Martin Nnodimele - Mistaken ID / Inadequate Counsel/ Misconduct

Nnodimele, Martin; robbery; NRE: mistaken witness identification, inadequate legal defense, prosecutor misconduct, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, prosecutor lied in court

Suggestibility issues

2016 WL 337751; 1/26/16; civil suit

"Nnodimele spent more than four years in custody for mutiple robberies for which prosecutors now say there is insufficient evidence of guilt..[H]is conviction was vacated and his criminal case dismissed...[He] accused [Detective Donald] DeRienzo and [Detective Edward] Garrity of various forms of misconduct, including fabricating evidence, withholding exculpatory information, and engineering unduly suggestive lineups.

"The robberies at issue took place in Manhattan over a two-week period in November 2007.

"[Nnodimele] informed DeRienzo that he could not have committed any of the robberies because he had been working full-time for a Brooklyn contractor named Leonard Parson... DeRienzo called Parson, who confirmed that [Nnodimele] worked for him. According to Parson, however, DeRienzo refused to provide the dates and times of the robberies and rejected Parson's offer to confirm [Nnodimele's] work schedule on particular days.

"[Nnodimele] claims that DeRienzo withheld material information from the prosecution and, in turn, the defense. Most significant in this regard are [Nnodimele's] allegations concerning Boyle, the eyewitness who spent the longest period of time with the perpetrator...and arguably the eyewitness who could have been most helpful to [Nnodimele] at trial. [Nnodimele] claims that DeRienzo (1) withheld Boyle's exculpatory lineup report from both the prosecution and the defense, disclosing her non-identification of [Nnodimele] for the first time during a suppression hearing held immediately before trial; (2) did not share or record Boyle's statement during the lineup that [Nnodimele] was definitely not the perpetrator of the Caravan robbery [one of the four robberies at issue]; and (3) did not share or record Boyle's statement that the man shown in the video still from the Visio robbery was the same person who had robbed the Caravan store, which made Boyle a potential exculpatory witness with respect to both robberies."

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"In late November 2007, New York City police created a wanted poster featuring a photograph taken from a surveillance camera during one of four store robberies in Manhattan. Police believed the same person had committed all of the robberies."*

"On December 9, a security guard at a men's homeless shelter was shown the poster and believed it depicted 47-year-old Martin Nnodimele, who had been living at the shelter on and off since August of that year.

"Police were summoned and arrested Nnodimele. After witnesses identified him in a series of live lineups and photographic lineups, Nnodimele was charged with three robberies on November 14, 20 and 26.

"Nnodimele went on trial in [Manhattan] on August 11, 2008. Witnesses from the three stores identified Nnodimele as the man who entered the stores, intimated he had a gun in his pocket, and left after money was handed over from the till. More than $1,700 was taken in the three robberies. Video surveillance footage of the three robberies was shown to the jury as well.

"Nnodimele presented witnesses who testified that he had been working as a day laborer on the days of the robberies, although he was not under constant supervision at all times.

"During closing argument, the prosecution told the jury that the robber was wearing the same clothing during all of the robberies and that it was the same as the clothing Nnodimele was wearing when he was arrested.* The prosecution said that Nnodimele's alibi witnesses were lying."

[* That was a lie -- see below.]

"On August 18, 2008, Nnodimele was convicted of two of the robberies and acquitted of the third. At his sentencing hearing, Nnodimele insisted he was innocent and that the video surveillance footage showed a man who had different facial features and was also much shorter."

"[T]he Center for Appellate Litigation in New York City was assigned to handle the appeal of the conviction. Attorney Jonathan Kirschbaum began re-investigating the case and discovered that Nnodimele's trial attorney had failed to locate a store employee who had been shown a photographic lineup and was adamant that Nnodimele was not the robber.

"Experts were retained to examine the video surveillance footage. Their analysis showed that the robber in all three cases was about 5 feet, 6 inches tall. Nnodimele, according to police booking records, was between 5 feet, 10 inches and 5 feet, 11 inches tall.

"Moreover, the analysis showed that the robber wore different clothing in the robberies, none of it matching the clothing Nnodimele was wearing when arrested.

"An examination of the surveillance video also showed that the robber looked different from Nnodimele -- one store was robbed by a bow-legged man with a pot belly, while Nnodimele had neither a pot belly nor bow-legs."*

[* Thus, not only did Nnodimele not match the person depicted in that video, but -- contradicting the police theory noted above -- there appeared to have been at least two perpetrators of these four robberies. (Did the police even examine the surveillance videos?)]

"Kirschbaum, joined by CAL attorney David Klem, filed a post-conviction motion for a new trial based on the new evidence, asserting that Nnodimele's trial attorney had provided an inadequate defense and that Nnodimele was factually innocent.

"On September 12, 2011 following an evidentiary hearing, the convictions for the two robberies were vacated. On October 24, 2011, Nnodimele was released on bond. The Manhattan [DA's] Office dismissed the charges on June 14, 2012."*

[* Thus, despite ample evidence of Nnodimele's innocence, the Manhattan DA's office left him 'hanging' for some nine months.]

"Nnodimele filed a claim for compensation in the New York Court of Claims that was settled in July 2014 for $450,000. Nnodimele filed a federal lawsuit against the city of New York which was settled in 2016 for $2 million."

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]