WEBVTT - Episode 7: Good Fortune 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.600 It was twenty eighteen, still two years before George Floyd 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:09.680 and Breonna Taylor's names filled the streets, but the country 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:13.840 was already moving toward that eruption. In twenty twelve, Trayvon 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.640 Martin's killing gave rise to a new declaration that black 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:23.720 life had value. Soon it felt like an epidemic. Eric Garner, 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:28.360 I can't breathe. Michael Brown's death made Ferguson ground zero 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.520 for a movement. Hands up, don't shoot, spread like a 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:36.120 prayer and a plea, let me live. By twenty fifteen, 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.800 after Freddy Gray's death in Baltimore sparked a full scale riot, 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.640 America was shook. The mistreatment of black and brown people 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:47.440 by the criminal legal system had gone mainstream, The innocence 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:51.600 movement was gaining momentum, and a black family still lived 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.640 in the White House. It was a perfect storm and 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:59.520 Chicago sat in its eye. When thirteen year CPD veteran 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:04.800 Jason Van Dyke shot seventeen year old Lakwan MacDonald sixteen times, 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:08.920 he claimed self defense. The story held for months until 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:13.280 a journalist published the autopsy. Nine bullets had entered Laqwan's back. 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.480 Another reporter sued for the dash cam video. When a 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.880 judge ordered its release two days before Thanksgiving in twenty fifteen, 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:24.160 the truth hit the streets of Chicago like a shockwave. 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.400 La Kwan was walking away when the shots were fired. 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:35.840 Another cover up exposed. The protests erupted sixteen shots thirteen months, 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:42.320 but they had demands too, transparency, accountability, and new leadership. 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:46.120 Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, was up for reelection 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:50.600 in March. The movement had their target enter Kim Fox, 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:54.520 an unabashed progressive, the first African American to hold the seat, 0:01:54.800 --> 0:02:00.240 and a former Cabrini Green resident. That I had to 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.000 be a good omen for Lee's case, thought Robert. It 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.160 was time for him to try the media again. This time, 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:10.200 he cold called an investigative reporter named Tory Marlin. She'd 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.440 made her name on Chicago's criminal justice beaten part because 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.919 she was good at choosing which he's definitely innocent. Cold 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.760 calls to pursue, Robert manages to pique her interest. 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:24.160 It was clear to me that this was somebody who 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:29.639 was very thoughtful and had a possible good story. 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.840 In a time when rapid reaction is rewarded. Tory Marlin 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.639 is something rare, thorough and considerate. 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:41.160 I was interested, but I wanted to know more, and 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:44.560 I wanted to just kind of sus it out. 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.080 And that meant meeting everyone in person. From Seattle, she 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.880 flew to see Lee in prison, Jennifer in Chicago, and 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.359 then took a four hour flight followed by a two 0:02:55.400 --> 0:03:02.079 hour drive to reach Robert on his Del Rio farm. 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:05.760 Texas is known for its big skies. That was definitely 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:06.160 the case. 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:10.440 As I was driving, she passes through an arid landscape 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:15.320 dotted with colorful text mechs, roadsides, scattered strip malls, and 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.760 the endless rhythm of planned communities. Periodically, an orange and 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.519 white water burger, a frame shimmers in the heat like 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:26.560 an oasis. Then just before you reach the Rio Grande, 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.239 you're there. Del Rio. 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.480 I had never been in that part of Texas. 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.600 Before, a small, unassuming town named for the great river 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:39.320 that bends behind it. Robert's already there, idling in the 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.080 classic Mustang he's had since Chicago. 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:51.680 And then I followed him to the farm. 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.440 And that's probably for the best. Robert's place sits deep 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:55.240 inside the surrounding farm, and to get there you have 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.520 to take what feels like a wrong turn down a 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:01.760 narrow dirt road. But once Torris sees it, she's impressed. 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:06.080 He had an enormous property. There were some palm trees 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:15.040 and cacti. I don't think I was quite prepared for 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.279 what I saw. I mean, he he had described what 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:23.479 I was gonna see, but he didn't fully prepare me. 