Crooked authorities in Texas town won't face up to their mistakes

Town still covering for its worthless cops

Lubbock has taken a “ludicrous” position on examining a 25-year-old police investigation that led to a wrongful conviction, the survivor of the state’s first posthumous pardon recipient said Thursday after addressing the City Council.

Cory Session told the council the city risked becoming known for the death of his oldest brother, Tim Cole, in prison for a rape he didn’t commit after a flawed 1985 Lubbock police investigation and 1986 guilty verdict from a Lubbock County jury.

Officials “from the statehouse to the White House” already recognized Lubbock as the place where his brother was wrongfully convicted for a rape, he said.

The city must work with the Innocence Project and other experts to conclusively determine how mistaken eyewitness identification and other flaws led the department to settle on Cole, a Tech student, instead of another man whom police had in custody for similar crimes.

Session and the Innocence Project of Texas has sought to question officers involved in the original investigation, and proposed reforms to the modern Lubbock Police Department’s eyewitness identification procedures.

The department has changed procedures since 1985, but not in ways promoted by the national Innocence Project and adopted by the Dallas Police Department and other agencies. “A travesty of justice has been done, and we need to figure out how to keep it from happening again,” Session said.

The Council should not be scared of the idea of a lawsuit, either, he added, noting the family had not pursued compensation made available under state law now named for his brother. “The final decision is my mother’s, and only hers, and if you pick up the phone, you might be surprised,” Session said.

But earlier communication from Jeff Blackburn, Innocence Project of Texas chief counsel, may have made such a cooperative effort difficult for the council to stomach.

A tough-worded letter from Blackburn accused the Lubbock Police Department of framing Cole. It was sent earlier this month, ahead of a community meeting challenging the council to take action on the case.

It was still clearly on the mind of South Lubbock Councilman Paul Beane. He asked Blackburn if he regretted the accusation, or painting the department with such a broad brush after the attorney described his hopes for a cooperative and transparent effort with the city. “I think the facts are very clear that they did,” Blackburn answered. “Frankly, I think they’re deserved,” he added after the public comment session.

Session thanked Central Lubbock Councilman Todd Klein for a letter of support he sent early in the process asking for a pardon for Cole. He also recounted, to nods from Mayor Tom Martin, meeting the mayor at the state Capitol in 2008, and said the mayor pledged at the time to “do whatever it takes.”

But he took issue afterward with comments from City Attorney Sam Medina and Councilman Floyd Price that the city could not take a role in compelling cooperation from the former police investigators involved in his brother’s case. “Get real, man,” Session said outside the meeting. “People have been connecting the dots for years.”

Original report here




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