Tomorrow – Wednesday, March 7, 1 p.m. – A press conference will be held by Leroy Boyd of Movement for Change and David Craig – who reports alleged misconduct inside the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office on his website, realtynews.net. (Craig also is the press advisor for David Morgan who has filed to run against Sheriff Ron McNesby in 2008).
The conference will be held at the Center for Social Justice, 1603 North Davis Highway.
I assumed through public records request they have found an investigative report titled “Forensic Unethical Conduct of CST Haley Hill” by her ECSO Forensics Supervisor Jan Johnson (I think CST stands for Crime Scene Technician). See Report. The press release for the conference states “The depth and seriousness of the misconduct described required an official investigation. None was done. Hill resigned and has been working as a CST at the Pensacola regional office of the FDLE on crime scene investigations in a 10 county area.”
The press release goes on to state – “The guarantee of a fair trial is at the very heart of our justice system. The Brady Rule requires prosecutors to turn over to the defense any evidence that might tend to negate guilt or reduce punishment. The failure to adequately inform the defense (of Hill’s extensively documented negative reports) in all cases involving CST Hill from 2003 to the present has greatly expanded the fallout from what was originally a containable crisis. CST Hill did extensive work on the jail death of Jerry Preyer which is coming to a Coroner’s Inquest shortly.
The impact will likely be widespread. Attorneys for Ryan Green, convicted killer of retired PPD Sgt. James Hallman, have said they will use this information to seek post conviction relief for Green who is on death row in Florida State Prison awaiting lethal injection. Haley Hill was a key prosecution witness in the murder trial of Alfred Bruce Hall who received a 25 year sentence. This trial took place during a period when CST Hill was receiving bad performance reports from Jan Johnson who referred to numerous compromised cases in her detailed assessment.”
These are some serious charges. Whether it will have any impact on these cases and others will be decided by court system. It will interesting if any official complaints are filed against the ECSO or if the state attorney will investigate this.
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There is an interesting debate on this issue on LeoAffairs.com – View topic…