Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #428 Maggie Freleng with Gary Williams

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#428 Maggie Freleng with Gary Williams · Wrongful Conviction

0:01
Speaker 1: A warning for listeners. This episode contains graphic description of
0:04
Speaker 1: alleged sexual assault. Please listen with caution and care. In
0:16
Speaker 1: February of nineteen ninety nine, eighty six year old Rosemary
0:19
Speaker 1: Williams arrived at Jamaica Hospital in Queen's She claimed that
0:23
Speaker 1: she'd been raped at knife point. At the time, Rosemary's grandson,
0:28
Speaker 1: Gary was on parole from a drug possession charge and
0:31
Speaker 1: had been staying with her. Rosemary told police that she
0:35
Speaker 1: and Gary had argued about a friend he'd had over.
0:37
Speaker 1: Then later that night, she said he came into her bedroom,
0:40
Speaker 1: threatened her, and then assaulted her.
0:44
Speaker 2: Right from the beginning, there were conflicting versions of what occurred,
0:47
Speaker 2: but the accusation that led to his arrest and indictment
0:52
Speaker 2: was that he raped and sodomized his grandmother.
0:56
Speaker 3: My MOA's told me over the phone. I said you,
0:58
Speaker 3: She said yes, she said they look for you.
1:00
Speaker 1: But when you hear this, this is like crazy, this lie,
1:03
Speaker 1: this is it's wild.
1:05
Speaker 3: What were youation? Embarrassing day that I faced in my life.
1:08
Speaker 3: I have to face it every day.
1:09
Speaker 4: In here with these guys.
1:14
Speaker 3: Gary Williams. I've been concentrated for twenty four years.
1:20
Speaker 1: From lava for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie
1:23
Speaker 1: Freeling today Gary Williams. Gary Williams has been incarcerated in
1:39
Speaker 1: New York since two thousand and one. He's serving twenty
1:41
Speaker 1: five to life for a crime that, as you'll hear,
1:44
Speaker 1: never happened. Since I'm in New York, I took a
1:47
Speaker 1: short two hour trip to visit Gary at Fishkill Correctional
1:50
Speaker 1: Facility in Beacon. It's a medium security prison with razor
1:54
Speaker 1: wire fences surrounding the daunting brick building. Inside was organized
2:00
Speaker 1: and chaotic. Our interview was even cut short by a
2:04
Speaker 1: lockdown for an unknown reason. When that happened, Gary was
2:08
Speaker 1: taken back to his cell immediately. However, we were able
2:12
Speaker 1: to speak for an hour.
2:15
Speaker 3: I was born in Snowhill, Maryland, and I was raised
2:19
Speaker 3: in Stopped, Jamaica, Queens. We moved to Far Rockaway, so
2:23
Speaker 3: I I grew up in Jamaica and Far Rockaway. I
2:27
Speaker 3: got an older brother named Aaron, another brother named Manu, Aaron, Diane,
2:33
Speaker 3: man You Michelle inmate.
2:36
Speaker 1: Gary's parents were Manuel Williams and Margaret Bratton. When Gary
2:41
Speaker 1: was around two, the family moved in with Gary's paternal grandparents.
2:45
Speaker 1: Franklin and Rosemary Williams on one hundred and forty second
2:48
Speaker 1: Street in Jamaica, Queens. The kids knew them as Daddy
2:52
Speaker 1: Frank and Mama Rose.
2:58
Speaker 3: He cooks breakfast every morning, so I used to get
3:00
Speaker 3: up in the morning and go sit down in the
3:05
Speaker 3: chair and watch him cook as great sausage. And he
3:09
Speaker 3: used to give me a half a cup of coffee.
3:12
Speaker 3: I remember that. I look forward to that when I
3:15
Speaker 3: go to sleep at night, I'm like this, Daddy Frank
3:18
Speaker 3: gonna cook me breakfast in the morning. Yup, I look
3:21
Speaker 3: forward to at He took us to Florida. We were
3:30
Speaker 3: the youngest grandkids, so she used to take the two
3:32
Speaker 3: youngest boys everywhere. He went baseball games everywhere. Yeah, I
3:38
Speaker 3: had some good times in that house.
3:42
Speaker 5: Oh he was to me, he was saught on earth.
3:44
Speaker 5: He was a very nice person.
3:45
Speaker 1: This is Gary's older brother, Aaron Williams.
3:49
Speaker 6: He gave all his grandchildren when he worked and everything.
3:51
Speaker 6: He gave all of us allowance on Fridays, and he
3:52
Speaker 6: took us to baseball games.
3:54
Speaker 5: He even came to our games and everything a lot.
3:57
Speaker 7: And then what about Mama Rose, what was she like?
4:00
Speaker 6: She was a piece of work? She never went anywhere
4:03
Speaker 6: with else. She would drinking and that was boy, that
4:05
Speaker 6: was a done deal. She would play the numbers. She
4:08
Speaker 6: would drink, and she would would have barbecues and she
4:10
Speaker 6: would write from friends over and we had a nice time.
4:14
Speaker 6: But like I said, when she started drinking everything with
4:17
Speaker 6: a little head wire, she was very nasty when she drank.
4:20
Speaker 1: As Aaron remembers it, Mama Rose didn't seem to care
4:23
Speaker 1: for Gary much.
4:25
Speaker 5: When we first moved up here.
4:26
Speaker 6: She was nice to all of us, but it seemed
4:29
Speaker 6: like for some reason along the way, she just started
4:31
Speaker 6: resenting Gary. Seem like whatever he did, she didn't like it.
4:34
Speaker 6: She resented him a lot.
4:35
Speaker 5: I don't know why.
4:37
Speaker 1: Mama Rose's younger son, Richard, Gary's uncle Rick, was a
4:41
Speaker 1: source of tension for Gary as well.
4:43
Speaker 3: He didn't like me. She sund was a little boy.
