Framed

The Norfolk Four

JOHN GRISHAM

Omar Ballard’s mother was a black prostitute and drug addict who worked the mean streets of Newark, New Jersey.

He never knew his father, who was white.

His mother showed little interest in things maternal and almost no interest in the kid.

He went from one foster home to another and naturally gravitated to the streets from whence he came.

He was an angry kid who blamed his mother for his problems.

His temper was explosive and often aimed at women.

He found the life of a street thug appealing and quickly became part of the crime and violence of his neighborhood.

He loved it all: the drugs and drug dealing, drinking, guns, sex, robberies, shootings, beatings, murders, gang fights, the thrill of running from the police.

He got busted a few times for drugs and drunkenness, but nothing serious.

Ballard dropped out of school, and at the age of nineteen left New Jersey.

He was broke, unemployed, and, as always, looking for trouble.

He eventually took up with an old friend from home, Tamika Taylor, an eighteen-year-old unwed mother of two who lived in a low-rent section of Norfolk, Virginia.

The neighborhood was favored by thousands of young sailors stationed at the nearby naval base and was not considered unreasonably dangerous.

That changed dramatically with the arrival of Omar Ballard.

His first known victim in Norfolk was a young white woman named Melissa Morse.

He assaulted her, beat her with a baseball bat, and when her screams got the attention of others, a mob formed and gave chase.

Ballard fled and sought refuge in the nearby apartment of Billy and Michelle Bosko, a young navy couple from Pittsburgh.

The Boskos had been married for six weeks and just recently had met Omar through friends.

They welcomed Omar, offered him a drink, and were having a pleasant visit when the mob appeared outside their apartment.

The Boskos could not believe that their new friend Omar would assault anyone, and Billy bravely refused to hand over his guest.

The mob dispersed, and Billy later told the police that Omar was not guilty.

Two weeks after he assaulted Melissa Morse, and while Billy was deployed at sea for a week aboard the USS Simpson, Omar Ballard stopped by the Bosko apartment for another visit.

It was around midnight, July 7, 1997.

By his own admission he was drunk, stoned, and looking for sex.

He knocked on the door and said he needed to use the phone.

Michelle, wearing only a T-shirt and underwear, let him in, offered the phone, and said there was beer in the refrigerator.

It was late and she was going to bed.

Omar followed her, attacked her, choked her, and when she was subdued, he raped her.

He ejaculated and wiped his penis on a blanket.

Then something snapped and Omar realized he was in serious trouble.

To keep her quiet, he decided to kill her.

He found a steak knife in the kitchen, and as he was returning to the bedroom, Michelle was regaining consciousness.

He stabbed her three times in the chest, then left her on the floor to die.

He washed his hands in the bathroom, rubbed the doorknobs with his shirt to remove fingerprints, placed the knife by her body, and on the way out went through her purse on the kitchen table and took the cash.

Most of the small, 700-square-foot apartment was undisturbed during the attack.

Michelle, who was working at a McDonald’s, had been a meticulous housekeeper.

Billy was expected home the next day and everything was in order.

When he found her body around 5:00 p.m.

the following afternoon, their apartment was as neat and tidy as always.

A thorough analysis of the crime scene was undertaken and all evidence, including the victim’s vaginal injuries, pointed to a sole assailant who had entered the apartment without force.

There were no fingerprints other than a few from Billy and Michelle.

Investigators spent more than nine hours in the Bosko apartment after the body was found and before it was removed.

They inspected every inch, took videos and dozens of still photographs, collected every piece of possible evidence, even went so far as to build a tent over the body for a cyanoacrylate (superglue) fuming and powder test—an attempt to identify latent fingerprints on her skin.

The investigation was exhaustive and left no doubt that Michelle’s murderer had acted alone.

Almost two years after the rape and murder, the state crime lab finally tested Omar Ballard’s DNA.

The semen found on the blanket was 21 billion times more likely to have originated with Ballard than with any white man, and 4.6 billion times more likely than with any black man.

The semen collected from the victim’s vagina was 23 million times more likely to be Ballard’s than any white man’s, and 20 million times more likely than any other black man’s.

The blood found under Michelle’s fingernails matched Ballard’s DNA.

The only DNA samples recovered at the scene were from Michelle and her killer, Omar Ballard.

His third known sexual assault occurred ten days after he murdered Michelle.

The third victim was able to identify Ballard and he was eventually convicted and sent to prison.