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:28.920 I don't think I quite understood that. But yeah, I 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:30.279 was floored. 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.880 I'm Dax Devlin Ross and from iHeart Podcasts. This is 0:04:46.040 --> 0:05:02.640 Crying Wolf, episode seven, Good Fortune. By this point, Robert 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.400 had been talking to Lee Harris every single week for 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:10.000 seventeen years, and while Lee remained behind bars, life on 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:13.680 the outside had moved for Robert. He'd relocated to Del 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.680 Rio to help with his dad's printing business, and for 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:20.080 the past fifteen years had tended to a small farm 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:22.880 of sorts with plenty of space to care for an 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:28.400 ever growing, an increasingly eclectic family of rescue animals. He'd 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:32.479 also recently gotten married to Marcar, a fellow animal lover 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:36.279 with a soft spot for strays. This I had to 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:37.080 go see myself. 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:41.680 Yeah, come on, in, Tory is right. 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:46.600 No amount of explaining or google earthing can really prepare you. 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.159 For the Chattler's Farm, a one of a kind sanctuary. 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.880 At the point of recording at least nearly fifty animals. 0:05:55.360 --> 0:06:00.240 And so these are dogs. They're really friendly, but they'll 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:02.360 jump all over you. The little pit bull will nut 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:03.360 punch you real quick. 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:07.800 There are dogs, of course, a motley pack of four 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:12.000 farcically different in stature, including an obese pitbull and a 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:15.839 giant labradoodle. But my eye is immediately drawn to a 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:20.040 large shape moving very slowly on the other side of 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:20.479 the farm. 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:22.400 So this is Morty, the Tordy. 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:27.080 Mardy Morty is a Galopagos tortoise about the size of 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:31.919 a coffee table, with an extraordinarily ornate shell. Something about 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.400 her heft and slowness feels majestic and prehistoric at the 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:35.960 same time. 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:37.599 Yeah, I mean, if you want to go sit on 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:38.560 her back or something. 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.039 Morty found his way to rob by way of a 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:44.320 wheeler dealer from a zoo that got shut down. Being 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:46.839 the kind of guy that already had the required permits 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:51.000 to house endangered tortoises, taking him in was not an issue. 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:53.159 I have little kids, they're gonna love, They're gonna love this. 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.480 I have to have this immediately. I rush over to 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.320 take a video for my kids. Mar Car assures me 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.320 Morty likes the attention and will stick her neck out 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:03.560 for selfies like. 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:09.560 A selfieite all she will stick her head out. 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:14.640 Morty is thirty one, but Galapago's turtles can live to 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:18.400 over one hundred, so both time and money wise, this 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:19.840 is no small commitment. 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:20.480 Yeah. 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.120 I get a couple of huge cases of this lettuce 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:27.720 delivered a couple times a week, and she grazes like horses. 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:31.680 The sound of the chewing is out of this world. 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:35.080 She'll sit there and make all the grass look raised. 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:39.600 And something magical happens when Robert starts talking about his animals, 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:41.760 a kind of care and attention to detail. 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:43.800 See all the big bumps on her show. 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:49.360 That's called pyramiding, And Robert really knows his stuff. People 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:52.320 will feed these things dog food, which and they'll eat it, 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:55.120 happily eat it. But it's it's too much protein and 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:57.640 it makes them grow too fast and it causes shell 0:07:57.720 --> 0:07:58.440 growth like that. 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:00.840 As we walk around on the one and a half 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.800 acre site, I learned something new. At each stop you 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.760 pass three donkeys, beware of getting in their space. Their 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.240 guard animals Rob insists, and as for the sheep, that 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:12.880 sheep will. 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:19.280 Try to kill you, his name is Ramsey. Yeah I 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:22.760 didn't either. Yeah, I started looking into that. 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:24.520 If you have sheep, you don't want to befriend them, 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.160 because they look at you like you're part of the 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:31.040 pecking order, and they'll challenge you. 