Protesters plan to rally outside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday to demand a thorough review of all cases handled by a former Detroit detective who terrorized young Black men for nearly two decades.
The protest comes a little more than a month after Metro Times launched a series about Detective Barbara Simon, who confined young suspects and witnesses to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant. She elicited false confessions and witness statements that were later recanted.
Four men have been exonerated so far, and a fifth was released before his murder trial because DNA evidence cleared him.
Exonerees and attorneys say many more innocent people are still likely behind bars because of Simon’s ruthless and illegal tactics.
“I lost more than 20 years of my life because of a detective who played judge and jury,” Lamar Monson, who was exonerated of murder in 2017, said in a news release announcing the protest. “It’s time for accountability, not just for me, but for everyone whose life was stolen by these corrupt practices.”
Demonstrators are meeting outside the new Criminal Justice Center at 5301 Russell St. in Detroit from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. They are urging Worthy to hire an outside legal counsel to investigate the cases handled by Simon.
They’re asking for an outside counsel because they’re worried Worthy’s office won’t thoroughly investigate the cases. Her office has a Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), which is tasked with freeing innocent people from prison, but the unit hasn’t worked on cases related to Simon, despite her troubling history.
So far, Worthy’s office has declined to investigate the cases, saying she doesn’t have enough information. Detroit police commissioners are calling for a widespread investigation of Simon’s cases, and the police department offered to help the prosecutor’s office.
Worthy’s inaction is frustrating families of those still in prison.
Yolanda Garrison says her cousin, Nathan Peterson, was wrongfully convicted of murder in 2021 and has been in prison since. Peterson says he falsely confessed because of Simon’s unethical and illegal tactics.
“We trusted the system to deliver justice, but instead, we got corruption and lies,” Garrison said. “The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office must do the right thing and reopen these cases.”
Numerous activist groups are participating in the protest. They include the Michigan Innocence Project, Defenders of Truth and Justice, Righteous Sons, Safe Place for Veterans, Moving Detroit Forward, TimeDone, and Royal Reign Ministries. Demonstrators are urging members of the public to attend the protest.
Simon, who is now retired, was a lead homicide detective for Detroit in the 1990s and early 2000s. That was the time period in which the U.S. Department of Justice found that homicide detectives trampled on the constitutional rights of suspects and witnesses for decades to get confessions. According to the DOJ, the department had a history of subjecting suspects and witnesses to false arrests, illegal detentions, and abusive interrogations. Despite what was at stake, the detectives weren’t properly trained, and bad cops were rarely disciplined, the DOJ concluded.
Mark Craighead, who spent more than seven years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, said he still struggles with his experience behind bars.
“The trauma doesn’t end when you’re released,” Craighead said. “We demand justice for everyone still caught in the system that let Simon run wild.”
Craighead was exonerated of murder in 2022 after it was proven that he falsely confessed while undergoing hours of Simon’s threats, false promises, and interrogations.
When Wayne County Circuit Court Shannon Walker granted Craighead a new trial, she said Simon “has a history of falsifying confessions and lying under oath” and that Craighead’s cases 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.
Despite the judge’s strong rebuke of Simon, others who say they have been victimized by the detective have gotten no help from the prosecutor’s office.