He was not, however, suspected in the rape and murder of Michelle Bosko.

His crime spree—at least two other sexual assaults against white women in less than a month, and in the same part of town—did not raise suspicions among the Norfolk police working the Bosko case.

Almost two years would pass before the detectives learned that Ballard was involved, and then he came to their attention only after he confessed from prison.

Only then was his DNA tested.

To overlook such an obvious suspect was inexcusable, but the Norfolk police were far too busy to worry about Omar Ballard.

They were working feverishly to pin the Bosko murder on an entire boatload of innocent men.

What should have been a clear-cut DNA case quickly became a knee-jerk investigation so riddled with incompetence as to seem, at times, unbelievable.

The Bosko case ranks as one of the greatest train wrecks in the history of American criminal justice.

While breathtaking in its arrogance and incompetence, it is far more heartbreaking in its outcome.

When the state crime lab got a hit on Omar Ballard’s DNA on March 3, 1999, twenty months after the murder, the Norfolk police and prosecutors had a total of seven current or former U.S.

sailors in jail, all charged with the capital rape and murder of Michelle Bosko.

All seven had been excluded by DNA evidence.

All seven had been excluded by the physical evidence.

And with the exception of a DUI, none of the sailors had criminal records.

Like many police investigations that go wrong, this one began with a hunch.

Often, a homicide detective will scan the crime scene, form a half-baked opinion based on a gut reaction and clouded by the tension of the moment, maybe even pick out a suspect, and before long the police are marching off in the wrong direction.

In the case of Michelle Bosko, the misguided hunch was made while the body was still being photographed.

An officer by the name of Judy Gray was the first homicide detective on the scene.

She quickly determined that, since there was obviously no break-in, the murderer was someone known to Michelle.

She and her partner secured the area.

When the crime scene investigators arrived, neighbors gathered nearby and watched in disbelief.

Gray stepped outside and began the usual routine of fishing for leads.

She talked at length with Tamika Taylor, Ballard’s friend, and asked Tamika if she had any idea who could have murdered Michelle.

Tamika was reluctant to venture a guess, but Gray pressed her.

“You see that guy over there,”

Tamika said, nodding at a sailor named Dan Williams (#1), also a neighbor.

“I think he did it.”

“Why?”

Gray asked.

“Well, he’s kind of obsessed with her.”

And with that, Dan Williams became the prime suspect in the murder of Michelle Bosko.

Tamika backtracked and said she wasn’t sure.

There are a lot of crazy people out there, and so on, and she also mentioned Omar Ballard as someone the police should check out.

For some reason, they chose not to do so.

Dan Williams and his wife, Nicole, lived in a small apartment next door to the Boskos.

Billy, after finding his wife’s body, ran screaming and banged on the Williamses’ door.

Dan called 911 and went to find Michelle.

The two couples were friendly, both navy, both childless.

Nicole was dying of ovarian cancer.

When Michelle was murdered, Dan was in bed asleep with his wife.

Detective Gray approached Dan and asked if he would mind driving down to the police station and answering some routine questions.

Gray had a hunch that he was the killer, regardless of any evidence, motive, or anything other than Tamika’s wariness of him.

When he readily agreed to be interviewed, Gray was even more suspicious.

By the time Dan Williams arrived at the police station, the police were convinced they’d found their man.

Inside the apartment, the investigators were meticulously gathering evidence that would eventually, hopefully, lead them to the killer.

Outside, the homicide team was setting in motion a disastrous chain of events that would lead them far away from the wide trail left by Omar Ballard.

The next blunder in a wrongful conviction is often tunnel vision, which usually occurs just after the hunch.

Police grab a suspect, convince themselves they’ve got the right guy, congratulate themselves for being so clever, then ignore conflicting evidence while embracing anything that will support their hunch.

If they can verbally beat a confession out of their suspect, then their case is much stronger and they can avoid a lengthy investigation.

Interrogation is often the lazy cop’s way of solving a case.

If evidence undermining their theory surfaces, they simply discount it.

If clear evidence of innocence (DNA) is presented after their man is convicted, they refuse to believe it and stubbornly maintain his guilt.

Dan Williams entered the Norfolk police building around 6:30 on the evening of July 7, less than two hours after the body had been discovered and long before the crime scene work was finished.

He had no idea he was a suspect.

