3 former Philly homicide detectives accused of perjury in the retrial of an innocent man – The Bakersfield Californian

PHILADELPHIA A Philadelphia grand jury has recommended criminal charges against three former longtime city homicide detectives for perjury in a landmark murder case, accusing them of lying on the witness stand.

The allegations, unveiled in a presentment filed by the district attorneys office on Friday and obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer, represent an extraordinary development in a city that has seen dozens of old homicide convictions overturned in recent years but no significant legal repercussions for the police or prosecutors involved in building those cases. Many of them have since been accused of misconduct in court documents filed by District Attorney Larry Krasner.

The grand jury presentment marks a stunning turnabout for Martin Devlin, Manuel Santiago, and Frank Jastrzembski, who each served more than 25 years in the Philadelphia Police Department. Devlin for years was viewed as a star investigator in one of the nations most violent cities, specializing in cold cases and complex investigations that no one else could crack.

But in recent years, questions have emerged about the detectives investigative practices. Krasners Conviction Integrity Unit has helped overturn at least four cases they worked on, contending that the convictions were marred by coerced confessions, fabricated or hidden evidence, or secret deals with key witnesses.

These charges are an indication that a Philadelphia jury, in this case a grand jury, can carefully look at evidence and can understand that the law must apply equally to people, whether they are in law enforcement, (or) supposed to be served by law enforcement, Krasner said during a news conference Friday.

The detectives, who face charges of perjury and false swearing, have consistently denied wrongdoing. They turned themselves in at a Northeast Philadelphia police district Friday afternoon. It was not clear when they might be arraigned.

Their attorney, Brian McMongale, said his clients were innocent of these charges, adding: These three good men dedicated their lives to seeking justice for victims of crime. In this case they sought justice for a woman who was brutally raped and murdered.

Pejury, a third-degree felony, is punishable by up to seven years in prison upon conviction.

Questions about the detectives investigations surfaced during the 2016 retrial of Anthony Wright, who was convicted in 1993 of the rape and murder of 77-year-old Louise Talley in Nicetown. Wrights appellate attorneys later discovered DNA evidence that proved he had not raped Talley. Wrights conviction was overturned, but then-District Attorney Seth Williams office sought to convict him again, saying the results did not preclude him from being an accomplice to the crime.

He was quickly acquitted in August 2016, and afterward some jurors took the remarkable step of standing beside Wright and publicly criticizing prosecutors for continuing to pursue what they called a weak case.

Williams said Friday that he did not recall the case and could not comment.

There are many (cases) that I remember very specific details, he said. This is not one of them.

The felony perjury charges, and misdemeanor charges for false swearing, relate to the detectives testimony in that retrial as well as their testimony in a 2017 civil deposition. The charges were filed mere days before the expiration of the five-year statute of limitations.

Wright, who served 25 years of wrongful imprisonment, has long alleged that detectives fabricated evidence and subjected him to a brutal, physically abusive interrogation before forcing him to sign a false confession.

He settled a civil lawsuit against the city for $9.8 million, but said its now time for those who framed him to face justice.

This will mean everything to me if those guys individually can be held accountable for what they did to me. And their name is on so many peoples paperwork that were wronged, he said, adding that the losses accrued over 25 years are hard to calculate. He missed his mothers funeral, and watching his son grow up. The harm that was done we need to let people know this cannot be tolerated.

At Wrights retrial in 2016, Devlin testified that he had never threatened an interview subject, and that he had transcribed Wrights confession verbatim. Then, he agreed to a challenge by lawyer Samuel Silver: to transcribe the confession again in real time as Silver read it aloud. He got just six or seven words down on the page though, before it became clear he could not keep up.

There were also allegations of perjury involving Santiago and Jastrzembski, raised in the form of a disciplinary complaint filed by the Innocence Project in 2018 against Assistant District Attorney Bridget Kirn. (No action was taken publicly against Kirn by the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.)