4:46
Speaker 3: I used to hear him talk about my dad behind
4:48
Speaker 3: his back, you know what I'm saying. So I never
4:50
Speaker 3: mean told my dad because my uncle, like, he's the
4:52
Speaker 3: type of person that liked to fight. So I didn't
4:54
Speaker 3: want to see two brothers fight over something. I try
4:57
Speaker 3: to avoid things like that. Wh She was a drug
5:01
Speaker 3: user back in the sixties and seventies. Every time my
5:04
Speaker 3: dad lit him money. He don't never pay my dad back. Oh,
5:09
Speaker 3: one time you try to get money from me, I
5:11
Speaker 3: wouldn't give it to him. I says, how you will
5:13
Speaker 3: expect me to lend you money. You can't pay my
5:15
Speaker 3: dad money? And how many years you own my father?
5:17
Speaker 3: Over five years? I mean you ain't paying them.
5:20
Speaker 1: When Gary was around twelve, the family left his grandparents'
5:23
Speaker 1: house and moved to a place in Springfield Gardens. Soon
5:27
Speaker 1: after that, Gary's parents separated and his mother moved out.
5:32
Speaker 3: She just packed the stuff and left. Nobody know where
5:34
Speaker 3: she went. Is she what I'm saying? She left? The
5:37
Speaker 3: kids met my father right, so nobody know where she
5:39
Speaker 3: was at. So I said, well, I know where she
5:43
Speaker 3: work at.
5:44
Speaker 1: So Gary says one day he got on his bike
5:47
Speaker 1: and rode to her workplace, the post office at Kennedy Airport,
5:51
Speaker 1: about two miles away. When his mother got off work,
5:54
Speaker 1: he says he saw her get into a car with
5:56
Speaker 1: his older brother, Aaron, So.
5:59
Speaker 3: They drove right So when they did, I followed them
6:02
Speaker 3: all the way to far rockaway. When she was getting
6:04
Speaker 3: out of the car, I was like, mob, I found you.
6:07
Speaker 1: Gary's mom was living in a one bedroom apartment at
6:09
Speaker 1: the time. His father was moving down to Delaware with
6:12
Speaker 1: his sisters, so Gary's mother got a bigger place and
6:15
Speaker 1: he and his two brothers moved in with her in
6:17
Speaker 1: far Rockaway, a.
6:21
Speaker 3: Block and a half away from the ballwalk. How did
6:23
Speaker 3: you get used to that? Me and my brother used
6:26
Speaker 3: to erase each other playing in the sand. They had
6:29
Speaker 3: basketball court there, hand ballcourt in a baseball court.
6:34
Speaker 1: Were you particularly good at any of them?
6:37
Speaker 3: I basically wanted to do it because my older brothers
6:39
Speaker 3: did it. But I was like.
6:43
Speaker 1: Gary's teens were spent living near the beach, playing sports
6:46
Speaker 1: and hanging out with his brothers. But when he reached
6:50
Speaker 1: his twenties, he started getting into trouble.
6:54
Speaker 3: That ain't happened. No, I was. I was a thief.
6:57
Speaker 3: I ain't gonna lie, you know I did that. I
7:00
Speaker 3: have two robs in the drug case.
7:03
Speaker 1: Were you working at all?
7:05
Speaker 3: Yes? I used to drive trucks LBX Trucking company. I
7:09
Speaker 3: should drive for low I should work in TSS department store.
7:14
Speaker 7: So you were working?
7:15
Speaker 1: So how come you felt like you needed to rob
7:17
Speaker 1: or do things like that?
7:18
Speaker 5: Oh?
7:18
Speaker 3: No, I guess it wasn't pain enough.
7:24
Speaker 1: Between nineteen eighty four and nineteen ninety two, Gary served
7:28
Speaker 1: time on and off for three felony convictions, one for
7:31
Speaker 1: selling drugs and one each for robbery and attempted robbery.
7:35
Speaker 1: In February of nineteen ninety nine, when he was thirty
7:38
Speaker 1: six years old, he was out on parole for a
7:41
Speaker 1: drug charge. With no place else to go, he was
7:44
Speaker 1: once again staying under Mama Rose's roof in Queen's. She
7:47
Speaker 1: was now in her eighties and a widow. Daddy Frank
7:50
Speaker 1: had died in nineteen eighty six. Gary's father, Manuel was
7:54
Speaker 1: living in Maryland and coming around to help Mama Rose
7:57
Speaker 1: fix up the house so she could sell it.
8:00
Speaker 7: So tell me a little bit about Mama Rose.
8:03
Speaker 3: Morose was kind of difficult to get along with. She's
8:06
Speaker 3: got she was like kind of difficult. But I did
8:09
Speaker 3: my best. I do things around the house for she
8:14
Speaker 3: asked me to. I do it.
8:15
Speaker 7: So why was she difficult to get along with?
8:18
Speaker 3: Because the type of person she is, I mean, gotta
8:20
Speaker 3: go whole way. It's it's whole way, it's the highway.
8:25
Speaker 3: You know, she's always in people's business. You know, I
8:30
Speaker 3: hear coming, I might go that way, you know, what
8:32
Speaker 3: I'm saying, I try to void up sometimes I do that.
8:35
Speaker 5: Do that leave?
8:36
Speaker 1: Gary began to notice that sometimes Mama Rose didn't seem
8:40
Speaker 1: quite all there. She was starting to get forgetful well.
8:43
Speaker 3: When she asked me to go to the store three
8:45
Speaker 3: times in the road two three times for the same thing,
8:48
Speaker 3: and she kept on giving me a fresh twenty now
8:51
Speaker 3: And the second Time'm like this, I just went to
8:52
Speaker 3: the store for you. It got the same thing. She
8:56
Speaker 3: was like, just go again, all right, So I just
8:58
Speaker 3: took the money and went again.
9:00
Speaker 7: What was it that she wanted?
9:02
Speaker 3: I think it was a tall candle bit.
9:06
Speaker 5: She was a excuse me, my sprience. She was a bit.
9:08
Speaker 1: This is Gary's brother Aaron.
9:10
Speaker 7: Again.
9:11
Speaker 5: Malros was a big liar.
9:12
Speaker 7: Too, Like what kinds of things had she made up?
9:15
Speaker 6: She would like, my mother would cook dinner and everything.
9:17
Speaker 6: She would tell her friends that she cooked the dinner,
9:19
Speaker 6: took it, you know, took the credit for it.
9:21
Speaker 5: Like I said, she was a piece of work.
