Framed

The Norfolk Four#2

At 4:51, the situation changed dramatically when Detective Glenn Ford entered the room.

Ford was a veteran cop, a tough character, a hardened interrogator who’d mastered all the tricks.

His tactics were harsh, brutal, relentless, and designed to crush the will of any suspect.

He had a history of obtaining false confessions.

It was long past time for a confession from Dan Williams, and Glenn Ford was there to get one.

With Horton watching and taking notes, Ford placed his chair directly in front of Williams and said he was ready for the truth.

He knew Williams was lying and he could prove it.

There were witnesses.

He badgered Williams nonstop for an hour.

He threatened him with a long prison sentence, but promised him leniency if he would come clean and confess.

(Ford and Horton later denied this, under oath.) He poked him in the chest repeatedly and cursed him.

(Also later denied.)

Williams was terrified and his ability to think clearly was long gone.

After nine hours of this ordeal he was ready to crack.

The police were convinced he was guilty, and the only way out of the room was to give them what they wanted.

He had to cooperate to save himself.

Ford smelled victory, and when they took a break at 5:41 a.m.

, Ford told Horton, “He’s ready to confess.”

Williams had been under interrogation for almost ten hours, but he was far from finished.

Years later, in prison, he tried to explain why he confessed.

“I was confused, upset.

I really didn’t know right from wrong at that time.

I was tired.

I wasn’t feeling well.

I felt helpless and really couldn’t take it anymore.

So I told them what they wanted to hear.

I just made up details.

I knew what I was telling Detective Ford was not the truth, but I just wanted the questioning to end.”

At 7:00 a.m.

, eleven hours into the interrogation, the detectives finally turned on the tape recorders.

Williams, frightened, drained, and thoroughly confused, gave them what they wanted, and in doing so included many of the details they had suggested throughout the night.

His muddled version of the attack also included elements that were obviously not true.

The (first) confession included these details: He had walked across the hall to Michelle’s front door.

He might have been sleepwalking.

He was barefoot, though no bare footprints were found.

She let him in.

He attacked her.

She was screaming, though no one heard screams.

He did not ejaculate, though semen was found in the victim and on the blanket.

When he left her, she was still screaming.

He did not choke her, though the autopsy would reveal strangulation.

He did not stab her, though the autopsy would reveal the four knife wounds, any one of which would have been fatal.

There was no blood.

He was alone, no one helped him.

At first he didn’t remember how he killed her, but then remembered maybe hitting her in the head with a shoe, though the autopsy revealed no such injuries.

He could not describe the shoe.

Using the shoe was a nice touch.

This particular murder weapon had been suggested hours earlier by Detective Gray, who later admitted, “We put a lot of these things in his head.

He admitted to things that me and Jack (Detective Horton) basically made up.”

At 7:15, the tape recorders were turned off and the detectives left the room.

Williams was not allowed to leave, so he stretched out on the floor and went to sleep.

Later, Gray peeked in on him.

Williams was lying on the floor, laughing hysterically, detached from reality.

The interrogation was not over.

In their haste, the police had gotten ahead of themselves and their fresh confession would need to be modified somewhat.

With Williams still in the interrogation room, Detective Gray went to check on the autopsy of Michelle Bosko.

She noticed some startling discrepancies between the findings of the medical examiner and Williams’s confession, most notably the knife wounds and the strangulation.

There were no head wounds.

Even a moderately observant detective would have realized immediately that Williams had no idea what he was talking about.

The medical examiner would later testify that the autopsy results were consistent with the initial theory that the crime was committed by only one assailant.

At 9:25, Gray and Horton returned to the interrogation room, woke up Williams, who was still on the floor, and asked him to sign his written confession.

He did and they left.

At 11:00 a.m.

, Detective Gray barged into the room in a fit of anger and began demanding the truth again.

She informed Williams that she had just left the autopsy and described the knife wounds and the strangulation—a ploy known as “contaminating the witness,”

which is widely frowned upon.

Why hadn’t Williams told her about the choking and stabbing? Because Williams wasn’t at the crime scene, but Gray would not be denied.

