's out for about 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:57.640 seven months and I moved out and got my own place. 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.600 It was a ninety seventh and I was leaving Alenas 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:03.440 at the time. When I moved out. I still stay 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:05.480 friends with Doug and I had to go over her 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:07.520 and get my meal every day because I did not 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:10.800 pann my meal switch. I just kept it there at Doug's. 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.440 House, all right. So you were also doing some odd 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.320 jobs for Doug. You two guys had a mutual friend, 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.359 Eric Barton, who was dating a woman who had just 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.159 begun renting a room from Doug. And her name was 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:24.120 Ruth Ann, a woman who threw her own admission, had 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:28.560 suffered from manic depression, borderline multiple personality disordered drug addiction, 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:31.920 all while struggling to support her drug habit and her 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.240 thirteen year old daughter Jamie with the help of welfare 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:38.919 and prostitution. So now Ian this brings us to the 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.840 summer of nineteen ninety seven at Doug Dobell's house. 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:46.440 So, in the summer of nineteen ninety seven, there were 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:50.159 four or five people living there. In addition to Jamie 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:53.320 and ruth Anne, there was a woman named Bonnie Roman, 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.880 her husband and Bonnie's brother I believe named Eli Roman. 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:02.320 So on August first, nineteen ninety seven, James goes by 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.880 Dobell's house. I believe it was the day of the 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:10.960 Salinas Air Show. So he was going over to see Dobell. 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.000 And you know, he knew ruth Ann a little bit, 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:15.600 and you know, have a few beers for the air show. 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.920 And so he goes into the house and Eric Barton 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:25.240 is occupied in the bedroom with ruth Ann. 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.280 Ruthan wanted me to go to the store for her 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:30.800 and get some beer for her. She didn't have a car, 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.960 her car was broke down, so nice to me. When 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:36.320 I was going to the store, Jamie asked me because 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.440 she'd go and get a soda pop And I say, 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:40.880 to ask your mother, and her mother sits sure. 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:45.920 So King goes and gets some beer and comes back 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:49.120 to the house. Ruth Ann comes out and gets a 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:52.080 beer out of the fridge, and King's there and Jamie's there, 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.840 no issues, goes back into the bedroom with Barton, and 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.040 you know, the day goes off without a hitch. Over 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.280 the course of the next few days, while Doug Dobell 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:05.560 was still out of town in Las Vegas, James sees 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:11.440 ruth Anne trying to sell Dobell's mopead and intervenes and 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.240 stops her and tells her she can't be selling Dobell's property. 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:18.360 Ruth Anne and James got into a verbal altercation when 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:19.920 he prevented her from selling the moped. 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.320 I said, excuse me, sir, this is not ruth Dan's moulped. 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.000 This is the owner's moped. And if you buy this, 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.560 you're buying something that is stolen. And that's when ruth 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.520 Dan turned to me, you bastard, if you tell Doug 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.040 about this, she said, if we get if we're getting 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:37.280 picked it out of here because of you, I will 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:38.840 pay you back one hundred times over. 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.800 She had, also, by the way, pawned Dobell's television that 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.480 week when he was out of town. So on August eleventh, 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.280 Dobell returns from Las Vegas to his house and he 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:53.959 notices that there's property damaged. His TV is missing, and 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:58.439 James tells Dobell that ruth Anne had pawned the TV 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:02.560 and tried to sell themed and this was later confirmed 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.080 by Eric Barton, who had seen ruth Anner do this 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:09.160 stuff too. So Dobell and ruth Anne get into an 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.360 argument about her conduct while she's staying at the house, 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:17.280 and the next day, ruth Ann comes to Dobell with 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:22.880 Jamie and tells Dobell that James King has molested and 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:27.600 tried to rape Jamie. Dobell, who was horrified and actually 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.560 scared that he was going to be himself accused of 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:35.880 this assault, immediately calls the police and Dobell drives Jamie 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.000 and ruth Anne to the police station for Jamie to 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:41.760 be interviewed, and on the way to the police station, 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:46.120 ruth Ann is mad at Dobell because, as Dobell testified, 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:49.280 he didn't give ruth Anne and Jamie time for them 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:50.720 to get their stories straight. 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:56.080 Yeah, this is just the beginning, I mean yeah, And 0:09:56.120 --> 0:10:00.760 so she is now grasping at straws because she's angry 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:04.760 that her scheme was sort of you know interrupted. 