9:23
Speaker 6: I stayed with my father overnight when I was helping
9:25
Speaker 6: her and fixed the house, and one of her girlfriends
9:28
Speaker 6: came over and they got the drinking and playing cards
9:31
Speaker 6: and everything. It was in the winter time with snow
9:33
Speaker 6: on the steps out front. So they got in an argument.
9:36
Speaker 6: So she told her to get the hell out of
9:37
Speaker 6: her house, and she went to the front door, and
9:39
Speaker 6: the Morrow's followed right behind her and kicked her dinner
9:41
Speaker 6: at the icy steps.
9:43
Speaker 3: She didn't go to church like she said she would.
9:45
Speaker 3: Matter fact, I can't even remember the last time she
9:47
Speaker 3: went to the last time she went to church. When
9:49
Speaker 3: my granddad was living, she liked playing her numbers, she
9:53
Speaker 3: liked going to Landing City. She's she's like any other
9:57
Speaker 3: lady age.
9:58
Speaker 8: You know what I'm saying, My grandma, I'm is not
10:01
Speaker 8: gambling and drinking tall boys, So maybe not.
10:08
Speaker 1: One week Gary had a girlfriend named Sharon visiting from Maryland.
10:13
Speaker 1: When they sat down to dinner, Mama Rose noticed that
10:16
Speaker 1: Sharon put hot sauce on her potato chips, and she
10:19
Speaker 1: did not like that.
10:22
Speaker 3: So maybe I will. Later my Roes called me and
10:26
Speaker 3: she says, when is she leaving? I said, I think
10:29
Speaker 3: she's leaving Sunday or Monday. She said when she do,
10:31
Speaker 3: she can't come back. So I says, why, what's wrong?
10:35
Speaker 3: She says, anybody put hot sauce on potato chips is
10:39
Speaker 3: on drugs. I said, you don't even know her, you
10:42
Speaker 3: just met her. How are you gonna say she on drugs?
10:45
Speaker 3: She gonna say, trust me, I've been living along in you.
10:48
Speaker 3: She's on drugs.
10:50
Speaker 1: The arguments continued, and within a week or so, Gary
10:53
Speaker 1: had enough of Mama Rose being in his business.
10:56
Speaker 3: And I got, I got, I got fed up with it.
10:58
Speaker 3: I was like this, Okay, I'm out here, you know
11:00
Speaker 3: I'm saying. So I put the keys on the table
11:03
Speaker 3: and packed my little stuff ahead.
11:06
Speaker 1: Gary took off and went down to Delaware, where some
11:08
Speaker 1: of his family lived. He knew he was taking a
11:11
Speaker 1: risk jumping parole by leaving the state, but he had
11:14
Speaker 1: had it with Mama Rose.
11:20
Speaker 2: Early Saturday morning, February sixth, nineteen ninety nine, Rosemary Williams
11:26
Speaker 2: called her daughters in law and told them that she
11:31
Speaker 2: had been raped by her grandson, Gary Williams.
11:36
Speaker 9: My name is.
11:36
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Felber, and I had the Wrongful Conviction Unit at
11:40
Speaker 2: the Legal Aid Society.
11:42
Speaker 1: Elizabeth has been working on Gary's case since twenty nineteen.
11:46
Speaker 2: Right from the beginning, they were conflicting versions of what occurred,
11:50
Speaker 2: but the accusation that led to his arrest and indictment
11:55
Speaker 2: was that he raped and sodomized his grandmother.
11:59
Speaker 1: Here's what Mama Rose told the police had happened that
12:01
Speaker 1: night and what she later testified to at trial. And
12:05
Speaker 1: justa heads up, this next section is graphic.
12:09
Speaker 2: Between Thursday and Friday, you know, like early Friday mornings,
12:13
Speaker 2: say around four, Gary knocked on his grandmother's door, and
12:17
Speaker 2: when he came in, he was naked, he was holding
12:20
Speaker 2: a knife, he was smoking a cigarette, and he was
12:24
Speaker 2: wearing a condom. And he told her that he wanted
12:27
Speaker 2: to have sex, although he said it a little more
12:29
Speaker 2: graphically according to Grandma Rose, and that he tried to
12:35
Speaker 2: vaginally penetrate her, was unable to do so went and
12:39
Speaker 2: got baby oil poured it all over her. Sorry, it's
12:44
Speaker 2: just so awkward to have to tell this story. And
12:47
Speaker 2: then he had oral sex, you know, you know, put
12:52
Speaker 2: his mouth to her vagina, and then she claimed that
12:56
Speaker 2: he tried to put his penis in her mouth and
12:59
Speaker 2: she told him that if he did that, she was
13:01
Speaker 2: going to bite his penis off. He said, I'm not
13:04
Speaker 2: going to kill you, and she said at another point
13:06
Speaker 2: he sat down and started to cry and said he
13:09
Speaker 2: was sorry. And then he went into his bedroom because
13:13
Speaker 2: he was living with her at the time. She told
13:16
Speaker 2: him she would make breakfast for him, and then she said,
13:21
Speaker 2: when it looked like he was had fallen asleep, she
13:24
Speaker 2: ran down the stairs and that he came after her,
13:27
Speaker 2: calling Mama Rose come back. That she ran outside yelling fire.
13:32
Speaker 2: She ran about a block away, I guess to a
13:35
Speaker 2: school that was people were dropping their kids off at school.
13:38
Speaker 2: Told some woman, help help, my grandson's going crazy, and
13:44
Speaker 2: the woman offered to call the police. She didn't want
13:46
Speaker 2: to go to the police. She said, drive me to
13:48
Speaker 2: my friend's house, who was right down the street from
13:50
Speaker 2: where she lived.
13:54
Speaker 1: Mama Rose stayed overnight with her friend, Mary Cunningham. The
13:57
Speaker 1: next day, she called Gary's mother, Margaret, and told her
14:01
Speaker 1: that Gary had come into her bedroom and raped her
14:03
Speaker 1: at knife point, and that there was blood everywhere. Margaret
14:08
Speaker 1: immediately called Gary's father and told him what Mamma Rose
14:11
Speaker 1: had said. Manuel and his brother Richard went to mam
14:14
Speaker 1: Morose's house. Manual later reported seeing no blood on her
14:18
Speaker 1: bed or in her bedroom. Nevertheless, the police were called.
