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#129 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Chris Tapp · Wrongful Conviction

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions. I'm Laura and I writer.
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Speaker 2: And I'm Steve Drisen.
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Speaker 1: Today we're going to tell you about an Idaho man
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Speaker 1: named Chris Tap. Chris was just twenty years old when
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Speaker 1: he endured a mind bending, twenty five hour interrogation that
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Speaker 1: transformed him from an innocent into a confessed murderer. Fortunately
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Speaker 1: for Chris, he found an indomitable champion in the victim's mother.
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Speaker 1: She convinced police to use a revolutionary new method of
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Speaker 1: DNA identification to exonerate Chris Tap and find her own
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Speaker 1: daughter's killer.
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Speaker 2: There are certain special people you meet in your life,
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Speaker 2: people that I like to say are more evolved than
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Speaker 2: the rest of us, people that really inspire you. And
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Speaker 2: Carol Dodge is one of those people. It's one of
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Speaker 2: the few times in my career as a lawyer where
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Speaker 2: someone from the victimim's family has asked me to investigate
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Speaker 2: an injustice and for a crime victim who was so
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Speaker 2: invested in Chris's guilt that she wanted him to get
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Speaker 2: the death penalty, to evolve to a place where she
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Speaker 2: was thinking he might be innocent. That just blew me away.
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Speaker 2: How was it that a lay person could look at
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Speaker 2: these interrogation tapes and see all of the problems, all
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Speaker 2: of the coercion, all of the leading questions, all of
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Speaker 2: the fact feeding when law enforcement officers on the Idaho
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Speaker 2: Falls Police Department couldn't see it themselves.
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Speaker 1: And it shows that wrongful convictions affect more than just
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Speaker 1: the defendants. It's also the victim's families, the survivors of
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Speaker 1: these horrible attacks, who are being fed aligne about an
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Speaker 1: innocent person being guilty.
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Speaker 2: It wasn't easy. She had help from a lot of
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Speaker 2: other people, but it was her persistence and her desire
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Speaker 2: for knowledge that ultimately changed the course of this case.
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Speaker 1: Kristap's story starts in Idaho Falls, a town of about
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Speaker 1: one hundred thousand people in southeastern Idaho, about two hours
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Speaker 1: north of Yellowstone National Park. Idaho Falls is a beautiful place.
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Speaker 1: There's mountains on the horizon and the Snake River cut
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Speaker 1: straight through town. Gorgeous though it may be, the town
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Speaker 1: was wrecked by terrible ugliness nearly twenty four years ago.
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Speaker 1: In June nineteen ninety six, Idaho Falls resident Angie Dodge
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Speaker 1: was eighteen years old. She graduated from high school the
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Speaker 1: year before. A head of schedule with honors, and life
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Speaker 1: was just beginning for her. She was working two jobs,
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Speaker 1: taking a few classes at Idaho State becoming independent. In fact,
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Speaker 1: Angie had just recently moved into her first apartment, the
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Speaker 1: upper floor of a little frame house on Eye Street,
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Speaker 1: where she lived by herself. But on the morning of Thursday,
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Speaker 1: June thirteenth, Angie didn't sh up for her day job
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Speaker 1: at a local beauty supply store. A friend stopped by
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Speaker 1: her apartment to make sure she was okay, but by
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Speaker 1: eleven o'clock that friend was frantically dialing nine to one one.
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Speaker 1: She'd found Angie Dodge lying face up on her bedroom floor,
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Speaker 1: half naked and clearly dead. Angie's head was against the
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Speaker 1: bedroom wall with her legs outstretched. Next to her, there
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Speaker 1: was a basket of stuffed animals, including a teddy bear,
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Speaker 1: specked in blood. She'd been stabbed fourteen times and her
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Speaker 1: throat had been cut.
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Speaker 2: She was nearly decapitated. Most of the apartment was undisturbed,
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Speaker 2: so all of the activity between the assailant and Angie
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Speaker 2: took place in her bedroom. The crime scene did not
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Speaker 2: suggest a prolonged struggle. Angie was six feet tall, and
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Speaker 2: she had a reputation of not taking guph from anybody.