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.880 It's clear that Robert takes his responsibilities as sanctuary father 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:39.280 very seriously, no matter how hard it gets or how 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:41.880 much he feels like things will be easier without them. 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:46.960 I've got way too many. I want to I wish 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:50.000 I can get rid of them. Good home, good home them, 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.640 But I'm afraid they'll end up. I'm the menu in Chicago. 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:57.959 Perhaps surprisingly, his biggest challenge has been keeping the peace 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.280 amongst his seven cats. Two of them in particular. 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:05.160 They beat the other cats up so bad, and it 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.800 creates such a problem. I mean, I gotta I can't 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:09.800 even have furniture in this house anymore. 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.280 Hell yeah, I see, try to get rid of somebody's 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:16.520 done right. You guys can't leave them unless you take 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:17.120 a cat with you. 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.360 But Robert had saved the best for last. 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.400 Let's see she's taken off, yet she's still there to 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.800 watch her She's like, Oh, they're gonna come see me now. 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:33.720 An actual wolf, a dirty blonde coat, amber eyes, legs 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.400 that could walk me down with ease. When I squint 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.560 from a distance, she passes for a dog. When I 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:43.520 get closer, she's unmistakably something else entirely. 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.040 I wouldn't talk to her. I wouldn't say a thing, though, 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:47.079 Just be silent. 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:52.360 This is Robert's second wolf, Trouble, as in Base and Trouble. 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:54.920 But you'd be forgiven if you thought I made trouble. 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:59.240 As in strife with Robert is often an air of danger, 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:03.120 a hint of not strictly legal. He's the guy who 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:07.240 knows people who can procure a wolf or three, and 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.520 is not scared of the challenge. He did try to 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:13.160 get Trouble to how for the mic, but she wasn't 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:14.800 in the mood to perform for my benefit. 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:17.320 What is it? What is like being a wolf? 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:17.679 Dad? 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:19.680 Like? Like what do you do? What? You don't walk them? Like? 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:21.080 What do you play with them? Like? What is it? 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:22.120 You play with them? 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:24.640 You spend time with them, you pet them, It's like 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:25.360 having a dog. 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:28.319 Trouble even gets along with some of Robert's dogs. 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:30.240 Now I let her go with the pitbull, you know, 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.079 really yeah, yeah, the two of them get a long wall. 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:38.400 Really some but not all. I'm looking at you, labordoodle. 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.880 She'll kill it like that? Really? Yeah? 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:42.280 What is it? 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.240 Wolf eat pretty much what I eat? So you know, 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.400 if I'm eating steak, they're eating steak. If I'm eating chicken, 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:52.160 they're eating chicken. And she's making rice. She'll cook extra 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:53.280 for him. 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:56.000 They're living well, Yeah, they're they're living real well. They're 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:56.520 living well. 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:12.320 I was getting a taste of the extraordinary scene Tory 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:15.440 Marlin encountered when she visited Rob back in twenty eighteen, 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.439 and imagining what that moment must have meant for Rob too. 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.440 Up to that point, getting to Tory, getting anyone to 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.120 care about Lee's story had only been a cycle of 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:29.800 false hope and setbacks. What was happening with your impression 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:31.400 of the media over this period of time? 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:32.440 They wouldn't touch it. 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:34.920 You can pick up the phone and you can call 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:38.840 tip lines, but it's hard to get a hold of journalists. 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:41.040 How do you get a journalist's phone number? You can 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:43.320 find the emails and you can email them all day long. 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.760 It doesn't mean they're going to respond. I got a 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.240 little bit you aded. To be quite honest with you, 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:53.360 the response was the complete opposite of anything that I expected. 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:56.400 I expected them to look at that and go, oh 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.280 my god, we've got a story here. Let's hit the 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:03.400 ground running. And I was, Oh, that's interesting, maybe I'll 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:04.160 look into it. 