14:23
Speaker 2: I believe it was her younger son who called the police.
14:26
Speaker 2: She didn't even want to call the police. She did
14:28
Speaker 2: not want to go to the hospital. I suspect that
14:32
Speaker 2: she whatever story she concocted, she realized it had gotten
14:36
Speaker 2: out of control and she was trying to shut it down,
14:39
Speaker 2: but it was like, you know, the train had already
14:42
Speaker 2: left the station.
14:46
Speaker 1: Police soon arrived at the scene to investigate, led by
14:49
Speaker 1: Detective Linda Hardy. However, no official sex crimes unit was dispatched.
14:55
Speaker 2: No evidence was collected at or house. There should have
14:58
Speaker 2: been baby oil left trace, you know, even if someone
15:01
Speaker 2: had taken off the sheets. There should have been baby
15:03
Speaker 2: oil on the mattress, a knife, a cigarette that was
15:06
Speaker 2: put out in an ashtray, a condom. She claimed she
15:10
Speaker 2: washed herself with a washcloth. So none of that was
15:13
Speaker 2: collected there, and there's no indication that the crime scene
15:17
Speaker 2: unit even showed up.
15:19
Speaker 1: Richard took Mama Rose to Jamaica Hospital in Queen's where
15:22
Speaker 1: she was examined by doctor David Ware. Doctor Ware was
15:26
Speaker 1: a resident at the time. He did not conduct a
15:29
Speaker 1: proper forensic exam, and he failed to collect any physical
15:32
Speaker 1: evidence that would have supported Mama Rose's story.
15:36
Speaker 2: He should have swabbed her mouth and give it, you know,
15:39
Speaker 2: those would have been samples that they could have checked
15:41
Speaker 2: for any kind of you know, DNA of Gary Williams,
15:45
Speaker 2: or even baby oil, honestly, anything that would have backed
15:48
Speaker 2: up her story.
15:50
Speaker 1: Most significantly, doctor Ware did not follow standard procedure by
15:55
Speaker 1: administering a rape kit.
15:57
Speaker 2: They didn't. They didn't follow it, and they have one
16:00
Speaker 2: hundred excuses for why they didn't follow it. The clothing
16:03
Speaker 2: wasn't taken, a rape kit wasn't done, so there was
16:06
Speaker 2: no physical evidence to support her story.
16:13
Speaker 7: Gary was unaware of all of this.
16:15
Speaker 1: After going to Delaware, he went to stay in Newport News, Virginia,
16:19
Speaker 1: with Sharon. When he talked to his mother on the phone,
16:22
Speaker 1: she did tell him police were looking for him, and
16:24
Speaker 1: Gary assumed it was because he had jumped parole until
16:28
Speaker 1: she told him what Mama Rose had accused him of.
16:33
Speaker 3: I said you, so, she said, yes, she said they're
16:35
Speaker 3: looking for you. You know, I'm saying I'm expecting her.
16:39
Speaker 3: I'm only expecting one person looking for me, parole officer.
16:42
Speaker 3: That's what I'm expecting. When she said when she said happened,
16:46
Speaker 3: I wasn't there. I wasn't living there. I was gone.
16:49
Speaker 1: Gary decided the best thing to do would be to
16:52
Speaker 1: turn himself into the authorities in Virginia When.
16:57
Speaker 7: You turned yourself in, what were you thinking? Were you like,
16:58
Speaker 7: this is all going to get cleared up? Like what
17:01
Speaker 7: did you think?
17:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to get this behind me. I want
17:05
Speaker 3: to get this overweight. You know I'm innocent, Yes, let's go. Yeah.
17:13
Speaker 3: But it didn't happen that way because I had to
17:14
Speaker 3: do a parole violation first.
17:17
Speaker 1: But the parole violation was nothing compared to what was
17:20
Speaker 1: coming next. Once Gary returned to New York, he was
17:24
Speaker 1: arrested and charged with first degree rape, sawomy, possession of
17:28
Speaker 1: a weapon, and second degree menacing an incest.
17:36
Speaker 7: So do you remember when this happened?
17:38
Speaker 6: I know my mother called me and told me that
17:40
Speaker 6: they arrested Gary, and she told me the reason why.
17:43
Speaker 6: I just couldn't believe it. I say, it got to
17:44
Speaker 6: be lies. Something they right here. I know Gary, Gary
17:48
Speaker 6: would never do anything like that.
17:52
Speaker 1: His trial was set for July of two thousand and
17:54
Speaker 1: one in front of Judge Richard Buckter. The prosecutor was
17:58
Speaker 1: Assistant District Attorney Eric Rosenbaum, and Gary's attorney was Lewis Meehan.
18:05
Speaker 1: So the first trial, how were you feeling the first
18:09
Speaker 1: trial after hearing everything and they're going to do the verdict.
18:13
Speaker 1: How did you feel?
18:14
Speaker 4: Uh?
18:16
Speaker 3: I was nervous. No, I already know if they if
18:20
Speaker 3: they convict me, they're gonna give me twenty five life
18:22
Speaker 3: because of my past history. I already know that. And
18:27
Speaker 3: and they offered me plea boggains that I ain't take.
18:29
Speaker 1: What did they offer you?
18:31
Speaker 3: Oh? They offered me a flat fifteen. First of all,
18:34
Speaker 3: they don't offer no body but my record a flat
18:37
Speaker 3: bay off. You always put the l behind you. Fifteen
18:40
Speaker 3: a life with me? They offer me flat fifteen. I
18:43
Speaker 3: told him I did not do it. I'm not taking it.
18:46
Speaker 3: Then a month and a half later he says, the
18:48
Speaker 3: lawyer be like this. He says, okay, the flat fifteen
18:51
Speaker 3: is off the table. They offered me a flat five
18:53
Speaker 3: just for the day. You want it, I says, dope.
18:57
Speaker 3: Then when they had to split verdict, they offered me
18:59
Speaker 3: one of the three.
19:03
Speaker 7: And you didn't take that either.
19:04
Speaker 3: No, I didn't do it.