He was twenty-five years old, a high school graduate, a former Boy Scout who’d been raised by strict parents and taught to obey and respect those in authority.

He was quiet, easy to lead, the last kid in class to start trouble.

He had no criminal record and had never been subjected to a police interrogation.

With his passive, unassuming personality, he was thoroughly unprepared for the ambush just around the corner.

The interrogation began at 8:00 p.m.

, and, not surprisingly, it was not recorded by audio or video.

Cameras and recorders were close by, as in every police department, and they would be used when the time was right.

But not yet; some parts of the interrogation should not be seen.

Williams waived his Miranda rights, a careless mistake made by between 80 and 90 percent of all innocent people.

Guilty criminals are far more likely to clam up or demand a lawyer.

Williams began answering preliminary questions from Detective Gray, while Detective Jack Horton took notes.

No one else was in the room.

Before long, Williams realized that the police suspected him, and he couldn’t believe it.

The detectives asked if he would voluntarily supply samples of his blood, pubic hair, and scalp hair, and hand over his underwear.

Williams readily agreed.

He had nothing to hide.

He agreed to a polygraph test, another mistake.

Innocent people often say yes to this test because they are eager to prove their innocence.

They trust the police.

Remarkably, the law allows the police to lie about the results of the polygraph test, which happens frequently.

Indeed, the law allows the police to lie at will during interrogations of suspects.

The polygraph ruse is a favorite.

At 9:45, Williams was strapped in and answered questions from the examiner.

The questions centered on his activities of the day before, and whether he had been in the Bosko apartment recently.

Williams answered truthfully and passed the polygraph test.

As usual, though, he was told he had flunked the test, and the cops now had proof that he was lying.

By midnight, both detectives were unloading accusations faster than Williams could deny them.

The language deteriorated.

Tempers erupted.

Williams insisted he knew nothing about the murder, that he had been next door in bed with his wife when it happened.

Gray lied and said they had a witness who had seen him in the Bosko apartment.

The police insisted he was obsessed with Michelle and they had witnesses to prove it.

Williams had been taught by his parents to respect the police, and he was stunned to have them throwing accusations at him.

They really believed he did it! He became confused and found it hard to think clearly.

Williams’s wife, Nicole, grew more and more concerned as the night wore on.

She called the police station and tried to find out what was happening, what was wrong.

When she couldn’t get an answer, she went to the police station.

Early in the interrogation, Detective Gray stepped out of the room and talked to Nicole.

She asked her what the couple had done the night before.

The cops thought that perhaps Dan had sneaked out of their apartment during the night and pulled off the murder, but Nicole assured Gray that her husband had slept all night and never left.

At that point, the police knew that Dan had a solid alibi.

But it didn’t matter.

At 12:30, Detective Gray left the room and Horton, talking man-to-man now, tried to induce Williams into admitting everything.

Just get it off your chest.

Do it now because it will look better than if you wait six weeks for the DNA results to come back.

Williams held firm and said he was tired and wanted to go home.

At 12:55, according to Horton’s notes, Williams admitted that he thought Michelle was attractive.

This led to a relentless barrage of insinuations that he was infatuated with her and wanted to have sex.

Finally, the interrogation was getting somewhere.

Gray returned to the room and both detectives hammered away at Williams’s “obsession”

with the victim.

They said they could prove he had been in the Bosko apartment the night before Michelle was murdered.

Williams was confused, exhausted, and needed sleep.

He continually laid his head on the table, and each time the detectives instructed him to lift it back up.

Williams, punch-drunk and on the ropes, clung to the truth and denied knowing anything about the murder.

The detectives began to question his memory, and suggested amnesia and blacking out.

Maybe he’d been sleepwalking when he committed the crime.

This tactic is not unusual in protracted interrogations.

Police often suggest amnesia, or blacking out, or sleepwalking, all ploys designed to put doubt in a suspect’s mind.

Then the police posture themselves as the good guys who are there to help straighten things out.

Finally, it worked.

By 3:00 a.m.

, with the detectives still hammering away, Williams began to question his own memory.

Maybe he had blacked out.

Maybe he had been sleepwalking.

The detectives pressed on, back and forth, with more suggestions following more accusations.

At 4:35, Horton left the room, and Gray began to appeal to Williams’s conscience, another tactic.

Did he feel any remorse? Michelle is no longer with us.

Think of her family.

And so on.

This worked, too, because Williams suddenly broke down and cried.