The complaint alleged that Kirn failed in her duty to correct false testimony by Santiago and Jastrzembski when they told jurors they had not been briefed on the damning DNA tests conducted after Wrights first conviction. The tests showed that semen taken from the victims body matched Ronnie Byrd, a Nicetown crack user not Wright.

It also showed that wearer DNA on bloody clothing Jastrzembski said he had recovered from Wrights home, an aspect of his supposed confession, was a match for the victim, and not for Wright.

The complaint noted that a year after the retrial, during depositions for Wrights civil lawsuit, both detectives acknowledged that the district attorneys office had informed them of the test results in pretrial briefings. Kirn and other detectives confirmed that in their depositions.

All of them perjured themselves during their testimony at the retrial, said Peter Neufeld, co-founder of The Innocence Project and one of Wrights lawyers. They perjured themselves on all kinds of things. Jastrzembski perjured himself when he said he found clothing he didnt find, and Santiago and Devlin both perjured themselves about the way the interrogation went down. They all lied.

The grand jury said it believed charges were necessary to correct the historical record and hold the three former detectives Santiago, Devlin, and Jastrzembski accountable for lying under oath to condemn an innocent man and cover up their wrongdoing, and for perverting the integrity of the law.

The detectives have been the subject of mounting criticism as cases they investigated were revealed to be some of the most shocking wrongful convictions in Philadelphia history.

Media coverage over the years portrayed Devlin as a brilliant eccentric Detective Perfect who wore a loud shirt and carried a shotgun when he allowed a reporter to ride along as he chased a suspect in North Philadelphia. He retired in 1995 and had a storied second act as a detective for the Camden County prosecutors office. An Inquirer profile, written after he helped win the high-profile conviction of Cherry Hill Rabbi Fred Neulander for hiring a hit man to kill his wife, called Devlin street smart and feisty, with intense green eyes that display both the joy and seriousness he brings to the job.

He has been accused of participating in violent interrogations that ended with forced, false statements in at least five different murder cases. In one, Devlin was accused of coercing a false confession from Willie Veasy, while Jastrzembski, the lead detective, allegedly hid evidence that cast doubt on Veasys involvement, in violation of the Constitution.

Veasy spent 27 years in prison but was exonerated in 2019. He settled a civil lawsuit against the city for $5 million earlier this week.

Jastrzembski and Santiago were among three detectives who refused to testify in a 1994 court proceeding about a murder case they investigated, instead invoking their Fifth Amendment right to avoid incriminating themselves. In that case, Commonweath v. Percy St. George, there were also suggestions of perjury as the detectives had testified to taking statements that witnesses said were fabricated or coerced.

Marc Bookman, then a public defender on the case and now the executive director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, said that case should have led to punishment decades ago.

The fact that all these cops were guilty of misconduct was not a secret, Bookman said. It all took place in open court. In a real criminal justice system, the DAs office would have done a full investigation and probably ended up prosecuting the police. But Philadelphia during those years was a rigged town there was no oversight.

The two detectives also built the case against Jimmy Dennis, whose murder conviction was vacated after he spent 25 years on death row. Like Veasy, Dennis had compelling alibi evidence that was in the possession of police or prosecutors but was not disclosed at his trial. Santiago and Jastrzembski retired in the late 1990s and continue to collect pensions from the city.

The detectives arrest was welcome news to Walter Ogrod, who spent 23 years on death row for the murder of 4-year-old Barbara Jean Horn based in part on a confession taken by Devlin and his then-partner Detective Paul Worrell one Krasners office now contends was false and coerced. Ogrod was exonerated last year.

In his view, perjury charges would be a fair starting point.

Whats the statute of limitations for attempted murder? he said. (Its five years in Pennsylvania.) Im an innocent man and what did they go for? Death. They wanted to kill an innocent man.

2021 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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3 former Philly homicide detectives accused of perjury in the retrial of an innocent man - The Bakersfield Californian