19:06
Speaker 1: The jury believed that there just wasn't enough evidence to convict,
19:09
Speaker 1: and the first trial ended in a hung jury.
19:12
Speaker 2: So he actually had two trials, which I find is
19:15
Speaker 2: not uncommon when we have wrongful convictions like the juries
19:19
Speaker 2: are pretty smart, and they really wrestled with the lack
19:22
Speaker 2: of evidence.
19:24
Speaker 1: At that point, Gary requested a change of attorney. Harold
19:27
Speaker 1: Erin Trowe was appointed and reported ready for trial just
19:30
Speaker 1: a few days later, and that is not nearly enough
19:34
Speaker 1: time to prepare for a case based on such serious charges.
19:44
Speaker 3: He gives me a new lawyer, I think on a Wednesday.
19:47
Speaker 3: On Thursday. Then we was picking a new jury Monday.
19:51
Speaker 3: So there's no way this new attorney didn't no investigation.
19:54
Speaker 3: There's no way. It wasn't no private investigating. He just
19:56
Speaker 3: took me to trial investigating the case. I said, you
20:00
Speaker 3: just got this case last week. He said, yeah, but
20:03
Speaker 3: I glanced through your paperwork. He says he got nothing
20:07
Speaker 3: on you. I says, why I'm in hidding. He says,
20:10
Speaker 3: trust me, you will be all right.
20:11
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh.
20:14
Speaker 3: Forty four years later, here I go.
20:33
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
20:37
Speaker 1: You can listen to this and all the Lava for
20:39
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20:43
Speaker 1: to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Freedom Agenda
20:51
Speaker 1: is a proud sponsor of this episode of Wrongful Conviction.
20:55
Speaker 1: Freedom Agenda is led by people directly impacted by incarceration
20:59
Speaker 1: and their organizing to get Mayor Eric Adams to follow
21:02
Speaker 1: the law and shut down Rikers Island. Right now, thousands
21:07
Speaker 1: of people are awaiting trial there in life threatening conditions.
21:12
Speaker 1: Freedom Agenda is committed to creating a safer and more
21:15
Speaker 1: just city by winning investments in long neglected communities, protecting
21:19
Speaker 1: the rights of people involved in the criminal legal system,
21:22
Speaker 1: and ending the cycle of violence that Rikers perpetuates. To
21:27
Speaker 1: learn more about the Campaign to Close Rikers and to
21:30
Speaker 1: sign up for Freedom Agenda's mailing list, go to Campaign
21:33
Speaker 1: to Close Rikers dot org, slash, get involved, or follow
21:37
Speaker 1: at Freedom Agenda n Y on social media. In September
21:51
Speaker 1: of two thousand and one, Gary's second trial began.
21:55
Speaker 2: What was really striking about the trial was there was
21:58
Speaker 2: absolutely no law enforcement evidence proffered. They had no police
22:02
Speaker 2: officer testify at trial. I've never seen that at a trial,
22:06
Speaker 2: even if it's an officer called to the witness stand
22:08
Speaker 2: to say I arrested you know, John Smith. Like nothing.
22:14
Speaker 1: Instead, the prosecution focused on Mamma Rose as their primary witness.
22:19
Speaker 1: In her testimony, she repeated the story she had told
22:22
Speaker 1: Detective Hearty. She and Gary had argued. He later came
22:26
Speaker 1: to her bedroom, threatened her with a knife and assaulted her.
22:30
Speaker 1: Mary Cunningham took the stand to say that Mamma Rose
22:33
Speaker 1: had banged on her door, told her that she'd been raped,
22:36
Speaker 1: and then spent the night. Gary's uncle, Rick, testified to
22:39
Speaker 1: driving his mother to the hospital and said that he'd
22:42
Speaker 1: seen bruises around her mouth.
22:44
Speaker 7: That day.
22:45
Speaker 2: Mama Rose had testified that she was black and blue
22:48
Speaker 2: all over from him hitting her mouth with his penis.
22:51
Speaker 2: That was her testimony, and Richard at the first trial
22:55
Speaker 2: said that she had lacerations all over her mouth, and
22:59
Speaker 2: at the second trial he said she was very black
23:02
Speaker 2: and blue, so he corrected himself.
23:04
Speaker 1: The most damning testimony the Jerry heard was from doctor Ware,
23:08
Speaker 1: the resident at Jamaica Hospital. He told the court that
23:11
Speaker 1: when he examined Mama Rose, he believed her account of
23:14
Speaker 1: the assault, even though he hadn't observed any injuries.
23:19
Speaker 2: Again, not part of a typical forensic exam. It's not
23:23
Speaker 2: their place to vouch for the credibility of a witness,
23:26
Speaker 2: but he said she seemed very credible. He said, because
23:30
Speaker 2: there was no rape kit, he made a point of
23:32
Speaker 2: being extra careful in his evaluation. He said he didn't
23:36
Speaker 2: see any injuries. He didn't see any injuries on her
23:39
Speaker 2: vagina or her mouth. He claimed that you couldn't see
23:43
Speaker 2: bruising on her because she was African American, so it's
23:46
Speaker 2: hard to see bruising on an African American person. And
23:49
Speaker 2: I mean, I think the thing that jumped out at
23:51
Speaker 2: me the most was he said he was really surprised
23:55
Speaker 2: that because she had a this is a quote, a
23:57
Speaker 2: very elastic vagina that for an eighty five year old
24:01
Speaker 2: woman like it was more like someone in their sixties.
24:04
Speaker 1: When asked why he didn't follow hospital protocol and administer
24:08
Speaker 1: a rape kit, doctor Ware gave a number of excuses.
24:13
Speaker 2: The stated reason on the record was that they ran
24:15
Speaker 2: out of rape kits at Jamaica Hospital and he didn't
24:19
Speaker 2: know where rape kits came from. He said, Oh, I
24:21
Speaker 2: think they're like a law enforcement thing. There's a lot
24:24
Speaker 2: of hospitals that are close by, and sometimes the SVU
24:29
Speaker 2: detective has a rape kit, and ambulances have rape kits.
24:32
Speaker 2: They're pretty easy to get. You would know where rape
24:35
Speaker 2: kits come from, and you would know that you could
24:37
Speaker 2: do a makeshift rape kit, if you improvise a rape kit,
24:40
Speaker 2: if you had to.