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Speaker 2: I mean, she would have been the kind of victim
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Speaker 2: to have fought back, and she did have a few
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Speaker 2: defensive wounds on her arms and her wrists. The police
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Speaker 2: theorized that she had been attacked in her sleep and
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Speaker 2: quickly overwhelmed. But who would want to hurt Angie Dodge.
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Speaker 1: The police assured Angie's family, including her mom Carol, that
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Speaker 1: the killer had left damning evidence behind. Seaman left on
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Speaker 1: Angie's body yielded a full DNA profile, but police ran
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Speaker 1: the profile through the state and national DNA databases and
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Speaker 1: got no hits. They compared it against Angie's male friends
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Speaker 1: and family members, still no hits, and as summer turned
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Speaker 1: to fall and the temperatures dropped, the case went cold too.
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Speaker 1: The case stayed cold until January nineteen ninety seven, when
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Speaker 1: an acquaintance of Angie's named Ben Hobbs, was arrested in
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Speaker 1: Nevada for a knife point sexual assault. Police started questioning
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Speaker 1: Ben about whether he was involved in the attack on Angie,
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Speaker 1: which seemed to be similar, but Ben insisted he had
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Speaker 1: nothing to do with Angie Dodge, and eventually lawyered up,
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Speaker 1: so instead police turned to his friend Chris Tap to
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Speaker 1: see if they could get some dirt on Ben.
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Speaker 2: At the time, Chris was twenty years old, maybe a
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Speaker 2: year or two older than Angie. In fact, he and
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Speaker 2: Angie and Ben were part of a young group of
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Speaker 2: people who hung out on the trails along the Snake
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Speaker 2: River and partied from time to time.
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Speaker 1: This group of friends called themselves the river Rats crew,
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Speaker 1: and police figured that if one of the river Rats
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Speaker 1: had attacked Angie, then the others would know about it.
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Speaker 1: Not only was Chris Tap a river rat, but one
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Speaker 1: of the police officers had known Chris for years. He
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Speaker 1: figured it'd be easy to use their trusting relationship to
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Speaker 1: make Chris give up whatever he knew about ben Idaho Falls.
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Speaker 1: Police decided to question Chris, and here come the interrogations,
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Speaker 1: not one, not two, but eventually nine of them, spread
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Speaker 1: out over nearly four weeks, for a total of twenty
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Speaker 1: five hours of questioning. The statements that police get ar chaotic, confused, jumbled,
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Speaker 1: and the tactics police used, well, they're a recipe for
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Speaker 1: wrongful conviction. It all began for Chris on Tuesday, January seventh.
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Speaker 1: The officer starts by asking Chris about Ben's possible role
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Speaker 1: in Angie's death. Chris denies knowing anything about it, over
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Speaker 1: and over again.
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Speaker 3: I mean, I'm going to be straight up and cheerful
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Speaker 3: with you. If I did anything know about this, I
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Speaker 3: would say what I do on them. That's honest, true,
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Speaker 3: not lying.
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Speaker 1: But the police have an unsolved murder on their hands,
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Speaker 1: and Chris's possible knowledge about Ben Hobbs was the only
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Speaker 1: lead they had. They try to create leverage with Chris
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Speaker 1: by implying that he's withholding crucial information and that there
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Speaker 1: could be consequences if the investigators don't get what they need.
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Speaker 1: The deeper they get into the interview, the more police
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Speaker 1: up the pressure. They tell Chris that he has to
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Speaker 1: tell them something about Ben.
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Speaker 2: Now, this officer was not a stranger to Chris. He
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Speaker 2: was a school resource officer whom Chris had known throughout
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Speaker 2: his life. And one of the tactics this officer used
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Speaker 2: was the false friend technique, suggesting that he was there
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Speaker 2: to help Chris to see him through this problem. I
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Speaker 2: should be.
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Speaker 4: Saying this, but kind of close to you. I've got
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Speaker 4: to know not one of these crimes.
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Speaker 1: I could go out to do that, and the police
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Speaker 1: suggests that if Chris tells them something about Ben, then
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Speaker 1: they'd pull some strings, that even though he's getting dragged
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Speaker 1: into the investigation, they'd protect him. He wouldn't have anything
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Speaker 1: to worry about. It's a theme they'd go on to
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Speaker 1: repeat again and again.
