(CBS DETROIT) – Protesters gathered outside the Wayne County District Attorney’s office Wednesday to demand that District Attorney Kym Worthy launch an investigation into all cases handled by a retired Detroit Police Department homicide detective, who is accused of improper conduct during investigations.
One case involved Mark Craighead, who served seven years in prison and was released in 2003, 13 years after being released on parole in 2009.
The judge who overturned the conviction, Shannon Walker of Wayne Circuit Court, said lead investigator Barbara Simon’s conduct showed a pattern of lying and coercing false confessions.
In her decision, she wrote that Simons’ “interrogation tactics evidenced a plan, intent or system to obtain false confessions.”
“We wonder why the same thing that happened to us doesn’t happen to her,” Craighead said. “The four of us were acquitted of Barbara Simon.”
The protest on Wednesday included exonerated people who say Simon was involved in their cases, as well as activists, families, lawyers and police chiefs.
“I lost over 20 years of my life to a detective who played judge and jury,” said Lamar Monson, who was acquitted of murder in 2017. “It’s time for accountability, not just for me, but for all those whose lives were stolen by these corrupt practices.”
The protesters are demanding a full investigation into other convictions related to Simon’s work.
“We’re just trying to get justice for these families who had Barbara Simon as their investigator,” Craighead said. “If we don’t say something now, they’re going to spend the rest of their lives in prison.”
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office tells CBS News Detroit that information is currently being gathered to assess the situation and that Worthy is working on a “financial resolution to the situation.”
We asked for clarification about what that meant, but the Public Prosecution Service did not want to provide any explanation.
DPD issued the following statement in response to the protest:
“The department is aware of this protest. We will monitor this protest as we do other demonstrations. Our department’s responsibility is the safety of all. Many of the issues underlying Detective Simon’s practices have been addressed by the city in conjunction with the two Consent Judgments. Given that the Board of Police Commissioners has expressed concern about homicide cases being assigned to homicide squads, the department is not the appropriate agency to review these cases. Therefore, concerns about the legitimacy of convictions should be directed to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Conviction Integrity Unit.”
