A tenth plaintiff has joined a
lawsuit against former Louisville Metro Police Detective Crystal Marlowe and
former Chief Robert White, claiming he was wrongfully charged with a crime he
could not have committed.
Dale Todd joined a lawsuit Monday
with nine other people who allege Marlowe lied in court or coerced false identifications
from witnesses, leading to their wrongful arrests.
In January 2011, White fired
Marlowe after concluding her "blatant disregard" for rules had
discredited the department and led police to charge the wrong people. She has
filed an appeal with the Police Merit Board.
According to an internal
investigation of Marlowe, she influenced a witness into picking Todd out of a
photo lineup as the man who assaulted him in October 2009 because she believed
he was responsible for the crime.
After the victim said he was more
than 50 percent sure Todd was one of the attackers, Marlowe asked him how much
more certain he was, according to an audio of the interview police reviewed.
The victim, according to police, said maybe he was 70 percent sure and Marlowe
then said he was 75 percent positive and had him sign a form indicating that he
had identified Todd.
However, Todd, a juvenile at the
time, could not have committed the assault because he was in the Louisville
Metro Youth Center on another charge when the attack occurred. Police found
Marlowe had violated eight counts of standard operating procedure in the case.
“We think that his case is a
perfect example of Detective Marlowe’s conduct throughout her tenure with
LMPD,” said Ryan Vantrease, an attorney for all 10 plaintiffs.
Vantrease said Todd can join the
3-year-old lawsuit because the one-year statute of limitations did not start
until he turned 18.
The charges against Todd were
dismissed once it became apparent he had an alibi.
Depositions have been taken in
the lawsuit but the city has made a motion for summary judgment, alleging they
are immune from being sued. The motion is pending.
Claims made in filing a lawsuit
present only one side of a case.
Mary Sharp, who represented Marlowe
during her merit board hearing, did not return a call for comment. Sharp has
called Marlowe "one of the best officers I've ever represented."
Marlowe has repeatedly told The Courier-Journal not to contact her, saying she
would not speak with reporters.
The newspaper reported in
February 2010 that Marlowe had accused more than a dozen defendants, many of
them juveniles, of crimes they did not commit.
The newspaper found some
defendants could not have been guilty of the offenses with which they were charged
because they were in jail or had other evidence of their innocence. In other
cases, Marlowe arrested suspects based on identifications that victims later
said they never made.
The Jefferson County
commonwealth's attorney's office concluded there was insufficient evidence that
Marlowe committed any crime.
The suit seeks compensatory and
punitive damages as well as a trial by jury.