Todd Lumpkins - Police Misconduct / Withheld Evidence

Lumpkins, Todd; murder; NRE: police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence

[533:792]; Kings Cty. Ct. 10/19/88; motion to vacate granted , due to Brady violation

"On April 11, 1986, Anthony Joseph, a dealer in cocaine, was killed by three gunshot wounds to the head, in the living room of his apartment in Brooklyn, as his wife hid in a closet in the adjoining bedroom. While the police were knocking on the apartment door she jumped out of the window, breaking both legs. [Lumpkins] was arrested for the crime on April 23.

"At the trial Mrs. Joseph testified that when the deceased answered the intercom on April 11, a voice responded that it was 'Todd,' and she recognized the voice to be that of 'Todd' [Lumpkins]. She also recognized [Lumpkins'] voice inside the apartment, although she did not see him. Mrs. Joseph testified about his previous visits to the apartment and her familiarity with his voice. On cross-examination, Mrs. Joseph insisted that the voice on the intercom identified by the visitor was Todd, not Ty or Tide, but she admitted having told the police on April 11 and April 13 that the voice had said Tide.

"The Crime Scene Unit dusted the scene for fingerprints; one print recovered from the chair [in the living room, against which the deceased was lying] matched [Lumpkins'] fingerprint.

"[Emanuel] Bowser[, a neighbor in the building,] testified as a defense witness that at the time of the incident he had seen two men entering the building. He described them as black males, one 5'11" tall, the other 6'1" tall, each wearing a mustache and a goatee, one wearing an earring, and at least one with a 'Jersey' haircut. [Neither description fit Lumpkins.] No one showed Bowser photographs. The defense also called several alibi witnesses.

"On the eve of sentencing, a man named Quan Jackson telephoned [Lumpkins'] lawyer and claimed that [Lumpkins] was innocent and that in July, 1986, he had called the police Crime Stoppers Unit to tell them that two other men had killed Joseph.

"[U]nknown to the [DA], [Lumpkins'] lawyer, and the court, on July 9, 1986, Detective Andrew Ware of the Crime Stoppers Unit had received an anonymous telephone call relating to this case...This information was then relayed to Detective [Rudolph] Stubbs, and on July 11 he...filled out a police report regarding this information, 'DD5 #17.'

"The DD5 #17 said that the caller had reported that Lumpkins did not murder Joseph and that Lincoln Davis and Ronnie McNeil were the murderers. He described Davis as a male black about 24-25 years old, 6'0"-6'1", 160 pounds, dark skin, with a moustache and goatee, with Jersey haircut, and McNeil, also known as 'Clyde,' as a male black, 25-26, 6'0", dark skin, with a moustache and goatee."

[Bowser's above description of the two visitors he had seen was virtually identical: two black males, between 5'11" and 6'1" tall, both with moustaches and goatees, one of them with a 'Jersey' haircut.]

"He gave their addresses and indicated that they may have been arrested together [for an unrelated crime] and imprisoned together at Eastern Correctional Facility. The caller [Quan Jackson] alleged that the murderers had had an argument with Anthony Joseph over the weight of drugs they had bought from him; they were overheard making threatening remarks about Joseph, and later that day Joseph was killed. He said that McNeil had a 'silver .38 pistol.' [One of the two deformed bullets found at the scene was a .38.] The informant claimed that Davis and McNeil were bragging that 'everything was cool because China [Lumpkins] got caught.'

"Stubbs's file containing DD5 #17 was in his possession in the trial prosecutor's office a week before the trial, during the trial hearing; twice more before the trial; and twice during the trial.

"Stubbs knew that the descriptions of the two suspects provided by the informant matched the descriptions of the two men provided by Emanuel Bowser. And any reasonable police officer would have concluded that if the informant was sincere, the suspects were the two men seen by Bowser.

"I find that the detective did not act in good faith. His testimony at the hearing that he reported and checked out Jackson's story was disproved by the [ADA], Stubbs's police colleagues, and his own paperwork, and I find that his testimony was false* and was designed to justify his failure to follow up the Crime Stopper's information. Contrary to what he told Crime Stoppers, he did not investigate the report or try to find the two suspects named in it. He did not show the photographs to the two witnesses, Mrs. Joseph and Mr. Bowser...Despite his frequent contact with the [ADA] he did not tell him about the Crime Stoppers or show him the DD5."

[* And was Stubbs ever prosecuted for perjuring himself here? Not very likely. This situation is quite similar to what a federal judge said about Detective Mark DeFrancesco's testimony in the Rarick case. (DeFrancesco was integral to Nickel's wrongful conviction.) Although we have several examples in this section of truthful defense witnesses being prosecuted for perjury, we have zero examples of perjurious policemen being prosecuted.] from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"The [Crime Stoppers] caller described [Lincoln] Davis [one of the two actual perpetrators of this crime] as black...6 feet to 6 feet 1 inch tall, dark skinned, with a moustache and goateee, and his head shaved on the sides, and McNeil, also known as 'Clyde,' as black...6 feet tall, dark skinned with a moustache and goatee."

"Neither description matched Lumpkins, who was about 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighed 220 to 230 pounds, had no facial hair, and whose head was not shaved on the sides.

"Lumpkins went on trial a second time in June 1989. The jury, after hearing the evidence of the Crime Stoppers tip, acquitted Lumpkins. Quan Jackson, the caller who provided the tip, was never located. Lumpkins was later awarded $15,000 in state compensation."

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]