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Speaker 3: I will keep everything a kid.
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Speaker 1: Chris continues to insist that he doesn't have anything to
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Speaker 1: tell them, and eventually the cops let him go home.
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Speaker 1: But a few days later, on Friday, January tenth, the
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Speaker 1: police are back. They still suspect that Chris is withholding
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Speaker 1: information to protect his friend. They need more leverage, so
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Speaker 1: they give him a polygraph test and they tell him
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Speaker 1: that he flunked it.
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Speaker 2: It was extremely painful to watch because you see someone's
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Speaker 2: will being broken over and over and over again by
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Speaker 2: these two interrogators, primarily their friend, the school resource officer
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Speaker 2: and the polygrapher.
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Speaker 1: They also tell Chris that by covering for his friend,
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Speaker 1: Chris is making himself an accessory to murder, and the
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Speaker 1: police start warning him that the law treats cover ups
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Speaker 1: the same as the crime. In other words, Chris Tap
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Speaker 1: is now facing the gas chamber.
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Speaker 3: Are you looking at it? The possibility getting charged with
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Speaker 3: the murder one which.
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Speaker 2: Max penalty is dead.
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Speaker 5: Middle A generally is life a person foot no row,
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Speaker 5: and save your time period.
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Speaker 2: You've got to save your mind. The thread of death
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Speaker 2: penalty is in the air.
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Speaker 1: Chris is terrified, and so he starts to make things
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Speaker 1: up in order to please Isn't interrogators and save himself
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Speaker 1: from a death sentence. He tells a story in which
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Speaker 1: he'd heard Ben Hobbes admit to killing Angie, and the
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Speaker 1: cops eat it up. By now they can't wait to
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Speaker 1: take Ben down for rape and murder, with Chris as
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Speaker 1: the star member of their team.
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Speaker 2: The school resource officer tells Chris at one point that
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Speaker 2: he really wants Chris to help in nailing Ben Hobbes
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Speaker 2: so that he could drop kick Ben Hobbes through the goalposts.
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Speaker 1: Of life toxic masculinity, anybody, huh? Artifact detectives keep pushing
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Speaker 1: for more details, and they help Chris out by giving
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Speaker 1: him hints about what they think happened. They tell Chris,
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Speaker 1: for example, that Angie had been stabbed with a knife.
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Speaker 1: Pretty soon Chris agrees and says he heard Ben describe
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Speaker 1: using a knife. But even as Chris regurgitates these details.
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Speaker 1: He's freaking out, crying hard, terrified that whatever he says
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Speaker 1: won't satisfy his interrogators, that instead of helping police drop
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Speaker 1: kick Ben, he'll end up being the football. But the
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Speaker 1: cops still don't seem convinced, and they start asking whether
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Speaker 1: the DNA left on Angie's body might belong to Chris.
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Speaker 1: He rallies, take my DNA. It ain't going to be me.
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Speaker 1: He says, I was never inside Angie's apartment. The police
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Speaker 1: let Chris go home again, but they still think he's
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Speaker 1: not telling them everything he knows about Ben Hobbes, So
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Speaker 1: the next day, January eleventh, they arrest Chris and charge
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Speaker 1: him as an accessory who helped cover up Angie Dodge's murder.
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Speaker 2: And that threat or suggestion of the gas chamber. That's
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Speaker 2: becoming realer and realer.
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Speaker 1: To Chris pretty soon. The promise of help gets more
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Speaker 1: real too. Chris gets a lawyer, and that lawyer negotiates
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Speaker 1: an immunity agreement. Under the deal, Chris would escape charges
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Speaker 1: if he provides information about who raped and killed Angie Dodge.
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Speaker 1: But it's got to be information that the police will believe,
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Speaker 1: and the police tell him that in order to go free,
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Speaker 1: they expect him to say he was present during the attack.