24:44
Speaker 8: I mean, how does a case like this wind up
24:47
Speaker 8: being tried if there's no evidence.
24:50
Speaker 7: It was really just Mama Rose and Richard.
24:52
Speaker 2: Yes, Mama Rose and Richard, and the DA in his
24:56
Speaker 2: summation said he fled, so that's they use that against him.
24:59
Speaker 2: He fled. They looked for him for weeks and weeks
25:01
Speaker 2: and weeks, the guilty flee. You know, poor Mama Rose,
25:04
Speaker 2: she was so embarrassed that she had to go through this,
25:07
Speaker 2: the indignity of it. You know, he really appealed to
25:09
Speaker 2: their sympathy, so they really I think it was a
25:13
Speaker 2: lot of bias, and you know, they went with you know,
25:16
Speaker 2: mom like, why would she come in? Was basically what
25:18
Speaker 2: they said. Why would she come in? She's not senile,
25:21
Speaker 2: why would she come in? I mean, it is a
25:24
Speaker 2: crazy story. I know, throughout the paperwork you see all
25:29
Speaker 2: these people acting like they have a crystal ball and
25:32
Speaker 2: they can tell what the truth is. You know, I
25:34
Speaker 2: spoke to Grandma, to Mama Rose, and I believe her.
25:38
Speaker 2: Something happened here, something happened. She's a great eighty five
25:41
Speaker 2: years old, and he has you know, felony record. They
25:46
Speaker 2: just decided that he's a terrible person. And poor Mama Rose,
25:50
Speaker 2: you know, she's like baking brownies and going to church.
25:53
Speaker 2: You know, they have this whole picture of her, which
25:56
Speaker 2: you know, leaves out the card parties and getting drunk
25:58
Speaker 2: and mean and still up and out with a married
26:00
Speaker 2: man named Fred. You know, it doesn't really matter, but
26:04
Speaker 2: they just they came up with their own narrative.
26:11
Speaker 1: After three days of deliberation, the jury returned a split verdict.
26:15
Speaker 1: They acquitted Gary of the rape and weapons charges, but
26:18
Speaker 1: they convicted him of incest, second degree menacing, and first
26:22
Speaker 1: degree saw tom me. Gary was sentenced to twenty five
26:25
Speaker 1: to life in prison.
26:31
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what convinced the jury. I think it
26:34
Speaker 2: was probably a compromise. You know, I'm guessing that there
26:37
Speaker 2: were still a lot of jurors that didn't believe it.
26:40
Speaker 2: At the first trial, several of the notes were like, noo,
26:43
Speaker 2: can you explain, Like can you still convict if there's
26:46
Speaker 2: no evidence? You know, to like they really honed in
26:50
Speaker 2: on the fact that there was no evidence.
26:52
Speaker 3: You know, I believe that I'm here by the doctor Lyneon. Understand.
27:00
Speaker 3: This is why I believe I was convicted by the
27:02
Speaker 3: doctor Lion. He lied more than one time, and he
27:06
Speaker 3: convinced the jewelry. This is why I meant.
27:13
Speaker 6: There were so many lies and so many things that
27:15
Speaker 6: weren't presented in his case in his trial.
27:19
Speaker 5: And it's a bunch of bullshit to men.
27:21
Speaker 6: I mean, if you want to do this to a person,
27:23
Speaker 6: take that life just because you want to win.
27:25
Speaker 10: And that's kind of crappy.
27:47
Speaker 3: It's hard to have friends in prison, you know. It's
27:50
Speaker 3: a cold world in here. I ain't know how to
27:56
Speaker 3: deal with it. I ain't never been in prison for
27:59
Speaker 3: nothing like this. This right his it's different. It's a
28:02
Speaker 3: different hit, you know what I'm saying. They had to
28:04
Speaker 3: split verdict. I was found out guilty of rape, right
28:08
Speaker 3: but but it's it's like it's still the same though
28:11
Speaker 3: it's still the same to these people's because I gotta
28:15
Speaker 3: I gotta be on I gotta I gotta be on
28:16
Speaker 3: my p's and q's every step of the day, every ray,
28:19
Speaker 3: everywhere I go. I gotta watch, you know what I'm saying,
28:21
Speaker 3: Because I don't know. I don't know what's coming, what
28:24
Speaker 3: could what could happen? A lot of things can happen,
28:27
Speaker 3: I know, this one white guy, or I saw two
28:29
Speaker 3: guys run up in the cell and beat him up
28:31
Speaker 3: because he had a case like this. You know what
28:33
Speaker 3: I'm saying.
28:34
Speaker 7: Has things happened to you?
28:35
Speaker 3: Yes? I got jumped twice by correction officers.
28:40
Speaker 1: Were you close with your parents?
28:42
Speaker 3: Yeah?
28:44
Speaker 7: And did they always believe you believe in your innocence?
28:48
Speaker 3: Yes?
28:49
Speaker 5: M hmm.
28:50
Speaker 7: So what what was.
28:51
Speaker 1: That like trying to maintain a relationship with your family
28:54
Speaker 1: while in prison.
28:55
Speaker 3: It was really hard because there was that They all
28:57
Speaker 3: moved down South Frost they retired, they moved back down south,
29:01
Speaker 3: so it was hard. It was hard for me to
29:04
Speaker 3: get a visit because nobody would bring my mom's up
29:09
Speaker 3: and my post was sickly and she got sick. They
29:13
Speaker 3: both passed away, though it was rough because I couldn't
29:15
Speaker 3: go to their funals. I called my cousin when they
29:17
Speaker 3: was having my mother's services. He accepted the call and
29:20
Speaker 3: I was listening to the preacher. I was listening, you
29:23
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, for half an hour. So that
29:25
Speaker 3: was it.
29:27
Speaker 1: Over the course of a decade, Gary filed many appeals,
29:32
Speaker 1: all of which were denied. Finally, in twenty thirteen, Gary
29:37
Speaker 1: reached out to Elizabeth Felber.
