Colorado Man - Robert Dewey - Exonerated By DNA, But That Does Not Mean Mesa County Sheriffs Did Anything Wrong
The Daily Sentinel has reported that Robert Dewey is being released from prison after serving 16 years for the rape and murder of a Palisade, Colorado woman. Jackie Taylor, age nineteen, was slain in June 1994. Her body was found in her Palisade apartment, naked from the waist down in a half-filled bathtub. She'd been beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled with a nylon dog leash.
Dewey, who was staying nearby with the family of Taylor's roommate, immediately became a suspect in the crime due in part to blood found on one of his work shirts. DNA testing on the garment convinced some investigators that the blood was a combination of Dewey's and Taylor's, while other experts believed the fluid could have come from literally thousands of others. In the end, Dewey, whose was convicted and given life in prison.
Dewey may be innocent and, if so, should be released from prison. However, that does not automatically mean that the police officers who investigated his case did anything wrong. Nevertheless, the news reports suggest that Dewey plans on filing a civil suit against Mesa County Sheriffs.
When Dewey files his lawsuit, Mesa County must demonstrate that the sheriffs did their jobs and that there was probable cause to arrest and charge Dewey with the murder. Simply because Dewey was exonerated, does not prevent the officers from winning this case.
Our firm successfully defended several retired detectives who were accused of fabricating a case against a person who was exonerated based on DNA. Jerry Miller was convicted in 1982 of a brutal rape in Chicago. He was convicted based on the testimony of two eyewitnesses who identified Miller as the man who attempted to drive his rape victim's car out a parking garage where they worked at the time. The parking lot attendants foiled the rapist's escape by preventing him from driving the car out of the parking garage. Miller spent 26 years in prison before being released in 2006 based on new DNA testing which showed that Miller was not the rapist. That DNA testing lead to the real culprit, Robert Weeks. Despite that, we were able to show that the detectives did nothing wrong and a Federal Court in Chicago granted summary judgment for the retired detectives.
