{"id":11206,"date":"2010-07-26T05:00:46","date_gmt":"2010-07-26T10:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=11206"},"modified":"2010-07-26T05:35:50","modified_gmt":"2010-07-26T10:35:50","slug":"deaf-inmate-says-fingerprint-proves-his-innocence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/07\/26\/deaf-inmate-says-fingerprint-proves-his-innocence\/","title":{"rendered":"Deaf inmate says fingerprint proves his innocence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deaf inmate says fingerprint proves his innocence<\/strong><\/p>\n

By JEFF CARLTON (AP)<\/p>\n

July 14, 2010<\/p>\n

DALLAS \u2014 Through a sign-language interpreter at the Dallas County Jail,
\nStephen Brodie cops to all sorts of crimes save the one that put him behind
\nbars for 10 years: sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl.<\/p>\n

He insists he is innocent, and there’s support for his claim.<\/p>\n

A fingerprint at the crime scene matches another man convicted in the sexual
\nassault of a child. Brodie’s confession came during 18 hours of questioning
\nand included admissions to fictitious crimes made up by investigators to
\ntest his credibility. Also, Brodie is deaf and doesn’t speak clearly, but
\npolice didn’t use an interpreter for about half of their interviews.<\/p>\n

“I want people to know that I’m not a bad person,” said Brodie, 38,
\nstraining to be understood as he signed and spoke in a recent interview. “I
\nwant to be a law-abiding citizen.”<\/p>\n

He soon may get the chance. The Dallas County District Attorney’s office has
\na unit that focuses on possible exoneration cases, and it is investigating
\nwhether Brodie is innocent. His new attorney, Michelle Moore, is a public
\ndefender known for helping to free the wrongly convicted. She acknowledged
\nshe is close to finishing key documents seeking his release.<\/p>\n

These actions could lead to a hearing where a judge would decide whether to
\nset aside Brodie’s conviction.<\/p>\n

“If they find me not guilty and I’m exonerated,” said Brodie, “I’m getting
\nout of Texas.”<\/p>\n

The injustices in Brodie’s life began early. Spinal meningitis when he was 1
\n1\/2 left him permanently deaf, and when he was 5, his mother abandoned him
\nat a bus station.<\/p>\n

In 1991, Brodie was a teenager and petty criminal in the Dallas suburb of
\nRichardson when police arrested him for stealing quarters from a soda
\nmachine. But during questioning, their focus shifted to a more serious
\nmatter: the unsolved sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl.<\/p>\n

A man had entered her room through a bedroom window and forced her to leave
\nwith her blanket and pillow. He later assaulted her, according to a police
\nreport.<\/p>\n

The case was one of about a dozen similar sexual assaults terrorizing the
\nDallas area in the early 1990s. The newspapers labeled the unknown criminal
\nthe “North Dallas Rapist.”<\/p>\n

After nearly 18 hours of questioning over about 14 days, Brodie confessed to
\nassaulting the little girl, court documents show. Brodie told The Associated
\nPress that he felt intimidated. While he finally admitted committing the
\nassault, he also repeatedly denied it.<\/p>\n

“It was a lot of stress, because (the detective) was asking me so many
\nquestions over and over again,” Brodie said. “I got fed up. I gave up. It’s
\neasy to give up.”<\/p>\n

His adoptive father, Steve Brodie, says his son was “being hounded by the
\nRichardson Police Department” and made a scapegoat because of pressure over
\nthe unsolved sexual assaults.<\/p>\n

“There was such a hue and cry because of these molestations,” Steve Brodie
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

Richardson police officials did not respond to several AP interview
\nrequests.<\/p>\n

Brodie’s propensity for admitting to made-up crimes and his lack of
\nknowledge about the actual crimes convinced Dallas Detective Steven Nelson
\nthat the teenager was not behind the Dallas sexual assaults. Nelson, in an
\naffidavit, said he informed Richardson police Brodie was not a suspect.<\/p>\n

But Richardson police were convinced they had their man. They charged Brodie
\nwith sexual assault of a child even though neither a hair found on her
\nblanket nor a fingerprint on the girl’s window were a match. There was no
\nphysical evidence linking Brodie to the crime.<\/p>\n

When a judge ruled the confession was admissible at trial, Brodie and his
\nattorney figured a guilty verdict, punishable by up to 99 years, was all but
\ncertain. So they cut a deal \u2014 pleading guilty to assaulting the girl in
\nexchange for a five-year prison sentence. After serving that sentence, he
\nserved two more totaling an extra five years for twice failing to register
\nas a sex offender.<\/p>\n

While Brodie was in prison, Richardson police made a critical discovery.
\nThere was a fingerprint on the girl’s window, the perpetrator’s point of
\nentry, that matched Robert Warterfield, according to court documents and
\npolice records.<\/p>\n

Warterfield was never charged in the string of sexual assaults on children
\nin the early 90s. But Dallas police said he was the man responsible for six
\nsexual assaults and five attempted assaults in the North Dallas area
\ninvolving girls ages 7 to 19, according to reports in The Dallas Morning
\nNews at the time.<\/p>\n

A man would break into homes through windows, force the victims at
\nknifepoint to leave with him and assault them, Dallas police said.<\/p>\n

In April 1994, Warterfield pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of a
\n15-year-old girl and received 10 years probation. He eventually was
\nsentenced to 10 years in prison for violating his probation. He is now free
\nand works for a yard service in Stephenville, according to the Texas sex
\noffender registry.<\/p>\n