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Speaker 1: In their words, get us up close. If he does that,
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Speaker 1: they suggest he can go home. They'll leave him alone
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Speaker 1: and we can help you. Now, Chris has no choice
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Speaker 1: but to tell lies, placing him inside Anngie's bedroom, and
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Speaker 1: as police keep pushing, Chris has to take the story
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Speaker 1: further and further. By the very end, he agrees that
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Speaker 1: he slashed Angie with a knife and held her down
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Speaker 1: while Ben raped her.
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Speaker 3: A hat.
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Speaker 2: That Angie dodge across the right breast with the knife is.
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Speaker 1: Even though Chris now has agreed to say he was
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Speaker 1: directly involved, he can't get the story right. He doesn't
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Speaker 1: know basic facts like the layout of Angie's apartment or
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Speaker 1: what room the attack occurred in. In fact, at one point,
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Speaker 1: the police take Chris to Eye Street so he can
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Speaker 1: point out Angie's home and walk them through the crime scene,
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Speaker 1: but he can't even tell them which house she lived in.
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Speaker 1: He guesses that she lived on the corner when she
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Speaker 1: really lived in the middle of the block.
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Speaker 2: This should have been a huge red flag to these officers.
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Speaker 2: He had previously told them that they won't find his
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Speaker 2: DNA there because he'd never been to Angie's apartment. But
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Speaker 2: they are stuck in the Chris Tap box and they
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Speaker 2: can't get out of it.
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Speaker 1: They refuse to get out of it, even when a
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Speaker 1: big problem emerges about a week later.
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Speaker 2: It's a problem we've seen in case after case. By
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Speaker 2: January eighteenth, the police have done DNA testing and the
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Speaker 2: results are back. Their DNA from the crime scene does
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Speaker 2: not belong to either Ben Hobbs or Chris Tap.
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Speaker 1: Neither of them could have been Antie's rapist, and the
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Speaker 1: police accept that Ben Hobbs had nothing to do with
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Speaker 1: this crime. But Chris, on the other hand, he had
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Speaker 1: confessed to being there, and why would anyone confess unless
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Speaker 1: they were guilty. The police decide they'll never know whose
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Speaker 1: DNA was left at the crime scene, but they stick
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Speaker 1: to their belief Chris was involved. They conclude that he's
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Speaker 1: been protecting the identity of the real rapist this whole time.
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Speaker 1: They're furious, and the immunity deal is yanked off the table.
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Speaker 1: Chris Tap is charged with first degree murder and sexual assault,
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Speaker 1: and the county prosecutor announces that he'll seek the death penalty.
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Speaker 1: At Chris's trial, prosecutors show the jury one brief clip
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Speaker 1: from the interrogation Cherry picked from twenty five hours of videotape.
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Speaker 1: This excerpt makes his confession seem spontaneous and voluntary, and
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Speaker 1: on May twenty eighth, nineteen nine, ninety eight, Chris tap
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Speaker 1: is convicted of the rape and murder of Angie Dodge.
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Speaker 1: This is where the hero of our story first comes
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Speaker 1: in Angie's mother, Carol Dodge, a heartbroken but ferocious woman.
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Speaker 1: Carol was tortured by the thought that one of Angie's
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Speaker 1: attackers was still free, the one who had raped her,
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Speaker 1: and Carol believed Chris knew who the rapist was, so
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Speaker 1: when the time came for sentencing, Carol Dodge begged the
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Speaker 1: judge to give Chris the death penalty. When the judge
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Speaker 1: gave him life in prison instead, Carol broke down, sobbing
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Speaker 1: to her justice hadn't been served. Carol Dodge was right,
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Speaker 1: justice hadn't been served, but the failures here were more
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Speaker 1: profound and troubling than even she imagined at first. For years,
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Speaker 1: an unanswered question remained at the heart of Angie Dodge's case.
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Speaker 1: Whose DNA had been left on her body?
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Speaker 2: The investigation had stalled, and Carol's frustration was going through
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Speaker 2: the roof into One day, about twelve or thirteen years
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Speaker 2: after Angie's death, Carol decided to take the matter into
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Speaker 2: her own hands, and the first thing she wanted to
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Speaker 2: look at were the videotapes of Chris TAP's interrogation.
