Mark Craighead, who was exonerated after spending more than seven years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, filed a criminal complaint Wednesday against the Detroit detective who elicited his false confession in June 2000.
Craighead alleges former Detective Barbara Simon engaged in a pattern of criminal wrongdoing by committing perjury, illegally detaining suspects for long periods without a warrant, and assaulting and threatening witnesses.
Simon was the subject of a two-part Metro Times series that exposed her aggressive and illegal tactics that led to false confessions and wrongful imprisonment. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Simon was known as “the closer” because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements. Her method of confining young Black men to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant, making false promises, and lying about evidence that didn’t exist led to the false imprisonment of at least five men.
Many more innocent people are still behind bars because of her actions, activists and lawyers say.
Craighead filed the complaint with the Detroit Police Department, alleging cops, prosecutors, and judges looked the other way while Simon repeatedly committed crimes and violated the rights of Black Detroiters.
“What she did was criminal,” Craighead tells Metro Times. “If one of us did that, we’d be in jail. Yet Barabra Simon is still walking the streets. She should have been arrested.”
Craighead pointed to a bombshell statement by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Shannon Walker when she granted him a new trial in February 2021. She said Simon “has a history of falsifying confessions and lying under oath” and that Craighead’s case demonstrated “a common scheme of misconduct.”
“Not only has this Court already found statements obtained by Simon not to be credible, but so too has the Michigan Supreme Court,” Walker said.
“This impeachment evidence demonstrates that Simon has repeatedly lied as part of her misconduct, which would allow a jury to evaluate whether to trust her testimony in light of information demonstrating a character of truthfulness,” Walker added.
The Michigan Court of Appeals agreed with Walker.
Craighead says the courts’ acknowledgements that Simon committed a pattern of crimes should have prompted an investigation.
“It’s very powerful,” Craighead says of Walker's statements. “That tells you that the courts and prosecutors know about her. So why hasn’t she been investigated? Now that I filed a complaint, they have to look into it.”
At a Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Thursday, Commissioner Willie Burton asked why DPD wasn’t investigating Simon after the Metro Times series was published in July.
Deputy Chief Charles Fitzgerald claimed the department was unaware of the allegations, despite the courts’ allegations and those made by numerous suspects and witnesses. In fact, Simon has been sued by four exonerated men, and each lawsuit laid out very specific allegations of criminal misconduct against her. Two of the lawsuits have been settled for an average of $8 million apiece.
“I have not seen any of these complaints or allegations,” Fitzgerald told Burton.
Burton responded that the alleged crimes occurred while Simon was a DPD employee and asked whether the department would investigate.
“If those allegations are brought forward to us, yes, but they have not been,” Fitzgerald said.
His response prompted Craighead to file the complaint.
Craighead was assisted in filing the complaint by former police commissioner Reginald Crawford, a former Detroit officer and Wayne County sheriff’s deputy.
“There can never be justice without accountability,” Crawford tells Metro Times. “DPD and everyone involved needs to be held accountable.”
The complaint is just the latest action taken in the last month by Craighead, other exonerees, and families of inmates who say they were wrongfully imprisoned because of Simon’s misconduct.
On Aug. 28, exonerees and family members of inmates marched outside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, demanding an independent investigation of all of Simon’s cases.
In a written statement, Prosecutor Kym Worthy responded that she has “been working on a monetary way to address this situation.”
“I will know more after my budget hearing on September 5th,” Worthy said. “I should be able to discuss this in more detail after the hearing.”
The Michigan Innocence Clinic, which helped free four inmates who were victimized by Simon’s conduct, said many more innocent people are likely in prison because of the former detective.
“All of the family members I talk to ask me, ‘Why isn’t Barbara Simon in jail?’” Craighead says. “Everyone knew this was happening, and no one did anything about it.”
In 2000, Simon accused Craighead of fatally shooting his friend three years earlier. He was locked in a small room for hours without a warrant or access to an attorney, food, or phone call. When he refused to incriminate himself, he was held in a vermin-infested jail cell.
A day later, Craighead says Simon falsely claimed they had evidence tying him to the murder. They did not. He ended up signing a confession that Simon wrote after she claimed he would spend the rest of his life in prison if he didn't admit to a story she concocted, according to his lawsuit.
“I was tired, dirty. I had a migraine,” Craighead said on the local podcast ML Soul of Detroit after the Metro Times series ran. “Everything was going wrong. I was terrified.”
Phone records later showed that Craighead was working at Sam’s Club at the time of the shooting, which resulted in his exoneration.