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:07.040 Yeah, well, but I guess maybe should give just a 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:10.960 brief background. You know, Jamie's thirteen years old, and this 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.800 is her mother who's working as a prostitute and has 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:17.920 been a drug addict. And Jamie would later testify that 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:20.880 she was raped when she was four, and she was 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:24.199 raped when she was eight, and as you'll see, will 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.000 become relevant later the second time. She also said that 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.400 there was a convenience store involved, and we have fairly 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.400 good evidence that she was also being sexually assaulted at 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.600 this time that we're talking about August of nineteen ninety seven, 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:39.560 just not by James King. So I have a great 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.720 deal of sympathy for Jamie and her situation. It doesn't 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:45.480 change the facts that we're going to develop going forward, 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:47.800 but that's just the circumstances that we're dealing with here. 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:53.319 So now this awful scenario is starting to grow legs, 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.240 so to speak. Right, Dobell has driven them down to 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.079 the police station. What happened at that interview. 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:03.040 Jamie was taken into a room separated from her mother 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:07.360 and interviewed by detectives. She said that on that day 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.439 of August first, when James King came over to the house, 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.200 that he was going to go to the convenience store 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:18.040 to buy beer, and that because there was no one 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:22.439 else around, he knocked on the bedroom door, interrupted Barton 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:24.680 and ruth Anne and asked ruth Anne whether he should 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:26.600 take Jamie to the store with him or just leave 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.079 her there, and ruth Anne said, yeah, why don't you 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.560 take her? So, she says, she and James drove to 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:35.960 the liquor store, convenience store, whatever it is. He got beer, 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.360 he bought Jamie a soda, and they're driving back and 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.240 she said that on the way back he pretended to 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:48.080 get lost and he began touching her thigh into her 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:50.600 private areas. And then they get back to the house. 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.720 Ruth Ann comes out of the bedroom, she gets a 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.160 beer from the fridge, goes back into the bedroom. She 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:00.880 sees Jamie. Nothing going on, no problem at that point, 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:05.440 according to Jamie, James takes her into the garage in 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:08.520 the house and on top of a piece of carpet 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.040 that's in the garage. Dobell by the ways in the 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.720 carpet business, so there's a fairly large square of carpet 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:17.720 that she says that he then forced her to orally 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:20.600 copulate him and that he raped her, and that he 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:23.800 ejaculated and the seamen went on the carpet. She was 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.760 actually very clear about that. The detectives asked her follow 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:29.680 up questions to make sure because they would be able 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:32.760 to then verify the story. So they asked her follow 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.760 up questions and she says, yes, it was a brown 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:38.760 or tan carpet. She told them where it was in 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.920 the garage. I think initially at least one of them 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.240 was slightly skeptical because for about a few things. Jamie 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.840 had said that the attack had lasted for seventy five minutes, 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.640 which seemed like an exceedingly long time, and there were 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.240 a few other details. So then they went over and 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:59.080 they interviewed ruth Ann, and ruth Anne said that King 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.640 had never come in and asks if he could take 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.679 Jamie to the store. That had never happened, that when 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.320 she came out of the bedroom, you know, she saw 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:10.600 Jamie sitting there reading a book, no problem, nothing seemed 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:14.440 out of order. Then she said that when Jamie told 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.760 her about the incident, she said that King had tried 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:19.920 to rape her, but not the story that she told 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:24.080 the police. The detectives then went back in with Jamie 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:27.360 and said, your mom said that you know, she didn't 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:29.480 see this and she didn't hear that, and that you 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:31.840 told her that it was only James had tried something. 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:34.520 And Jamie said, well, I don't know. I don't know 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:36.640 why my mom would say that. So there's already a 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.080 discrepancy there. And so then the detectives asked Jamie, well, 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:43.560 did you tell anybody about what happened to you at 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.119 the time that it happened or in the days afterwards. 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.320 Jamie says, the only person that I told the next 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:53.400 day was my friend Erica. Erica then says, no, that 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:57.480 didn't happen. Erica says that she does remember Jamie telling 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:02.800 her that King had assaulted her, but that happened after 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:05.360 Dobell had gotten home, So, in other words, it had 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:09.240 happened sometime after August eleventh, more than ten days after 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:13.120 the attack. So there were some flags in the story 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:15.040 just from the beginning here. 