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Speaker 1: It's the first time she's seen these tapes from start
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Speaker 1: to finish, and as she watches them, she's growing angrier
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Speaker 1: and angrier because those tapes are making her think that
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Speaker 1: Chris Tap might be innocent. Carol starts doing research online
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Speaker 1: about false confessions, and whose name comes up but Steve Drisen.
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Speaker 1: She picks up the phone and calls them.
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Speaker 2: Now, I'll never forget this. I was sitting at my
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Speaker 2: desk one afternoon. It was February twenty second, twenty thirteen,
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Speaker 2: and the phone rank and on the other end was
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Speaker 2: Carol Dodge. Now I knew who Carol Dodge was. I
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Speaker 2: had read about the cap case. I had seen Carol
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Speaker 2: on an episode of Dateline, but I had never received
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Speaker 2: a call from a crime victim before asking for my assistance,
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Speaker 2: she said, would you mind reviewing and analyzing these interrogation videos?
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Speaker 2: Who could say no to Carol Dodge.
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Speaker 1: Carol sent the videotapes and Steve watched them all. He
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Speaker 1: wrote an expert report deeming Chris Tapp's confessions unreliable. But
16:38
Speaker 1: even as Steve and Carroll worked together, others were starting
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Speaker 1: to raise questions too. An advocacy group called Judges for
16:45
Speaker 1: Justice started pushing to reopen the investigation. Two former FBI
16:50
Speaker 1: agents reviewed the case and concluded that the Idaho Falls
16:54
Speaker 1: police investigation was deeply flawed, and an internationally recognized expert
17:00
Speaker 1: concluded that Chris TAP's polygraph had been a sham. The results,
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Speaker 1: he said, weren't worth the paper they were written on.
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Speaker 2: Things were starting to congeal around the idea that Chris
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Speaker 2: was wrongfully convicted. Chris TAP's own attorneys and representatives of
17:17
Speaker 2: the Idaho Innocence Project were beginning to push the innocence
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Speaker 2: narrative in court.
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Speaker 1: What the team really needed was more forensic testing to
17:27
Speaker 1: show that Chris Taps DNA was nowhere in Angie Dodge's bedroom.
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Speaker 1: Under previous Idaho law, defendants like Chris could only seek
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Speaker 1: DNA testing during the year immediately following conviction, but that
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Speaker 1: restriction was lifted in twenty ten. And Chris's team jumped
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Speaker 1: at the opportunity. They had additional testing done on some
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Speaker 1: other things from Angie's bedroom, that Teddy bear with the
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Speaker 1: blood on it, and some articles of her clothing. What
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Speaker 1: was found the same DNA profile as the person who
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Speaker 1: had left his seamen. We now had multiple DNA hits
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Speaker 1: to the same guy. While we didn't know who that
18:06
Speaker 1: guy was, we did know he wasn't Chris Tap. Based
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Speaker 1: on all these new discoveries, Carol Dodge becomes convinced that
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Speaker 1: Chris Tap is innocent, and she starts bringing pressure to
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Speaker 1: bear on the local police department to release Chris and
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Speaker 1: find her daughter's actual killer. In May twenty sixteen, Chris
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Speaker 1: TAP's lawyer filed a post conviction petition alleging that new
18:32
Speaker 1: evidence had cast doubt on the reliability of TAP's confession,
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Speaker 1: and pretty soon an enormous collection of forces was pushing
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Speaker 1: the state of Idaho to do the right thing. Judges
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Speaker 1: for Justice was releasing expert reports and calling for Chris's release,
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Speaker 1: The Idaho Innocence Project was talking about the new DNA results,
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Speaker 1: and the Idaho Falls Post Register, the local newspaper, was
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Speaker 1: hammering the prosecutor to release Chris. One local journalist became
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Speaker 1: particularly invested in the case. His name is Brian Clark.
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Speaker 5: I'm the opinion editor of the Post Register in Idaho Falls,
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Speaker 5: and I'm a former reporter there. I first heard about
19:09
Speaker 5: the case shortly before Judges for Justice started releasing their
19:14
Speaker 5: reports about it. My editor approached me and said, I've
19:18
Speaker 5: got a gift for you. It's not going to feel
19:20
Speaker 5: like a gift, but I promise it is. And he
19:23
Speaker 5: introduced me to the Dodge case and the Tap conviction.