29:39
Speaker 2: Gary first wrote to me. Before I was working in this,
29:42
Speaker 2: you know, doing wrongful conviction work. I had had a
29:45
Speaker 2: few cases that where people were exonerated, and I wish
29:48
Speaker 2: I still had. That letter was ten years ago, but
29:51
Speaker 2: just reading it, I was just blown away by what
29:54
Speaker 2: a horrifying case it was. And I called his parents
29:58
Speaker 2: and I remember they both sadly have passed away since then.
30:01
Speaker 2: They were the nicest people, and they both were like, Oh,
30:05
Speaker 2: thank god, somebody's finally trying to help Gary.
30:09
Speaker 8: What made you say I need to look deeper into
30:12
Speaker 8: this because this does sound like Ahisha said.
30:14
Speaker 7: She said, it's a difficult one.
30:16
Speaker 2: He told me there was no rape kit, there was
30:18
Speaker 2: no physical evidence. I think that there was nothing supporting
30:21
Speaker 2: the allegations. There were no injuries. I mean, if he
30:24
Speaker 2: had really raped an eighty five year old woman like
30:28
Speaker 2: there would have been injuries.
30:32
Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, Elizabeth became the head of a newly
30:35
Speaker 1: formed wrongful conviction unit at the Legal Aid Society, and
30:39
Speaker 1: she began working on Gary's case. Officially, she hired an expert,
30:43
Speaker 1: Chad Vasquez, to delve into the police investigation.
30:48
Speaker 2: He was a sex crimes detective for twenty years, said
30:51
Speaker 2: I've never seen a case like this, and this investigation
30:55
Speaker 2: and prosecution are fatally flawed, was his words. He said,
31:00
Speaker 2: nobody wants to be the person that accuses the person
31:03
Speaker 2: who's making these allegations of making it up, especially an
31:07
Speaker 2: eighty five year old grandmother, you know, like nobody wants
31:10
Speaker 2: to say, I don't believe you, Mama Rose, you know, Mike.
31:13
Speaker 2: But they have an obligation to follow the protocols and
31:17
Speaker 2: they didn't do that, either in the investigation or at
31:20
Speaker 2: the hospital. He said, you have to call the crime
31:24
Speaker 2: scene unit. They should have spoken to the outcry witness
31:27
Speaker 2: of woman next door. They should have tried to track
31:29
Speaker 2: down this alleged woman in the car, you know. They
31:32
Speaker 2: should have obtained the clothing. So he said, none of
31:36
Speaker 2: that was done in this case.
31:39
Speaker 1: Elizabeth also consulted a forensics expert, Aline Pagliaro, a sexual
31:44
Speaker 1: assault nurse examiner Melissa Stone, and a retired nurse who
31:47
Speaker 1: had worked at Jamaica Hospital at the time of Mama
31:50
Speaker 1: Rose's visit.
31:51
Speaker 7: Want It a Vega.
31:53
Speaker 1: All three of them agreed that doctor Ware had not
31:56
Speaker 1: followed standard protocol for a rape examination.
32:00
Speaker 2: I don't believe that if a jury heard what we've
32:03
Speaker 2: learned from these you know, this nurse and this forensic scientists,
32:07
Speaker 2: that they would have convicted him. Because both jury struggled.
32:10
Speaker 1: And as it turns out, there appeared to have been
32:13
Speaker 1: some family dynamics at play.
32:16
Speaker 2: I personally think the first lawyer did a better job
32:19
Speaker 2: than the second lawyer because he brought out some facts
32:22
Speaker 2: that you know, gave the younger son a motive to lie.
32:27
Speaker 1: By the time of the first trial, Gary's uncle Rick
32:30
Speaker 1: had sold Mama Rose's house in Queen's for around seventy
32:33
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Mama Rose was now living with him in
32:37
Speaker 1: New Jersey.
32:38
Speaker 2: And she testified there was no money left over. So
32:41
Speaker 2: someone made about seventy thousand dollars on the house, and
32:44
Speaker 2: it sounds like it wasn't her.
32:46
Speaker 3: What happened was Rick took over everything. Rick snashed the uh,
32:53
Speaker 3: took her to his house, he got out the side
32:55
Speaker 3: of papers the power attorney. Then he went and sold
32:58
Speaker 3: the house. After he got the money, he put it
33:02
Speaker 3: in anotional. He got rid of them.
33:05
Speaker 2: He also said there was no will, but we have
33:08
Speaker 2: a copy of the will, and the will specifically said
33:10
Speaker 2: that the proceeds of the house were to be shared
33:12
Speaker 2: with the two other siblings, so we think, you know,
33:15
Speaker 2: the uncle had a financial motive for backing her up.
33:20
Speaker 1: After interviewing a number of family members, Elizabeth learned something
33:23
Speaker 1: else that really turned the case upside down. According to
33:32
Speaker 1: Gary's brother Manuel, who also went by Skip, Mama Rose
33:37
Speaker 1: had regrets in her later years and was dropping hints
33:40
Speaker 1: that her accusation wasn't true.
33:43
Speaker 2: And Skip said that he and Mama Rose were drinking
33:47
Speaker 2: beer one day on the porch and she said, I'm
33:50
Speaker 2: too old to go to prison, but it's time to
33:53
Speaker 2: get Gary out, you know. And he took that as
33:56
Speaker 2: an emission on her part.
33:58
Speaker 5: I think she told about flow there.
34:00
Speaker 6: He told me that man Rose and Rick had said,
34:02
Speaker 6: I think Gary's been there long enough six time for
34:04
Speaker 6: us to get him out. To me, that's a mission
34:06
Speaker 6: of guilt, both of them, the one, the ones that lie,
34:09
Speaker 6: both of them took her to their grave and or
34:10
Speaker 6: Gary still in there. Half his life was spent in
34:13
Speaker 6: jail because.
34:15
Speaker 7: Of this, and you and your uncle as in both
34:17
Speaker 7: of them.
34:18
Speaker 6: Yes, that was her child and they were two of
34:20
Speaker 6: a kind. He was money hungry. I'm telling you right now,
34:23
Speaker 6: he's money hungry, and so.
34:25
Speaker 7: Would what would getting rid of Gary have to do
34:28
Speaker 7: with anything? Why would that help their situation?