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:17.400 There are a lot of flags, and the story really 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.560 is just getting started, because when you hear what happens 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:25.200 next and the way these lies start to unravel, it 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:27.240 would be comical if it wasn't tragic. 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:33.240 So when the interview concludes, officer Hickman. He goes immediately 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:37.240 to Dobell's house and Dobell takes him into the garage 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:43.680 and there is a tan or brown carpet exactly in 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.880 the place that Jamie described it. Dobell tells the officer 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.400 it's been for at least a month, and it's the 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.840 only one that's been in this garage for several months. 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.960 So the officer takes that carpet and they have it 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:01.200 laboratory tested for semen and it tests negative. 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:03.800 And just so. 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:08.640 They're sure, they take two other pieces of carpet, not 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:12.200 even remotely where Jamie said they were or fitting description, 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:13.760 but they just wanted to be thorough, so they grabbed 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.880 two other pieces and they test those. They test negative. 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:22.680 The detectives then went back asked again for Jamie to 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.960 tell the story, and again Jamie tells a story, talks 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.200 about King, he talks about how he ejaculated on the 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:30.880 tan or brown carpet. So then the officer says, you know, 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:35.080 we had that carpet tested and it didn't show that 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:37.680 there was any semen on it. It didn't come back, 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:45.120 didn't test positive. There was none. And Jamie says, that's 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.720 because my dog ate that part of the carpet. 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:52.920 That's because my dog ate that part of the. 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:57.600 Carpet, right, And you know, these are the things that 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:59.600 a thirteen year old girl might say, which he's caught 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.200 in a line. So the officer says, your dog ate it, 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:04.640 and she says, well, also, I think my mom may 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.960 have cut it up and maybe then also washed it. 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:12.440 And the officer says, well, the carpet doesn't look like 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:16.160 it's damaged in any way. And Jamie didn't have anything 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.640 to say to that. So that is the state of 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:24.000 the evidence that was turned over to the District Attorney's office. 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:27.480 This is where it should have ended, right, Yes, this 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.320 was a moment right where the DA had that opportunity 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.080 to say, you know what, none of this makes any 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.760 fucking sense. Yeah, so, you know, unless you guys can 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:42.000 bring me something, you know, some physical evidence. I witnessed testimony, 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:46.680 some something other than a tangled web of lives from 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.400 a poor child. I'm not going to prosecute this case. 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:50.480 But that's not what happened. 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:54.320 Yeah, Well, they try to build some corroboration and on 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:56.840 about August I think it was nineteenth or so, almost 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:00.560 three weeks or so after this alleged attack by King. 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:06.040 They have the prosecution's medical expert, doctor Valerie Barnes, examined 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:10.520 Jamie and she says, oh, I saw a red spot 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:14.600 on Jamie's mouth, and I saw redness in her vagina 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.399 and a cleft on the hymen, and you know, a 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:22.000 streaking here, and these are consistent with the sexual assault 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:26.359 as she described it. That's just simply false. It's false. 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:31.040 And we know it's false because when James King's conviction 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:35.240 was overturned for the first time, it was overturned because 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:39.679 his lawyer had failed to call a medical expert to 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:45.240 rebut that testimony from Valerie Barnes. And if they had 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.000 called a medical expert to rebut that testimony, this is 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:51.239 a federal judge talking, it would have demonstrated that it 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:56.360 wasn't true. And we know that because doctors Crawford and Coleman, 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:00.639 and they are eminently qualified in child' saise sexual assault 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:06.280 cases and typically testify for the prosecution, reviewed doctor Barnes's 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:10.119 examination of Jamie and did their own examination of the 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:14.800 same pictures and everything in Barnes looked at, and they 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:20.280 concluded that Barnes' findings were medically absurd. To the point 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:24.640 of showing bias. That none of the injuries or red 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:28.119 spots that they saw were indicative of an assault that 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:32.200 happened on August first, or anytime around then. Acute sexual 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.480 assault injuries like that heal within seventy two hours, maybe 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.400 a week at most. They said that what Barnes saw 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.919 were simply normal markings and that there was no cleft 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:44.440 on a hymen. They could see it clearly. But those 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:50.000 absurd findings had the benefit for the prosecution of corroborating 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:54.520 Jamie's story because they said, these are consistent with the assault. 