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Speaker 1: Even the Innocence Project in New York had joined the fight,
19:31
Speaker 1: but no one was pushing harder than Carol Dodge. It
19:34
Speaker 1: takes an army sometimes, and she was the General Lisimo.
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Speaker 5: An example of her tenacity you can actually see in
19:41
Speaker 5: the architecture of the police station. There are a pair
19:44
Speaker 5: of doors that are in between the sort of main
19:47
Speaker 5: lobby area and the area where the detectives and other
19:50
Speaker 5: police are. The reason they were put in is that
19:53
Speaker 5: Carol Dodge would show up at the police station, walk
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Speaker 5: right past the front desk and into the chief's office
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Speaker 5: and start demanding that he you know, what are you
20:03
Speaker 5: doing to find my daughter's killer? And so they finally
20:05
Speaker 5: had to put indoors to keep her from doing that.
20:07
Speaker 5: They're referred to as the Carrol Doors.
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Speaker 1: Eventually, prosecutors decide that they're not yet ready to exonerate Chris,
20:14
Speaker 1: but they would agree based on this new DNA evidence,
20:17
Speaker 1: that Chris should be granted immediate release. So in twenty seventeen,
20:21
Speaker 1: Chris tap walked out of prison, not yet exonerated, but
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Speaker 1: a freeman after spending twenty years behind bars.
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Speaker 5: You see all the evidence stack up and it becomes
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Speaker 5: clear the guys spent twenty years behind bars for something
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Speaker 5: he didn't do, and that did keep me up at nights. Frankly,
20:39
Speaker 5: after working on it for years, I did not think
20:41
Speaker 5: it was going to be remedied. So it was really
20:44
Speaker 5: great to watch them take those handcuffs off. That made
20:47
Speaker 5: me really happy. The first two people to give him
20:49
Speaker 5: a hug was his mother, Vera and Carol. They hugged
20:52
Speaker 5: and they were both crying, and it was just really remarkable.
20:58
Speaker 2: It was a bittersweet moment. Carol Dodge was relieved that
21:02
Speaker 2: Chris had been released, but she was also concerned would
21:05
Speaker 2: the Idaho Falls police and prosecutors now give up the
21:09
Speaker 2: search for Andy's killer. There was no way she was
21:12
Speaker 2: going to allow that to happen.
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Speaker 1: Usually, in these cases, the DNA profile eventually gets matched,
21:20
Speaker 1: and it's the identification of the real killer that leads
21:23
Speaker 1: to full exoneration. But this wasn't happening for christ Tap.
21:27
Speaker 1: The single DNA profile left at the scene was run
21:30
Speaker 1: again and again through the National DNA database, but it
21:34
Speaker 1: kept coming up dry. You see, profiles get added to
21:37
Speaker 1: that database only when people are arrested or charged with
21:39
Speaker 1: certain serious offenses. Clearly, whoever had done this to Angie
21:43
Speaker 1: Dodge hadn't reoffended, at least not at the level of
21:46
Speaker 1: severity that would lead to his DNA being included in
21:49
Speaker 1: that database. But that didn't stop Carol. She wasn't going
21:53
Speaker 1: to rest until that mystery DNA was identified, and she
21:57
Speaker 1: wanted Idaho police to try a brand new identification technique
22:02
Speaker 1: called genetic genealogy. Genetic genealogy is basically the use of
22:14
Speaker 1: DNA evidence in combination with traditional genealogical information. If you
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Speaker 1: can identify whose DNA it is, at least you might
22:22
Speaker 1: be able to identify that person's family tree. This technique
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Speaker 1: was recently used to solve the Golden State killer case
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Speaker 1: in California. Now in twenty fourteen, police had already given
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Speaker 1: genetic genealogy a shot in the case of Angi Dodge.
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Speaker 1: Using the DNA profile from the crime scene and an
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Speaker 1: ancestry dot com database, they obtained a partial DNA match
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Speaker 1: to a man in New Orleans, a possible suspect, a
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Speaker 1: man named Michael Ustri. They became more and more interested
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Speaker 1: in Ustri after it turned out that he was a
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Speaker 1: filmmaker with a flair for the macabre. He had recently
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Speaker 1: created a short film called Murder Rebelia about the market
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Speaker 1: for collectibles related to real life killings.
