Innocence advocates want charges against ex-Detroit cop; prosecutor says review begun

A group of protesters, some of whom spent decades in prison after being wrongfully convicted, called Wednesday for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to review cases involving a former Detroit police homicide detective and pursue criminal charges against her.

Worthy's spokesperson said her office is putting together a database to begin the process of reinvestigating cases that were handled by Barbara Simon, who was a Detroit police homicide investigator for more than a decade before she retired in 2011. Simon, who has not responded to multiple requests for comment, was then hired by the Michigan Attorney General's office as an investigator, a post she held until retiring in 2021.

About two dozen demonstrators, including members of the nonprofit wrongful conviction advocacy group Freedom Ain't Free, marched in the rain Wednesday outside the Wayne County Criminal Justice Center in Detroit. They demanded Worthy take action against Simon and other ex-Detroit cops whose alleged lies put people in prison for crimes they didn't commit.

The Detroit City Council last month agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit that accused Simon of lying in a murder case. It marked the third time in three years that city officials settled an $8.5 million wrongful conviction lawsuit against Simon, for a total of $25.5 million in payouts tied to the ex-detective.

Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Maria Miller said the office's Conviction Integrity Unit has started the process toward looking at cases Simon handled.

"Prosecutor Worthy has requisitioned for new assistant prosecutors to be hired," Miller said in an email. "At least one will be assigned to the CIU to review the cases in question. CIU is currently in the process of creating a database of potential cases to assist with the review."

While Simon has been found liable in civil court, the protesters who marched along Russell Street Wednesday demanded the ex-detective also be held criminally accountable.

"It's not enough to let these innocent brothers out of prison and pay them millions of dollars," said Reginald Crawford, a former Detroit police officer, Wayne County Sheriff's deputy and Detroit Police commissioner. "There can be no justice unless there's also accountability. These officers committed crimes by putting innocent people in jail; they need to be held accountable for that."

While juries in civil trials found Simon had been untruthful in cases or had coerced false confessions, the statute of limitations for criminal perjury is six years in Michigan. The issue came up during the wrongful conviction claim of Davontae Sanford, who spent nine years in prison for a 2007 quadruple murder before Worthy dropped the charges in 2016 after a Michigan State Police investigation found that hit man Vincent Smothers and his partner Ernest Davis had committed the killings. The probe also found that former Detroit Police Commander James Tolbert had lied about a map of the crime scene.

Although Worthy said Tolbert had lied about the map during a 2007 a court hearing, she said he couldn't be charged with perjury because the statute of limitations had expired.

Crawford said he'd like to see Worthy bring criminal charges against cops who were found to have lied about cases to expose their wrongdoing.

"If the statute of limitations does come into play, there's no reason why the prosecutor can't come to the public about what occurred, what criminality the police officers and prosecutors engaged in, and expose what happened," Crawford said. "It would not only be for symbolism, but to maintain the integrity of that office. They're always touting their integrity, but there's no integrity in a system that allows this kind of injustice to occur."

Victims wants meeting

Mark Craighead, who spent seven years in prison for murder — a conviction that was secured after a Wayne County judge said Simon "repeatedly lied" in the case — said Worthy has been ducking his requests for a meeting to discuss reopening cases Simon investigated.

"She already told us she planned on looking into these cases, but that just sounds like lip service," Craighead said. "We just want to sit down with some family members to get some clarity of the cases she said she'd look at again."

Craighead — who was paroled in 2009 but spent years trying to clear his name until Worthy dropped the charges last year after a judge had ordered a new trial — said the prosecutor emailed her twice, "but since then, she hasn't responded."

Miller said Worthy wants to meet with Craighead.

"As you can imagine Prosecutor Worthy gets an overwhelming amount of email," Miller said. "She does not recall receiving the email you are referring to, but admits she may be wrong. Prosecutor Worthy has gotten a request from Mark Craighead and she will meet with him. Due to her schedule a date has not yet been confirmed."

Larry Smith, who spent 27 years in prison for a 1994 fatal shooting before his murder conviction was overturned in 2021, said he's skeptical crooked cops and prosecutors will be held accountable.

"They're all in one big club," said Smith, who in July was awarded $8.5 million in a wrongful conviction lawsuit settlement, after a jury found his conviction was based on an informant's faulty testimony. "They cover for each other."

Marlon Taylor, whose brother Damon Smith is serving a life sentence for a 1999 murder, said Simon pressured Smith into implicating himself for the killing of an acquaintance.

"My brother told me was she was very aggressive and intimidating, and she told him, 'If you don't tell me who did it, then it'll be you,'" Taylor said. "She lied on my baby brother, just like she lied on so many other people who are in prison because of her.

"If I could talk to Barbara Simon, I would tell her, 'I don't know how you sleep good at night. You know you've done a whole lot of wrong. There are a lot of families that you've broke apart,'" Taylor said. "And Kym Worthy cannot say she has no idea this went on. She has to own it and not run from it, because as you can see by the people out here, we're not going to let this thing go under the rug. If she has anything like justice in her heart, she needs to do something."