FAYETTEVILLE -- A man who spent three years in jail charged with capital murder and facing the death penalty before the charges were dropped has sued Fayetteville police and state Crime Laboratory employees in federal court, saying the cold case investigation was botched and police misled prosecutors and judges.
Washington County prosecutors, citing insufficient evidence, dropped all charges against Rico Tavarous Cohn on July 1, 2015. Cohn was accused of killing 21-year-old Bethany "Nina" Ingram.
Ingram's brother found her body April 22, 2006, on her bed in her apartment on Sycamore Street, according to police records.
Autopsy results cited strangulation by ligature as the cause of death. The medical examiner said the attack was so sudden and violent that Ingram had no time to fight back. There were no signs of a sexual assault. Police said there was no sign of forced entry into the apartment.
Tony Pirani, the former deputy public defender who helped win Cohn's release and who filed the federal lawsuit late Monday, said he is convinced the case was botched almost from the beginning. The result has been an injustice to Ingram, her family and Cohn, he said. Pirani said Ingram's killer is still free.
Police said they believed Ingram was killed because she rebuffed Cohn, who made inappropriate comments to her as she left her apartment five days before her death, according to records. A witness, Randee Applewhite, told police that Cohn had told her he killed Ingram. The case against Cohn was dropped after Applewhite died. The defense claimed Applewhite, the prosecution's key witness, recanted her story to police before her death.
Pirani said the lawsuit, which includes claims for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, amounts to the trial his client never got to have.
"We want the facts out. We want Rico's name cleared once and for all. We want Nina's family, particularly her mother, to know that Rico did not do this," Pirani said. "We believe she needs to know the truth because, if we're right, and we believe we are, that Rico did not do this, then that means her daughter's killer is still on the loose and nobody's looking for him. We also believe that Rico ought to be compensated for the three years of his life that were stripped away for no good reason."
Pirani said police reopened the 6-year-old cold case and within six days decided they had the guy who did it.
"This is the worst case of cognitive bias that I have ever seen on the part of law enforcement in general and, in particular, detective Scott Carlton, who simply decided that he had his man, and everything that happened from that point forward was designed to construct a case against Rico Cohn," Pirani said.
Pirani said there were several persons of interest and that one name repeatedly came up in the case over the years, but police were not interested in pursuing that lead.
"There were numerous opportunities that were missed over the years for potential leads and investigative paths that were not properly followed up on," Pirani said. "Once charges were brought against Rico, the things that happened after that are very disturbing because there were so many improprieties and irregularities and improper inducements and misrepresentations to the prosecutor, to the public and to the courts that things were presented in a way we do not believe were factually accurate."
Pirani said police and Crime Lab employees had meetings about what evidence to test in order to have a successful prosecution, which he said should never happen with a crime lab that is supposed to be an independent tester of evidence.
Pirani said filing the lawsuit was not something he took lightly but that he believes there needs to be some accountability.
"Ultimately, there are two options. Everybody just lets it go and moves on or the alternative is that we stand up for what we believe is right to correct a manifest injustice here," Pirani said. "He still struggles with this mentally and psychologically to this day. He sat in that cell with them threatening to put a needle in his arm for something he didn't do. Three years. And you just can't do that to people."
Pirani said the three-year statute of limitations for filing the lawsuit was about to expire.
Fayetteville City Attorney Kit Williams said he had not seen the 271-page complaint Tuesday because the city had not been served. Williams said the city will defend the case as usual.
"This appears to be the world's longest and most repetitive civil rights complaint against the police and crime lab ever," Williams said in email.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court and names the city of Fayetteville; Police Chief Greg Tabor; Carlton; John Brooks, a former civilian crime scene investigator with the department; Kermit Channell II, executive director of the state Crime Lab; Lisa Channell, Phillip Rains, and Melissa Myhand, all analysts with the Crime Lab; and 20 "John Doe" defendants, who are identified as past and present employees of the city, the Police Department, the Crime Lab or Washington County. The individual defendants are named in both their individual and official capacities.
The lawsuit alleges state and federal constitutional violations and seeks unspecified damages for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment; malicious prosecution; abuse of process; outrage; false light; defamation; negligent hiring, supervision or retention; and general negligence.
Metro on 07/05/2018