Otis Boone - Mistaken ID / Police Misconduct

Boone, Otis; robbery; NRE: mistaken witness identification, inadequate legal defense, police officer misconduct, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant

Suggestibility issues

69 N.Y.S.3d 215; Court of Appeals 12/14/17; reversed, for jury instruction issue

"On February 16, 2011, a white man in his 20s was walking in Brooklyn when he was approached by a stranger, a short-haired black man. The stranger asked to know the time, and the young man retrieved his cell phone. The stranger snatched the cell phone and fled. The victim gave chase, until the robber pulled out a knife and told him to stay where he was. The victim described his attacker as an African-American man, about six feet tall, weighing 170 pounds, and wearing a baseball cap and a hooded sweatshirt.

"Ten days later, a white teenager was walking in the same neighborhood of Brooklyn...when a man behind him asked the time. The teenager looked back over his shoulder and observed a stranger, a black man, wearing a winter coat and a hat with flaps that covered his ears and the top of his head...The stranger then grabbed the phone. The teenager did not immediately let go, and the robber stabbed him. The robber then took the phone and fled. Before the victim was taken to the hospital, he described the perpetrator as an African-American man, about 18 years old and approximately six feet, two inches tall, and he gave an estimated weight.

"Boone, a black man who was short-haired, 19 years old, and 6 feet tall, and weighed about 170 pounds, was suspected of committing the crimes...[Boone] was placed in two six-person lineups and the victims separately identified him. The teenager was initially unsure whether [Boone] was his attacker, but identified him after he spoke the words 'What time is it?'

"Neither cell phone was recovered, and no physical evidence linked [Boone] to the crimes.

"At [Boone's] jury trial...defense counsel requested that the jury be instructed on cross-racial identification. [County] Court denied the request..."

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley)

"The robber's face during [the second] incident was partially covered. He had a large Russian style hat and the ear flaps were down. The lighting was poor -- the robber was lit by a streetlight that was behind him. [The victim] saw the robber's face only from the nose down.

"The two victims gave descriptions of the robber that were general and covered a wide range -- a black man ranging in age from 16 to mid-20s, with short hair, and about 160 to 190 pounds.

"Not long after, [the second victim's] phone was recovered from a man who said he bought it from someone in a bodega...Police returned the phone to [the second victim] without attempting to download any GPS data in an attempt to track down where the phone had been.

"Several days later, with no suspects and no forensic or physical evidence, Detective Maureen Sheehan took over the case. She later admitted that she did not read the notes in the file about the recovery of the phone or that [the second victim] had told detectives at least twice that he could not identify his attacker.

"Nonetheless, Sheehan assembled a lineup that included 19-year-old Otis Boone,* who had been stopped, photographed, and released as part of its [unconstitutional] stop and frisk program. Boone had never been convicted of a crime."

[* There does not appear to have been any basis for Sheehan to suspect that Boone had committed this (or any other) crime.]

"Boone, who was 6 feet 2 inches tall, was placed at the end of the lineup, next to a man who was five feet, 8 inches tall [i.e., 6 inches shorter]. The robbery victims said their attacker had short hair -- as did Boone -- but three of the five members of the lineup had long hair.* [The second victim] only identified Boone after police asked him -- and only him -- to step forward and say, 'What time is it?' -- the words the victims said the robber spoke."

[* Therefore, in this 5-person lineup, there was -- at most -- just one other person who both had short hair like Boone, and was around Boone's height.]

"All of the fillers in the lineup were also years older than Boone."* [* Thus, when age is also factored in, there were no persons in the lineup, other than Boone, who fit the description of the perpetrator.]

"Ultimately, both [victims] identified Boone..."

"Boone went to trial in July 2012 in Kings County...Court. He had not met his defense attorney until a day earlier. The defense lawyer failed to investigate Boone's claim that he was using his public benefits card a mile away at the time of the second robbery."

[Following reversal, and upon retrial:] "For the first time, defense attorneys presented evidence that Boone was elsewhere when the second robbery occurred. State records showed that Boone used his public benefits card in two transactions one mile away and about one minute before the second robbery occurred."

"[T]he jury acquitted Boone, rejecting the prosecution's theory that Boone, who had arrived in New York just four days before the first robbery, took a bus to the scene of the second robbery and reached there in less than five minutes.

"One juror was quoted by the New York Times as saying the prosecution theory was 'wildly unlikely.' Jurors hugged Boone after the verdict was announced, and one juror said the jury reached its decision in about five minutes.

"In 2019, Boone filed a lawsuit in Kings County...against Sheehan, other officers and the City of New York. In 2021, he filed a state compensation claim."

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]