34:32
Speaker 6: Well, for one thing, Gary was inquisitive, and they knew
34:34
Speaker 6: that my father would do anything to help Gary out.
34:36
Speaker 6: I had nothing to do with neither one of them.
34:38
Speaker 6: After they did this shit. Expression Yeah, it really fucked
34:42
Speaker 6: me up. I mean because I couldn't believe this shit.
34:44
Speaker 6: And then to me, after all these years, you admit this,
34:47
Speaker 6: you admit what you did, and then you took it
34:50
Speaker 6: to your grave with you and still he's still locked
34:52
Speaker 6: up behind what they did.
34:55
Speaker 11: Today is January ninth, twenty twenty. This is investigated Thomas
35:01
Speaker 11: McCall from the Legal Late Society. I am at Israel
35:05
Speaker 11: Hospital in Newark, New Jersey.
35:09
Speaker 5: So what's your name? Richard R. Wade.
35:12
Speaker 1: Mama Rose passed away in twenty eleven and Uncle Rick
35:16
Speaker 1: died in March of twenty twenty. But when he was
35:18
Speaker 1: interviewed by a legal aid investigator for Elizabeth, Uncle Rick
35:22
Speaker 1: turned out to have some surprising revelations about Mama Rose.
35:27
Speaker 9: He did not have sex with her, though I don't
35:29
Speaker 9: believe how'd you find that out? Just talking with her
35:32
Speaker 9: and listening to her and feeling her out. She just
35:35
Speaker 9: felt bad. I don't think she really hardly understood the
35:40
Speaker 9: depth of this thing, and she just felt bad. Shore
35:45
Speaker 9: would played Shurewood did it. I think her mind wasn't right,
35:50
Speaker 9: and I think she was very remorseful of the fact
35:53
Speaker 9: that he should have testified against her, that he really
35:56
Speaker 9: did drew the things that they claimed.
36:00
Speaker 2: The skip said that she was mad at him and
36:10
Speaker 2: she wanted to punish him by getting him locked up,
36:13
Speaker 2: and she was pressured into testifying by the prosecution who
36:16
Speaker 2: said he could sue you. But I don't think she
36:19
Speaker 2: realized that accusing someone of rape, particularly if they have
36:22
Speaker 2: a record, which he did, could result in a life
36:26
Speaker 2: prison in prison sentence.
36:28
Speaker 1: And perhaps that's because what Gary had noticed was off
36:31
Speaker 1: with Mama Rose was that she might have been suffering
36:35
Speaker 1: from dementia.
36:36
Speaker 2: Like the father said, he thought that his mother wasn't
36:40
Speaker 2: right in the head, that she was a little senile.
36:46
Speaker 3: Even I think my uncle said in one of his
36:48
Speaker 3: statements that it was he he thinks that she was
36:51
Speaker 3: seen out. Ain't nobody never tested though for dementia. Old
36:54
Speaker 3: Thomas disease had two lawyers. Ain't nobody never tested up.
37:01
Speaker 7: Do you forgive your grandmother.
37:02
Speaker 3: Yes, I have to because I believe that something was
37:08
Speaker 3: wrong with her and she ad met to my uncle
37:12
Speaker 3: that didn't happen.
37:14
Speaker 1: With all of this new evidence, the expert testimony, along
37:17
Speaker 1: with the family statements, Elizabeth believes that they can show
37:21
Speaker 1: that Gary's rights were violated and that he will be released.
37:26
Speaker 7: Where is Gary's case at now?
37:29
Speaker 2: I literally just filed a motion to vacate the conviction
37:34
Speaker 2: based on ineffective assistance of counsel, for not doing a
37:37
Speaker 2: proper investigation, for not consulting with experts, for not familiarizing
37:41
Speaker 2: himself with the trial of the first transcript, which is
37:44
Speaker 2: a gold mine to have a transcript of what everyone's
37:46
Speaker 2: going to say already. And I also moved to just,
37:49
Speaker 2: you know, vacate the conviction because it was I can't
37:52
Speaker 2: remember the exact lingle language, but based upon fraud and
37:55
Speaker 2: misrepresentation because the DA relied heavily on doctor wears testimony,
38:01
Speaker 2: which is a series of misrepresentations. He will be up
38:05
Speaker 2: for parole next year. However, catch twenty two. When you've
38:11
Speaker 2: been convicted of sex crime, you have to take a
38:14
Speaker 2: sex offender treatment program and admit your guilt, so you know,
38:18
Speaker 2: that's problematic, and he will also be a registered sex offender.
38:25
Speaker 3: Who wants to be a sex offender or registered sex offender.
38:28
Speaker 3: Everywhere I'll go, everybody knows my business. Why would I
38:32
Speaker 3: want that?
38:33
Speaker 5: Now?
38:33
Speaker 3: If I really did it, I would have took them pleaboll. Yeah,
38:37
Speaker 3: let me take it now.
38:53
Speaker 7: When you get out, What kinds of things do you
38:55
Speaker 7: want to do?
38:58
Speaker 3: Go visit my brother, spend time with these grandkids. Spend
39:03
Speaker 3: time with my own great nieces and nephews I never
39:06
Speaker 3: met before. Spend time with my fiance. Uh, eat the
39:12
Speaker 3: food I like to eat.
39:13
Speaker 1: What's what's up?
39:15
Speaker 3: Pizza? They got pizza here, but they ain't pizza that
39:18
Speaker 3: got there? Pizza, steak, you know, good food. Let y'all
39:24
Speaker 3: eat every day whatever y'all want to eat. That's what
39:26
Speaker 3: I want to eat.
39:27
Speaker 4: Yeah.
39:51
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freelink.
39:54
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
39:57
Speaker 1: links in the episode description to see how you can help.
40:00
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler,
40:04
Speaker 1: and Kevin Wortis, as well as senior producer Annie Chelsea,
40:07
Speaker 1: producer Kathleen Fink, story editor Hannah Beal, and.
40:11
Speaker 7: Researcher Shelby Sorels.
40:13
Speaker 1: Mixing and sound design are by Jackie Pauley, with additional
40:16
Speaker 1: production by Jeff Cleiburn and Connor Hall. The music in
40:20
Speaker 1: this production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
40:25
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40:35
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