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:10.520 When The Guardian had published its investigation into Detective Richard 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.000 Zulei back in twenty fifteen, and well, pretty much nothing 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:17.800 came of it. Being Robert contacted two of the other 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.000 people mentioned in the article. Both were serving time in 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:25.920 Illinois prisons. One, a man named Andre Griggs, called back 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:30.080 and the two men started talking. One call turned into two, 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.920 then weeks of calls became months, and it was in 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.160 one of their earliest calls that Andre tells Robert, if 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:39.480 you want to get to know my story, read an 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.079 article by a woman named Tory Marlin. 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:44.400 I remember coming home from work. 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:49.720 And I went into my bathroom and I started reading it. 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.480 And I didn't leave that bathroom until I was finished, 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:55.160 and it must have been two hours later. 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:59.440 The marathon and the John notwithstanding, Robert couldn't believe what 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:03.679 he was reading. This murder also had an ATM, a 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.839 sweater and a snitch that got a reward, and. 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.320 I felt like I was reading so many elements of 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.880 the Lee Harris case in this case. 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.720 Then in there Robert makes the decision to reach out 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:17.199 to Tory. 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.400 Tory was interested. She was interested in the case. She 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:25.640 loved what I was doing. She just thought it was 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:26.320 the greatest thing. 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:31.440 Tory was drawn to the story, but she was still 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:33.680 trying to put her finger on exactly why. 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:37.240 Well, initially, when I was still sussing it out, I 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.240 didn't know exactly. 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:39.520 What it was. 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:44.880 But it became clear pretty early on that this was 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:46.640 the story of a friendship. 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:48.959 A friendship forged behind bars. 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.160 They didn't have much in common when they got there, 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.880 and what they had in common was a short time 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.920 together in cell four three. So to me, it was 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:06.200 just it was incredible that this friendship endured and that 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:10.440 they became really, really important people to each other. 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:13.679 The truth was, in spite of the rise of prosecutors 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.920 promising reform, the growing calls for police accountability coming from 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:21.720 across the political spectrum, and the steady flow of exonerations 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:26.640 proving the systemic nature of injustice, there was also fatigue 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:31.960 in the media. Oh not another wrongful conviction story, especially 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.760 not another one about black men. And then there was 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.360 Donald Trump having run in one on the back of 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.800 the Blue platform that exploited the excesses of Black Lives Matter. 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.480 He was set on rolling back the police reform project. 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:47.560 Tory knew she was going to need a serious usp 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:51.240 to get people to care. In Lee's case, it was 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:52.800 his friendship with Robert. 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.640 So there was a bit of a different way into 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:03.280 the story of Lee's case. And that was intriguing because 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:09.120 there are a lot of wrongful conviction stories and I 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:13.000 really thought that that set this one apart. 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.280 Tory gets writing the Marshall Project. Article she produces is 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:21.120 the type of beautiful, meticulous long read that wins awards. 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:22.960 Later it became a book. 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:26.560 So anytime you look up Lee Harris, you have another 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.120 piece of information that points to. 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:33.760 Him not being guilty out there. So that was incredibly important. 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.800 You start typing in Robert Chatler, these things are starting 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:40.000 to pop up. You're starting to see my petition, you 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:45.640 see the Facebook, You're starting to see the YouTube. So 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:48.760 all these things, yeah, are starting to add up. And 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:53.280 the more things there are, it's easier to persuade. And 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.560 I thank God every day that he put Tory in 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.560 my life, meaning Andre did because that was a big 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:00.440 breakthrough for us. 