He did not return a message left by The AP. A man who answered the phone at
\nhis home said Warterfield would not speak to the media and declined to
\nidentify his attorney.<\/p>\n

Richardson police say Warterfield’s print is a coincidence, that he “somehow
\ntouched the frame when he was wandering around in the neighborhood four days
\nprior to this offense,” according to police records.<\/p>\n

In a 1994 appeal, Brodie’s attorney cited the fingerprint on the window. But
\na judge denied the appeal, ruling that Brodie’s confession outweighed the
\nfingerprint evidence.<\/p>\n

If he is freed, Brodie would be the second exoneration case in two years
\ninvolving Richardson police. The first was Thomas McGowan, who was freed in
\n2008 after serving 23 years of a life sentence for a rape he did not commit.<\/p>\n

“This should never have happened,” said Steve Brodie, his voice breaking. “I
\nknow he didn’t do it. That’s not Stephen.”<\/p>\n

Source:
\n http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/38238043\/ns\/us_news\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deaf inmate says fingerprint proves his innocence By JEFF CARLTON (AP) July 14, 2010 DALLAS \u2014 Through a sign-language interpreter at the Dallas County Jail, Stephen Brodie cops to all sorts of crimes save the one that put him behind…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[5662,869,19,5663,5669,24,5661,5672,5660,5673,40,3557,5671,5664,871,2312,5668,5667,1754,191,5674,5670,5665,17,5666],"class_list":["post-11206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-brodie","tag-criminal","tag-dallas-dfw","tag-dallas-county-district-attorney","tag-dallas-county-jail","tag-deaf","tag-fingerprint","tag-gulity","tag-inmate","tag-innocent","tag-interpreter","tag-judge","tag-michelle-moore","tag-north-dallas-rapist","tag-police","tag-richardson","tag-richardson-police-department","tag-sex-offender","tag-sexual-assault","tag-sign-language","tag-spinal-meningitis","tag-stephen-brodie","tag-steve-brodie","tag-texas","tag-trial"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-2UK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11806,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/09\/24\/fingerprint-could-prove-innocence-for-deaf-inmate\/","url_meta":{"origin":11206,"position":0},"title":"Fingerprint could prove innocence for deaf inmate","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"September 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Fingerprint could prove innocence for deaf inmate By JEFF CARLTON Associated Press Writer \u00a9 2010 The Associated Press September 23, 2010 DALLAS \u2014 A deaf man convicted of sexual assault of a child \u2014 even though the fingerprint of a convicted child rapist was found at the crime scene \u2014\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11841,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/09\/28\/judge-exonerates-deaf-man-wrongly-convicted-in-1990-sex-assault-of-richardson-girl\/","url_meta":{"origin":11206,"position":1},"title":"Judge exonerates deaf man wrongly convicted in 1990 sex assault of Richardson girl","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"September 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Judge exonerates deaf man wrongly convicted in 1990 sex assault of Richardson girl Monday, September 27, 2010 By JENNIFER EMILY \/ The Dallas Morning News jemily@dallasnews.com A deaf man wrongly convicted in the 1990 sexual assault of a Richardson girl is a step closer to freedom after a state district\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11842,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/09\/28\/man-wrongly-convicted-in-90-sex-assault-will-be-released-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":11206,"position":2},"title":"Man wrongly convicted in ’90 sex assault will be released today","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"September 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Man wrongly convicted in '90 sex assault will be released today Tuesday, September 28, 2010 By JENNIFER EMILY \/ The Dallas Morning News jemily@dallasnews.com Stephen Matthew Brodie spent nearly 20 years trying to convince authorities that he was wrongly convicted of sexually assaulting a Richardson girl in 1990. On Monday,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11904,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/10\/05\/dallas-county-exoneration-shows-changes-needed-to-deal-fairly-with-the-deaf-lawyers-say\/","url_meta":{"origin":11206,"position":3},"title":"Dallas County exoneration shows changes needed to deal fairly with the deaf, lawyers say","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"October 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Dallas County exoneration shows changes needed to deal fairly with the deaf, lawyers say October 2, 2010 By JENNIFER EMILY \/ The Dallas Morning News jemily@dallasnews.com There's no doubt Stephen Matthew Brodie's deafness contributed to his wrongful conviction nearly two decades ago for the sexual assault of a 5-year-old Richardson\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12285,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/11\/09\/buy-book-tested-about-12-exonerees-including-stephen-brodie-deaf\/","url_meta":{"origin":11206,"position":4},"title":"Buy Book “Tested” about 12 Exonerees including Stephen Brodie (Deaf)","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"November 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Buy Book \"Tested\" about 12 Exonerees including Stephen Brodie (Deaf) I would like to make announcement that i would like for all deaf community\u00a0to buy the book called TESTED. If you would like to order the book go on\u00a0http:\/\/www.TESTEDTHEBOOK.com and you will see the buy the book. My name is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/tested_Exonerees_Book.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26681,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2014\/03\/14\/dallas-police-nab-one-suspect-seek-a-second-in-rape-of-hearing-impaired-13-year-old\/","url_meta":{"origin":11206,"position":5},"title":"Dallas police nab one suspect, seek a second in rape of hearing-impaired 13-year-old","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"March 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Dallas police nab one suspect, seek a second in rape of hearing-impaired 13-year-old by TANYA EISERER @tanyaeiserer March 12, 2014 DALLAS \u2014 A 19-year-old man has confessed to the rape of a 13-year-old hearing-impaired girl, according to arrest affidavit obtained by News 8. Jarvis Fisher of Dallas is being held\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11206"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11217,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11206\/revisions\/11217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}