Black Man's Conviction Overturned by DC Court of Appeals - after requesting Attorney, Handcuffed & Interrogated 13 Hours by Police
/The case gripped residents throughout the Washington region. An 83-year-old woman, known as “Grandma” in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood where she sold hats, umbrellas and T-shirts from a vending table outside the Metro station, was viciously beaten and robbed. The attack was caught on security cameras, and the video was played over and over again on television and local news Web sites.
Just days after the May 3, 2005, attack, a District man, James Dorsey, was arrested. A jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
But now, prosecutors must decide whether to drop their case against Dorsey or bring it to trial again.
Last week, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled 5-2 that detectives violated Dorsey’s rights when they arrested him, handcuffed him to a chair for 13 hours and repeatedly questioned him after Dorsey said that he didn’t want to talk and requested an attorney.
The court overturned Dorsey’s conviction and ordered a new trial.
At issue is a videotaped confession in which Dorsey never waived his right to silence nor his right to speak to an attorney, the judges ruled.
Despite objections from Dorsey’s attorneys, two D.C. Superior Court judges — during Dorsey’s initial hearing and subsequent trial — allowed prosecutors to play the videotaped statement. It was a crucial piece of evidence because neither the victim, Vasiliki Fotopoulos, nor witnesses could identify the attacker.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney said the office was reviewing the court’s ruling and declined to comment.
District Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said in an e-mail that the department “obviously does not condone the types of techniques that were used in the initial interrogation of defendant Dorsey, and it would be a violation of MPD policy to continue an interrogation once a suspect has invoked his/her right to counsel. MPD would consider corrective action against those investigators, if they were still members of the department.”
D.C. defense attorneys hailed the ruling, calling it a strong message to prosecutors and detectives.
“The police in this case made every mistake possible,” said James W. Rudasill Jr., a District defense lawyer. “The police can’t ignore a request for an attorney, and they can’t question or take statements from a suspect without reading their rights first.”
The case was highly publicized after police released security footage to local TV news stations and Web sites showing the attack, which occurred behind an apartment building in the 700 block of 24th Street NW. The video showed a hooded man punching and attacking Fotopoulos. The man’s face was obscured.
The attack left Fotopoulos with a broken cheekbone and nose and cracks in her knee, which caused her to rely on a walker. Police officers called it one of the worst beatings ever caught on tape. Fotopoulos’s attacker made off with about $300.
Dorsey, now 54, has a record that dates to 1979, with at least 30 arrests and 10 convictions for assault with a dangerous weapon, burglary, grand larceny and other crimes.