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:06.560 In my hotel room, later that night, I get an 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.520 excited message from Robert. He was outside barbecuing brisket for dinner. 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:14.960 What else when Trouble the Wolf finally decided to perform 0:16:15.080 --> 0:17:00.800 Lucky Me, he hit record just in time. While Robert 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:02.880 and Lee had finally caught a break with the media, 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:06.600 their attorney, Jennifer Black, had been thinking hard about her 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.960 next moves. After months of relentless searching for the sweater sample, 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.000 she had hit a dead end. The DNA tests on 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:18.640 the scraps of what's left comes back inconclusive. Jennifer's mind 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.680 goes back to David Toles, the snitch in Lee's case, 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:26.160 the one that Lee had supposedly confessed to his recantation 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:29.760 was not worth anything. But what if there was another angle? 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:32.840 What if she could prove he had snitched for a 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:37.000 reward before he even got involved in the Dana Fightler case. 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:40.720 In American jurisprudence, what that would mean is if someone 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.760 had gotten a benefit from snitching on someone before they 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:46.200 had a reasonable expectation that they would get benefit from 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:50.880 cooperating with the government again, which would make his testimony impeachable. 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.280 You could cast out on the credibility of his testimony 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.280 that Lee confessed to him. 0:17:57.400 --> 0:17:59.639 A hunch leads to Jennifer back to the transcripts from 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:02.600 Lee's original trial back in nineteen ninety two, and there 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:06.520 she finds a rather curious interlude from the prosecution talking 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.439 about a previous case that David Toles had been an 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.520 informantint the case of a prison guard named Andrew Easily, 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:17.960 who had allegedly been selling drugs to prisoners, including Tolls, 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:20.000 who was inside at the time. 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:25.360 Somehow, the prosecution had disclosed that David Toles had called 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:28.159 the FBI and said they were selling drugs in the prison. 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:28.680 That was it. 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:30.639 They said he didn't get a benefit for it. 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:36.800 How curious Jennifer thinks. She reads on Andrea Lyon, Lee's 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:40.440 attorney follows up with the next logical question to Tolls. 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.639 You expected a benefit, didn't you when you called the FBI. 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:48.320 He played it like a choir boy. He's like, no, 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.159 drugs are bad and drugs are killing people, and I 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:52.639 did it because it was the right thing. And they 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:56.520 didn't have anything to substantiate their allegation that it was 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.120 not true. 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.240 How convenient, Jennifer thinks. She was certainly not going to 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:08.040 take Tolls's word for it. Because the case involved the FBI. 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.639 Jennifer asks to look at the court files. Housed in 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:19.000 Chicago's Federal Courthouse. Designed by MIAs Vanderroh in the early sixties, 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:23.680 the Dirkson Federal Building is a shimmering thirty story glass 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:29.920 and steel symbol of modern minimalism. Jennifer is nervous. She's 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:35.680 never done this before. She enlists Eric for moral support. 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:40.840 Inside it's quite formal, imposing in a way. The county 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:46.080 court just isn't. Jennifer has handed the documents by the clerk. 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:48.200 Some good news straight off the bat. 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.280 We got lucky enough that the transcripts from the trial 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:53.080 were in the court file. 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:57.199 Transcripts are not always a given, but when present, they 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:01.399 are so helpful. Jennifer sits down and starts reading, and 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:04.959 there it is, in black and white. She can't believe 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:09.200 what she's seeing. She grabs Eric and lets out a squeal. 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:11.119 And I was like, oh my god, Oh my god. 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:14.159 The transcript held the proof She had hoped to find 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:20.240 an FBI agent talking all about their arrangement with mister Toles. 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:23.440 It did show that the federal government had paid David 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:27.880 Toles to be an undercover agent for them. They paid 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:30.080 David Toles I think five hundred dollars. 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:30.760 To do that. 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:35.000 There was more. The benefit wasn't limited to cash. The 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.760 FBI threw its weight around got Tolls released early. 