Cleared of rape, Indy man sues over delay in prison release

Extraordinary negligence by all concerned. And the original conviction was based on eyewitness identification from someone who was half-blind!

Harold David Buntin keeps his anger in check, but the worst kind of frustration persists after he served 13 years for a rape that DNA evidence proved he didn’t commit. He served two of the years after a judge cleared him. Now Buntin, 38, is suing Marion Superior Court for mishandling the May 2005 ruling that should have set him free but instead sat inside his file in storage, unseen by nearly anyone. Buntin also has sued an Indianapolis attorney hired by his family to handle his appeal. Carolyn Rader is accused of leaving him in the lurch while he waited for the ruling.

“Somebody should be held accountable,” he said. “I lose 11 years of my life over something I didn’t ever do, and you turn around and cheat me out of two more years? “I’m not mad, but somebody’s liable. … I think I’ve got a case.” He is seeking unspecified damages, but state law could limit any award if he prevails against the court.

His wrongful detention lawsuit against Criminal Court 5, filed Friday in Marion Superior Court’s civil division, also names the clerk, the county and the state of Indiana as defendants. His lawsuit against Rader has been pending since August. Judge Grant Hawkins, who presides in Court 5, declined to comment Tuesday, and a phone message left at the office of the city’s attorney, the corporation counsel, was not returned. Rader also did not return a message.

When Hawkins ordered Buntin’s release in April, he apologized. He and Master Commissioner Nancy L. Broyles, who had issued the 2005 ruling, explained in a written notice at the time that the decision was never entered into the court’s record or sent to the defendant or prosecutors. Either a bailiff failed to follow handwritten instructions, the notice says, or a deputy clerk did not fulfill her duties.

The case stems from the rape and robbery of a 22-year-old clerk at a dry cleaners in 1984 on Indianapolis’ Northside. Three months later, after at least one false lead, the victim saw a man she thought was her assailant inside the former Atlas Supermarket across the street. Police arrested Buntin, then 15. Buntin insisted he was in Texas at the time of the assault. But during the trial, prosecutors showed Buntin had the same blood type as the rapist — DNA testing was not widely used then — and relied on the testimony of the victim, who had impaired vision and hearing. Buntin fled before the trial was over. The jury convicted him in absentia of rape and armed robbery. Police in Florida arrested him in an unrelated matter in 1994, and the fugitive was brought back to Indiana to serve a 50-year sentence.

In prison, he earned two associate’s degrees and worked to win his freedom. He hired Rader in 1999, according to one of the lawsuits. Later, two DNA analyses showed his sample did not match material thought to have come from the rapist. After a court hearing in early 2005, he waited for Broyles’ ruling. And waited. He wrote at least five letters to the court, the lawsuits say, and more to his attorney. When Rader responded, Buntin said, she urged patience. Family members called the court, but the computer system showed there had been no ruling yet. “I couldn’t believe it,” Buntin said, and he remembered thinking: “This doesn’t make no sense, like there’s some kind of conspiracy. This shouldn’t happen. … I was exonerated by DNA.”

Finally, Buntin filed a “lazy judge” complaint, prompting Hawkins and Broyles to review the case and retrieve the file from court archives. Rader has filed a response to Buntin’s suit, which charges she was negligent and breached her duty. Rader’s filing says the claims are groundless, and any damages were caused by the judges or court staff.

Buntin, who goes by his middle name, David, is working in construction on the side while he recovers from a shoulder injury and looks at his options. He is living in a house on Indianapolis’ Westside with his girlfriend, who has stuck with him for nearly a decade, he said. He declined to name her. He frequently visits three siblings and other extended family members who live in Indianapolis.

There are no limits on damages if he prevails against Rader, but the state Tort Claims Act would cap any judgment for him against a government agency or official at $300,000. “That’s for a jury to decide,” said Michael Sutherlin, an Indianapolis attorney now representing Buntin in the lawsuits. Buntin said he hasn’t decided whether to file a federal lawsuit seeking compensation for a wrongful conviction. Larry Mayes, who spent 19 years in prison for a rape in Hammond before DNA evidence exonerated him, was awarded $9 million by a jury in 2006; that verdict is on appeal. “I’m just taking it a day at a time,” Buntin said. “I’ve got a few applications in here and there. We’ll see what happens.”

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