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Speaker 2: And when he told the officers that he had been
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Speaker 2: to Idaho at some point around the time of this
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Speaker 2: crime on a camping trip, their expectations soared even higher.
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Speaker 1: Police interviewed Michael Usri and got his full DNA profile,
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Speaker 1: but it didn't match the DNA left at the scene.
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Speaker 1: Film noir or not, he wasn't guilty. As for everyone
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Speaker 1: else in the Usri family tree, police found themselves out
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Speaker 1: of leeds again. Every other male in the family was
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Speaker 1: ruled out too young, too old, never been to Idaho Falls.
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Speaker 1: But again, Carol Dodge didn't give up In twenty eighteen,
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Speaker 1: she found the genetic genealogist who had cracked open the
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Speaker 1: Golden State killer case, doctor C. C. Moore. Carol pressured
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Speaker 1: police to hire doctor Moore, and they did. Doctor Moore
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Speaker 1: started looking through obituaries to fill in the blanks in
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Speaker 1: the USRI family tree, and she.
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Speaker 5: Was able to take samples that were found at the
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Speaker 5: crime scene and compare them to genealogical DNA database That
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Speaker 5: led her to a family tree of individuals who could
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Speaker 5: be related to the person who left the DNA at
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Speaker 5: the crime scene. And only with the help of an
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Speaker 5: obscure record that they found in a library, they were
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Speaker 5: finally able to track down Brian Drips.
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Speaker 1: Brian Dripps is a biological Uzri who had been adopted
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Speaker 1: by his stepfather and grew up as part of another family.
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Speaker 1: By the time his name came up in late twenty eighteen,
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Speaker 1: Drips was fifty three years old, and it turned out
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Speaker 1: he used to live in Idaho Falls, right across the
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Speaker 1: street from Angie Dodge.
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Speaker 2: Police had actually interviewed him during a canvas of the
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Speaker 2: crime scene and the area around where the crime occurred.
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Speaker 2: They interviewed the true killer within days of Angie Dodge's murder.
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Speaker 1: Brian Dripps had left Idaho Falls shortly after the killing.
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Speaker 1: He was now living in a different part of Idaho,
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Speaker 1: and he wasn't in the national DNA database. He was
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Speaker 1: the perfect suspect. Now all police needed was a complete
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Speaker 1: DNA match. They started tailing Drips and they found their
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Speaker 1: opportunity when he threw a cigarette butt out his car window.
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Speaker 1: Police recovered that cigarette butt, and there it was a
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Speaker 1: DNA match to the evidence left in Angie's bedroom all
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Speaker 1: those years ago. After more than two decades, Brian Drips
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Speaker 1: was arrested for the rape and murder of Angie Dodge,
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Speaker 1: and Chris Tapp was finally exonerated in an Idaho courtroom
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Speaker 1: on July seventeenth, twenty nineteen. Since then, Chris Tap and
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Speaker 1: Carol Dodge have become close. They've even appeared on television
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Speaker 1: together to tell their intertwined stories of injustice. For his part,
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Speaker 1: Brian Drips is currently incarcerated in Idaho Falls, where he's
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Speaker 1: awaiting trial on first degree murder and rape charges. He's
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Speaker 1: entered a plea if not guilty, fighting for j this
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Speaker 1: can be a long, slow crawl. Carol and Chris know
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Speaker 1: this better. Than anyone.
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Speaker 5: Assuming Brian Drips is eventually convicted, she will have not
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Speaker 5: only freedom innocent man, but driven the effort to catch
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Speaker 5: the guilty one. She's been the driving force behind this
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Speaker 5: whole thing, both the exoneration of Chris Tap and the
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Speaker 5: apprehension of Brian Drips.
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Speaker 2: Slowly but surely, over many years, she was able to
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Speaker 2: get the Idaho Falls Police out of the Chris Tap box.
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Speaker 2: She got them to see the truth.
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Speaker 3: Kerl Yeah, Hi, how are you today, Steve?