She began again with the accusations and Williams finally surrendered.

To get her to shut up and leave him alone, Williams started talking.

In his second confession he stated that he had not used a shoe to kill Michelle but had in fact choked her and stabbed her in the chest, precisely where Gray had described the wounds.

Fifteen hours after he entered the interrogation room, Dan Williams finally got out.

He was taken to jail and charged with capital rape and murder.

The police had quickly solved the case.

They knew they had their man, and everyone could finally get some sleep.

Because the investigation was driven by interrogation and not evidence, the police failed to note that Williams had no scratches on his body, even though he voluntarily gave blood, hair samples, and submitted to a swab of his penis.

More astute detectives would have determined that the blood and skin found under Michelle’s fingernails were clear evidence of a struggle, and that her assailant would be marked in some manner.

News of the murder made the rounds in Norfolk, especially in the apartments near the naval base.

It was followed quickly by the news that Dan Williams had confessed.

Omar Ballard was shocked the police weren’t looking for him.

He was somewhat perplexed by the news but also relieved that the bloodhounds down at Norfolk P.D.

had picked up the wrong scent.

But Omar didn’t exactly lie low.

He was already looking for victim number three.

—

After his first night behind bars, Dan Williams woke up confused and not sure what he had actually done.

When reality set in, he recanted the confession and began to repudiate it.

His protests, though, went unheard.

When his court-appointed lawyers read his confession, they knew he was in serious trouble.

Regardless of how it was obtained or how it conflicted with the physical evidence, it would likely be presented to a trial jury.

Judges rarely suppress confessions, and jurors are quick to believe them.

The brutal and overwhelming interrogation methods used by the police never make it to open court.

The police simply deny them, and jurors do not believe that anyone, under any circumstances, would confess to a crime he or she did not commit.

The truth, however, is quite different.

In almost 25 percent of DNA exonerations to date, false confessions were extracted by the authorities.

In 1997, only six states required the police to record, either by audio or video, the entire interrogation.

Virginia was not one of the six, though now, in the aftermath of the Bosko case, the Norfolk Police Department requires the recording of interrogations.

Williams’s lawyers knew the confession would stand.

They also knew that a death penalty was likely.

They immediately began weighing the possibility of a plea agreement to save their client’s life, but Williams would have none of it.

He said repeatedly, to his lawyers and his parents and to anyone else who would listen, that he did not kill Michelle.

He had been verbally abused by the police, beaten down, and coerced into signing a bogus confession.

The killer struck again ten days after the Bosko murder.

Omar Ballard beat and raped a fourteen-year-old girl, who later identified him.

He was arrested and eventually pled guilty.

But this was of little interest to the homicide detectives.

They had Michelle’s killer and their investigation had practically shut down.

The police were so indifferent that they failed to conduct a routine search of Williams’s apartment.

The results of the DNA tests would take weeks, maybe months, but there was no doubt in their minds that their solid police work would be proven correct.

In November, four months after the murder, the prosecutors offered Williams a deal.

If he pled guilty to the rape and murder, the Commonwealth of Virginia would not pursue the death penalty.

Williams would get a life sentence with no chance of parole.

His lawyers leaned on him, but he maintained his innocence.

Also in November, Nicole Williams died of ovarian cancer.

Dan was not permitted to attend his wife’s funeral.

She had not been interviewed by Dan’s lawyers.

In December, five months after the murder, the crime lab finished the DNA testing of Williams’s samples of blood, sperm, and other genetic material.

The police and prosecutors were shocked—there was no match.

Williams had been cleared, though neither he nor his lawyer were told of the test results until the following April.

In January, though, while sitting on the crucial information, the prosecution offered Williams a plea bargain in which he would plead guilty in return for a life sentence.

He refused.

In most jurisdictions, the police and prosecutors would acknowledge the obvious—they had the wrong man.

But in Norfolk, they were unwilling to admit a mistake.

They suddenly had new theories.

The DNA results could be explained because: (1) Williams was involved but used a condom, or (2) Williams was involved but did not ejaculate, and (3) Williams had raped and stabbed Michelle but an accomplice left behind the sperm, and so on.

