Rodolfo Taylor - Mistaken ID / Prosecutor Misconduct

Taylor, Rodolfo robbery NRE: mistaken witness identification, prosecutor misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence

[520:49] 2nd Dept. 10/26/87 affirmed

"[W]e find that the witness Bailey's selection of [Taylor's] photograph from a photographic array two days before he picked [him] out of the lineup did not taint the lineup identification since there is no argument that the photographic array was in any fashion unduly suggestive and we conclude that the lineup itself was not unduly suggestive."

36 F.Supp.2d 534 E.D.N.Y. 2/22/99 writ denied

"Prior to July 1984, Detective Robert Anderson of the Third Precinct of the Suffolk County Police Department had been assigned to investigate a series of gas station robberies including the robbery of a Texaco station located at Motor Parkway and the Long Island Expressway in Brentwood...which occurred on February 22, 1984, and two robberies of a Shell gas station located at Route 111 and Spur Drive in Central Islip...which occurred on June 2nd and again on June 10, 1984...Harold Bailey had been working as an attendant at the Shell station on June 10th and had witnessed that robbery...On July 1, 1984, Detective Anderson asked Bailey to come to the Third Precinct to view a photo spread...Bailey was shown a photo spread and identified the petitionerRodolfoTayloras the person who committed the June 10th robbery."

"On July 3, 1984, Taylor was asked to accompany Officer Houlan and two Suffolk County police officers to the Third precinct where he appeared in a series of ten lineups...Five witnessesDennis Ford, Daniel Farrell, and Kathleen Young (the eye-witnesses of the June 2nd Shell robbery), Gary Meenahan (the victim of the February 22nd Texaco robbery) and Baileyeach viewed two separate lineups in which they all positively identified Taylor as the individual who had committed the robbery he or she had witnessed...Taylor was 23 years old, 6' 2-1/2" tall and weighed approximately 160 pounds."

[At trial]: "Meenahan...testified that...he had not seen any scars or moles on the perpetrator's face."

"Ford, Farrell and Young all gave similar descriptions of the robber of the Shell station. Ford claimed that he had observed Taylor for at least three minutes during the robbery...He described him as a black male, approximately 2023 years old, about 60 tall, with a thin build, short Afro, a thin mustache and hair in the center of his chin...According to Farrell, he had observed the robber for about five minutes...and described him [as having] a small mustache and goatee..."

"BeverlyWoods...testified that she had known [Taylor] for the last five years and that in February 1984, [he] had had a scar approximately 22-1/2 inches long on his left brow over his left eye...Richard Froberg,...testified that [Taylor] had been employed by his company on February 22nd and June 2, 1984 and during that time [Taylor] was clean shaven...Froberg also testified that on July 3, 1984, [Taylor] did not have a beard."

"Jaqueline Davis, the driver of the white car [which was at the station at the time]...testified that Taylor was not the man she had observed."

[984:414] 2nd Dept. 4/30/14 reversal of denial of post-trial motion without a hearing (by Judge Stephen L. Braslow ) without a hearing hearing ordered

"In December 2009, [Taylor]...moved to vacate the judgments of conviction, arguing that two supplementary reports from the Suffolk County Police Department and four sworn witness statements provided to him pursuant to his...FOIL [Freedom of Information] request had not been disclosed to the defense at his criminal trials..."

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"Taylor filed a [public records] request with the Suffolk County Police Department, which sent him numerous documents -- none of which had been disclosed by the prosecution at the time of Taylor's trials.

"These documents included reports showing that: ... -- On June 12, Farrell selected Lawrence Caudle from a photographic lineup. He said, 'I picked out #1 with no hesitation and state without doubt this is the same subject that robbed me on May 29th and again on June 2, 1984. I know this subject to be Lawrence Caudle.' ... -- On June 12, 1984, Young viewed a photographic lineup. She said that Lawrence Caudle 'looked much like the man who I saw commit the Robbery on June 2, 1984.'

-- On June 14, 1984, Ford...selected Forlando Carlton. He said, 'The reason I picked this one is because I am almost positive that this is the Black male that had robbed me, and if he had a little bit of facial hair I would say that he is definitely the one.'"

"On December 22, 2009, based on the discovery of these reports, Taylor, acting without a lawyer, filed a post-conviction motion to vacate his convictions. On February 12, 2010, Taylor was released on parole. He had spent 24 years, months, and 17 days in prison since the date of his first conviction.

"In November 2011, Judge Stephen [L.] Braslow denied Taylor's motion for a new trial. In April 2014, the [Second Dept.] overturned Judge Braslow's ruling, and ordered a hearing to determine whether evidence had been withheld and if so, whether it had an impact on Taylor's right to a fair trial. At a hearing in July 2014 Taylor's trial defense lawyer, Martha Palmer Rodgers, who was at the time of the trial a staff attorney for the Suffolk County Legal Aid Society, testified that she never saw the reports. She said she would have used them if she had them.

"The trial prosecutor testified that she listed on the outside of a folder the dates of documents that she had provided to the defense. None of the dates corresponded to the dates of the six reports that Taylor had received pursuant to his public records request. Still, Judge Braslow denied the motion for a new trial.

"In 2016, the Suffolk County [DA's] office agreed to revisit the case at the request of the Legal Aid Society. The [DA's] office assigned a senior-level prosecutor to review the case. Subsequently, the office concluded there was a 'substantial likelihood' that the reports had not been disclosed to Taylor's defense lawyer at the time of his trials and may have had an adverse impact.

"While this review was in progress, Timothy Sini, the newly-elected [DA] , created a Conviction Integrity Bureau (CIB). In April 2018, Kirk Brandt, attorney in the appeals bureau of the Legal Aid Society, sent a seven-page letter outlining the evidence that had been withheld and how, as a result, Taylor's trial had been unfair. He asked the CIB to review the case.

"'It is evident that the failure to provide Mr. Taylor's trial counsel with the aforementioned exculpatory documents undermined the integrity of his convictions and allowed an injustice to take place,' Brandt said.

"On December 2, 2021, [ADA] Craig McElwee filed a 25-page affirmation in support of a motion to vacate Taylor's convictions. While the prosecution said there was 'insufficient evidence for exoneration,' it had reached a 'secure conclusion' that Taylor did not get a fair trial because of the failure to disclose the reports.

"'It is the position of the CIB that the facts as detailed herein clearly established that the ideals of justice and fundamental fairness have been violated in this instance and vacatur of the convictions is appropriate,' McElwee wrote. Witnesses are either dead or unable to remember details, he said. 'Therefore, the indictments must be dismissed because the cases could not be reprosecuted at this time.'

"On January 27, 2022, the convictions were vacated, and the charges were dismissed.

"After the hearing, Taylor, surrounded by family members and friends, declared, 'It's very rewarding. It took patience, perseverance and good family.'

"Louis Mazzola, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society who wored with fellow Legal Aid lawyer Kirk Brandt on Taylor's case for a decade, said, 'He has never once wavered in his claim of innocence.'

"On July 18, 2022, Taylor filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Suffolk County and several officers, seeking payment for his wrongful conviction. The lawsuit was settled in 2023 for $12.8 million. In 2023, he also filed a claim for state compensation. He settled that claim in 2024 for $1 million."

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]