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:57.199 So there's your corroboration. 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.600 Yeah, nice expert. And before we move on to inevitable 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:04.159 in this trial, authorities had another opportunity to do the 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.800 right thing here, but it too went completely ignored. 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:12.160 Shortly after the allegations came up and the investigation started going, 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.960 Dobell found Jamie's diary in her room and he turned 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.400 it over to the police. And in that diary, Jamie 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:24.600 wrote about a man named Eli who she was in 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:27.840 love with and who did stuff to her. And she 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.800 would write things like do you really love me? Or 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:32.960 do you just want to do those things to me? 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.520 And this would seem like is Eli Roman, who was 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:39.920 living in the house and who was in his mid 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.800 to late twenties at the time, And remarkably, she wrote 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:47.800 about some sort of sexual interaction with Eli on the 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:50.720 day or within a day of when she accused King. 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.480 So in her diary there's something on August twelfth or 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:56.879 thirteenth about you know, Eli and you know, doing stuff 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:00.280 to her. So at trial she's asked about this and 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.119 she denies it all and she says, no, no, I 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:05.520 just write stuff in there, didn't have anything to do 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:09.680 with Eli. So you know, it's even a bit richer 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:13.240 here where you actually have someone who is assaulting her 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:16.600 who she professes to love in her diary, right. 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.919 Which just adds to the total absurdity of doctor Barnes 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:24.560 examining Jamie nearly three weeks after this alleged August first incident, 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:28.320 when acute injuries like that would heal within just over 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:32.959 seventy two hours, and then testified about those findings at trial, 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:37.639 attributing them to the alleged August first incident, when Jamie's 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:43.000 diary clearly indicates that statutory rape happened within days of 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:48.480 this examination. So, James, did you hire a lawyer, and 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:50.760 what exactly did your lawyer do? 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:53.399 Well? At first I had a public defender that lawyer 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:55.920 never got me an expert dispute all that right. 0:20:56.000 --> 0:21:00.479 So, with no expert to refute and Jamie's testimony, this 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.280 was basically a FATA complay. But there was still some 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:08.679 hope in that there were so many holes in Jamie's story, 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:13.600 especially about the carpet where she alleged that James deposited seamen, 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:18.120 which came up negative every time despite many efforts. Then 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:23.000 her ridiculous answer about the dog, you know, having eaten 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:25.520 the carpet, like my dog ate my homework, literally, and 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:28.520 then it gets even worse. The carpet in her story 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:29.680 changed colors. 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:34.280 She switched from her statement about the carpet being tan 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:37.160 or brown, which she'd said I think three or four 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.679 times at this point leading up to trial, to the 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:43.439 fact that the carpet was blue. In other words, no, Okay, 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:45.800 my story before about the dog chewing it, maybe that 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:48.520 doesn't seem reasonable. So let's just say it's a blue 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:53.719 carpet and it's a different carpet. Well, Dobell testified that 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:56.760 there was no blue carpet in the garage, again, Doebell's 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:59.200 in the carpet business, which is why we're talking about 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:00.919 carpet in the garage and what he knows about it. 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.600 But he said that months earlier that there was a 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:06.919 piece of blue carpet in the garage, but that it 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:10.880 had been out of there for months prior to when 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:14.199 this assault allegedly occurred, and that the only piece of 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:17.879 carpet that even remotely matched the description that she's talking about, 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:20.600 and that was that piece that was taken by the police, 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:25.639 that the criminalists testified that was laboratory tested and negative 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:28.879 for semen, and that it would have tested positive if 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:31.800 there had been any fluids on there. But a jury 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:35.399 of twelve people, with all the flaws and biases that 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:39.040 twelve people bring, seeing the testimony of a thirteen year 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:42.880 old girl accusing this man who has a prior felony, 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:47.680 non sexual felony on his record, is very compelling testimony. 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:51.159 It is the testimony of a child talking about the 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:57.879 abuse they've suffered. And James King is convicted and he 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:02.600