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Speaker 4: I'm really sad. I was just sitting here thinking with
26:46
Speaker 4: the cost of justice, those all the things that I
26:50
Speaker 4: sacrificed because of people that could have done the right
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Speaker 4: thing at the very beginning.
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Speaker 3: It's so important that you say that people know. I
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Speaker 3: don't know. It's been a real price to your twenty
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Speaker 3: three year search for the troops.
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Speaker 4: And I never allowed any of the authorities to tell me.
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Speaker 2: Now, for the time they.
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Speaker 4: Told me that something couldn't be done, I would just say,
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Speaker 4: we'll watch me.
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Speaker 3: There are things that your work is done which you
27:22
Speaker 3: probably can't even see or appreciate yet, that I hope
27:26
Speaker 3: gives you some comfort. It does. I love you.
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Speaker 4: I love you too, and thank you.
27:39
Speaker 2: Hello.
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Speaker 4: Hey, Chris, it's Laura. How are you good, Laura, how
27:42
Speaker 4: are you? I'm good, I'm good.
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Speaker 1: So tell me about what you've been doing with your
27:47
Speaker 1: time as a free man.
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Speaker 4: And I understand you've got a family.
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Speaker 3: I do. I have an amazing family with see. I
27:52
Speaker 3: got out in March of twenty seventeen. I met my
27:54
Speaker 3: wife two months later in May, and well would romance
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Speaker 3: and we were married in July. I have three beautiful
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Speaker 3: step children, or children on my own, as I could
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Speaker 3: love to call um. I have an almost twenty one
28:05
Speaker 3: year old, I got a sixteen year old, and I
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Speaker 3: got a fifteen year old boy. Tell me a.
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Speaker 4: Little bit about what it's meant to you still have
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Speaker 4: Carol Dodge.
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Speaker 2: Sight for you?
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Speaker 3: Oh Caroll Dodge. I love her dearly more than most
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Speaker 3: people will ever know. The actual true killer of her.
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Speaker 2: Daughter would be caught and I wouldn't.
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Speaker 3: Have the exoneration it wasn't for Carroll Dodge.
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Speaker 2: Chris. It was a great honor for me to play
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Speaker 2: even a small role in your exoneration, and being in
28:36
Speaker 2: that courtroom when you were finally cleared was one of
28:41
Speaker 2: the highlights of my career. You've been given a gift
28:44
Speaker 2: and I hope you take this gift and I know
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Speaker 2: you will, and that you live a life that is
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Speaker 2: honorable and worthy.
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Speaker 1: To Chris Tapp and Carol Dodge, two of our heroes.
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Speaker 1: Thanks for letting us share your story. And that's the
29:08
Speaker 1: story of Chris Tapp. Next week, join us as we
29:11
Speaker 1: bring you to Brooklyn, New York, where David McCallum and
29:14
Speaker 1: Willie Stuckey were wrongfully convicted of murder. There are decades
29:18
Speaker 1: long fight for justice drew support from one of the
29:21
Speaker 1: most famous exonneries of all time, professional boxer Reuben Hurricane
29:27
Speaker 1: Carter Till. Then thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions.
29:39
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions is a production of Lava for
29:43
Speaker 1: Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One. Special
29:47
Speaker 1: thanks to our executive producer Jason Flamm and the team
29:50
Speaker 1: at Signal Company Number one. Executive producer Kevin Wardis Senior
29:54
Speaker 1: producer and Pope and additional production and editing by Connor Hall.
29:59
Speaker 1: Special things to jogy Hammer for additional script editing and
30:02
Speaker 1: for wrangling and writing like a mad Woman. Special thanks
30:06
Speaker 1: to Mike Heavey for organizing and editing Chris tab's interrogation videos.
30:11
Speaker 1: Our music was composed by Jay Ralph. You can follow
30:14
Speaker 1: me on Instagram or Twitter at Laura Nywriter, and you
30:17
Speaker 1: can follow me.
30:18
Speaker 2: On Twitter at Sdrizzen.
30:21
Speaker 1: For more information on the show, visit wrongfulconvictionpodcast dot com
30:25
Speaker 1: and be sure to follow the show on Instagram at
30:27
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on
30:32
Speaker 1: Twitter at wrong Conviction