{"id":11841,"date":"2010-09-28T03:34:05","date_gmt":"2010-09-28T08:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=11841"},"modified":"2010-09-28T03:53:43","modified_gmt":"2010-09-28T08:53:43","slug":"judge-exonerates-deaf-man-wrongly-convicted-in-1990-sex-assault-of-richardson-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/09\/28\/judge-exonerates-deaf-man-wrongly-convicted-in-1990-sex-assault-of-richardson-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge exonerates deaf man wrongly convicted in 1990 sex assault of Richardson girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge exonerates deaf man wrongly convicted in 1990 sex assault of
\nRichardson girl<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monday, September 27, 2010<\/p>\n

By JENNIFER EMILY \/ The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n

jemily@dallasnews.com<\/p>\n

A deaf man wrongly convicted in the 1990 sexual assault of a Richardson girl
\nis a step closer to freedom after a state district judge cleared his name
\ntoday.<\/p>\n

Stephen Brodie, 39, pleaded guilty to the crime in 1993 in exchange for a
\nfive-year sentence in the attack on the 5-year-old girl, who was abducted
\nfrom her home and forced to perform a sex act.<\/p>\n

After his plea, Brodie’s attorneys learned that a fingerprint found on
\nwindow matched a suspected serial rapist who was convicted of a similar
\ncrime and that a hair found on the girl’s blanket did not match Brodie or
\nanyone in the girl’s family.<\/p>\n

Brodie said in an interview that he never doubted that he would be
\nexonerated.<\/p>\n

“I could feel God has already set up a time that I would be released,”
\nBrodie said through an American Sign Language interpreter after the judge
\ndeclared his innocence.<\/p>\n

If the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals approves today’s ruling by State
\nDistrict Judge Lena Levario, Brodie will become the third man in Dallas
\nCounty cleared without DNA evidence.<\/p>\n

Brodie sat almost expressionless through a hearing that lasted more than
\nthree hours today. But when Levario began saying listing items that she
\nagreed showed he did not commit the crime, Brodie began to smile.<\/p>\n

He wiped away tears when Levario found him innocent.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether prosecutors knew about the print match and hair and
\ndid not tell Brodie’s attorney. Police say they turned over all information
\nto the district attorney’s office. Information that could benefit a
\ndefendant is legally required to be handed over following a 1963 U.S.
\nSupreme Court decision, Brady vs. Maryland.<\/p>\n

Brodie has served his sentence for the sex crime, but he was convicted in
\nLamar County for failing to register as a sex offender. Lamar County
\nDistrict Attorney Gary Young said he would ask a judge to overturn that
\nconviction so that Brodie could be released from jail.<\/p>\n

At today’s hearing, witnesses testified that a comment Brodie wrote to
\npolice on day two of an eight-day interrogation was not a confession.<\/p>\n

When asked in writing by police why he abducted and sexually assaulted the
\ngirl, Brodie wrote “I don’t know WHY?”<\/p>\n

Amber D.F. Elliott, a lawyer who is also fluent in American Sign Language,
\ntestified that in the deaf community those words mean, “I said, ‘I don’t
\nknow why.’ ”<\/p>\n

Elliott said his words should not have been taken as a confession. Levario
\nagreed.<\/p>\n

There were other problems with the investigation, including the fact that
\npolice told Brodie details of the crime.<\/p>\n

Even with police telling him the time of day the crime happened, details of
\nhow the attacker got into the home and what he did, Brodie incorrectly
\ndescribed the crime to police. Only two of the 45 details Brodie provided
\nwere correct.<\/p>\n

Moore said Brodie was interrogated for 18 hours by Richardson police, and
\nonly half of the time was there a sign language interpreter present. She
\nsaid he also confessed to a crime that Dallas police made up when they were
\nquestioning him, a point that would raise doubts about whether his
\nconfession to an actual crime was legitimate.<\/p>\n

Brodie’s father, J. Steve Brodie, waited outside the Dallas County Jail this
\nafternoon for his son to be released. He said he never doubted his son’s
\ninnocence.<\/p>\n

“I knew it,” he said. “I was positive of it, but there wasn’t anything I
\ncould do about it.”<\/p>\n

Even so, the father was instrumental in his son’s release, writing letters
\nto groups all over the country seeking help for his son. The solution came
\nwhen the Dallas County district attorney’s office read his letter and began
\nan investigation.<\/p>\n

Brodie would be the second exoneration in Richardson and the second Dallas
\nCounty case where a defendant was exonerated after falsely confessing to a
\ncrime. The county also has 20 DNA exonerations \u2013 more than any other county
\nin the nation since 2001 when Texas began allowing post-conviction genetic
\ntesting.<\/p>\n

Source:
\nhttp:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sharedcontent\/dws\/news\/localnews\/stories\/092510dnmetbrodie.126646d6c.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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…<\/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":[4621,2871,6471,19,6435,6434,6470,3557,6474,871,6475,2312,6469,191,6473,5670,17,6472],"class_list":["post-11841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-article","tag-attorney","tag-crime","tag-dallas-dfw","tag-dallas-county","tag-dna","tag-investigation","tag-judge","tag-lena-levario","tag-police","tag-post-conviction-genetic-testing","tag-richardson","tag-sex-assault","tag-sign-language","tag-state-district","tag-stephen-brodie","tag-texas","tag-texas-court-of-criminal-appeals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-34Z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11806,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/09\/24\/fingerprint-could-prove-innocence-for-deaf-inmate\/","url_meta":{"origin":11841,"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":11842,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/09\/28\/man-wrongly-convicted-in-90-sex-assault-will-be-released-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":11841,"position":1},"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":11206,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/07\/26\/deaf-inmate-says-fingerprint-proves-his-innocence\/","url_meta":{"origin":11841,"position":2},"title":"Deaf inmate says fingerprint proves his innocence","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"July 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"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 bars for 10 years: sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl.\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":11841,"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":11841,"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":32575,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/teen-who-claimed-to-be-victim-of-sex-assault-recants-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":11841,"position":5},"title":"Teen who claimed to be victim of sex assault recants story","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"December 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Teen who claimed to be victim of sex assault recants story WFAA December 17, 2015 DALLAS - A teenage girl who claimed to be the victim of a sexual assault at a southwest Dallas park has recanted her story, police said. A 14-year-old girl told police she was approached by\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\/11841","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=11841"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11845,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11841\/revisions\/11845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}