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:41.600 They had called the state's attorney's office and asked that 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:43.600 David Toles be released. He was in jail at the 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:47.240 time on a drug case, so they paid him and 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:52.280 got him out on bond when he had been rejected, just. 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:55.119 As they had known about Toles's recantation and remained silent. 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:57.840 The state had known all along that Tolls had been 0:20:57.880 --> 0:20:59.920 rewarded in the past for his work as an en 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.360 form It not only that they had organized to get 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:06.920 him out of jail early. The law on this was unequivocal. 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.720 Prosecutors are required to hand over evidence in their possession 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:14.320 that can help the defense, and they hadn't. This was 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:19.120 a textbook Brady violation, as blatant as they come. This 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:24.760 was enormous. Jennifer needs to make copies. There's only one issue. 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:29.239 It was incredibly expensive to have the pages copied by 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:32.399 the clerk like I think it was like a dollar page, 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:35.560 you know, something just really really cost prohibitive. I didn't 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:37.320 have much money at the time either. 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.760 But Jennifer is anything if not industrious. 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:44.080 I had a scanner, and it wasn't a quick scanner 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:44.600 like I have now. 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:45.520 It's sort of slow. 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:48.200 They were a long thing of cubbies. So we went 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:50.639 down to the very end of the cubby the furthest 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:54.520 away from the desk where we got the transcripts. So 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:59.560 Eric and I undid the volumes and scan them underneath 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:03.640 the dead hiding it from the clerk instead of having 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:05.040 to pay for it. 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:08.000 It might not have been her proudest or most ethical move, 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:11.440 but when you're staring down a brady violation that helped 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:15.080 put an innocent man in prison, resourcefulness starts to look 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:16.440 a lot like justice. 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.359 Like I was really fired up. I couldn't believe it. 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:23.080 I couldn't believe our good fortune at having the transcripts 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:25.480 in the file. I couldn't believe the good fortune that 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:27.719 the agent got asked about it and admitted that they 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:30.199 had paid David Toles. I couldn't believe that it was 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:32.240 on the record that the agent said. I called the 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:35.359 prosecutor and asked if they would let David Toles out 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:37.600 like it was exactly what we needed. It's one of 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:41.040 those really rare moments in my investigations where I was like, 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:43.280 I can't believe we found this, Like this is amazing. 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:50.960 This is a prepaid collect call and NATed. 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:56.639 Jennifer passes on the good news to Lee. His buddy 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:57.879 Rob is the first to know. 0:22:58.280 --> 0:22:59.840 You may start the conversation now. 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:04.679 She said at feet I know it's big. That's huge. 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:08.600 I never heard her get get so when she got excited, 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:10.000 I get excited, but I. 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:17.360 Got all these in years. It was just, uh oh, 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:22.040 I'm filled with emotion, dude. I see a light at 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:26.560 the end of the tunnel. Please, I do You're You're 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:28.880 on your way out, buddy. I don't see this going 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:31.480 any other way. I don't see a negative anything in this. 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:35.399 The question is when you know, and the question you 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:36.960 want to you want to know what my question is 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:39.199 before I forget, because I thought about this last night 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:45.520 and I laughed, Yeah, Burger King or McDonald's, Wendy's or. 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:52.399 Double whopper, triple whopper? What do you want? Double whopper 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:56.119 with cheese and a vanilla cha? All right? Man with 0:23:56.359 --> 0:24:02.920 cheese bacon, but I want to that's what I want 0:24:02.920 --> 0:24:03.160 to want. 0:24:04.000 --> 0:24:05.800 Yeah, we'll get you on man, We'll get you a 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:11.719 good burger, all right, Go man, go go call me tomorrow. 0:24:12.520 --> 0:24:14.879 Will do it all right? Likewise, bye bye. 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:26.240 The caller had hung up. Crying Wolf is an iHeart 0:24:26.320 --> 0:24:30.479 and Clockwork Films podcast and association with Chalk and Blade. 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:35.680 I'm your host Dax Devlin Ross. The series producer is 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:42.399