The possibility that Williams wasn’t present during the murder was rejected.

The goose chase resumed in earnest when the police settled on a new theory that revolved around an accomplice.

The obvious suspect was a sailor named Joe Dick (#2).

Dick rented an extra bedroom from Dan and Nicole Williams, and since he’d been that close to the murderer and the crime scene, then Dick had to be involved.

On January 12, 1998, Dick walked off the USS Saipan to meet with the police.

He had no idea he was a suspect, and had not the slightest clue that he was headed for prison.

Detective Ford was waiting, and Joe Dick had no chance.

Dick was introverted, withdrawn, easily manipulated, socially awkward, and quick to yield to authority figures.

He was an odd young man with few friends.

He was thoroughly ill-equipped to handle the confrontation awaiting him.

Around 10:10 a.m.

, Dick was placed in an interrogation room.

Like Williams, he had no criminal record and had never been interrogated.

He was extremely nervous.

Ford and Detective Don Brenner entered and quickly convinced Dick to waive his Miranda rights, a terrible mistake that would lead to his conviction.

Within minutes, Ford was asking questions about Michelle Bosko, Dan Williams, and the murder, and Dick said he knew nothing more than he’d read in the paper or heard on the street.

He claimed to have been on board his ship on the night of the murder.

Ford claimed he had proof that Dick had not been on board; therefore he, Ford, knew Dick was lying.

Before long, Ford was yelling and accusing Dick of being involved in the murder.

Dick maintained his innocence.

They went back and forth with accusations and denials.

Ford said they had a confession from Dan Williams and implied that it implicated Dick.

It did not.

The Williams confession mentioned no accomplice.

Ford said that the police had DNA evidence proving his guilt.

(Detective Brenner would later admit that this was not true.) But, again, unchecked lying by the police is permitted during an interrogation.

Ford finally got around to the polygraph.

Dick did not hesitate, though he was worried because he was so nervous and not thinking clearly.

He passed the exam, but the game was rigged.

Ford gravely informed Dick that he had flunked it, but refused to show Dick the results.

Dick, naive enough to still trust the police, was stunned when he heard this.

He began to question himself.

Ford followed the usual playbook: Fabricate and then exaggerate purported evidence; express absolute certainty in the suspect’s guilt; refuse to take no for an answer; give the clear impression that the suspect will not leave the room until he confesses, regardless of how long it takes; dismiss outright any offering of an alibi; continually remind the suspect that he is in serious trouble; and suggest amnesia or blacking out or sleepwalking or dreaming or anything that will place doubt in the suspect’s mind.

Then they used the good-cop-bad-cop routine.

Around 2:30 p.m.

, Ford left the room, and Detective Brenner became downright friendly, imploring Dick to just tell us the truth, get it off your chest, clear your conscience, you’ll feel better, think about Michelle’s family, and so on.

He assured Dick that they had all the evidence they needed, and now it was up to him to admit everything.

Dick proved easier to crack than Dan Williams, but then he was not as strong mentally or emotionally.

After four hours of nonstop interrogation, Dick was completely overwhelmed.

He gave up and began a tortuous effort to admit to a crime he knew nothing about.

Years later, he tried to explain why: “I figured that he [Ford] would shut up if I told him anything he wanted to hear.

I was tired and frustrated and just wanted him off my back.

I just gave in because I knew DNA would clear me.”

Since he did not know the facts surrounding his crime, Dick began by telling a story so preposterous the detectives didn’t believe it.

No problem—they suggested facts here and there, and even showed Dick a photo of Michelle at the crime scene.

For three painful hours they crafted the story, then convinced Dick to adopt their version.

Even with such skillful manipulation, Dick’s confession was a bizarre account that varied wildly from the crime scene evidence and from the statements made by his now fellow rapist and murderer Dan Williams.

But Glenn Ford was pleased.

He had once again nailed his defendant and solved the crime.

It took only six hours of abusive interrogation tactics to break the second one.

Joe Dick was jailed, charged with capital rape and murder, and held without bail.

After his arrest, his supervisor on the USS Saipan, Petty Officer Michael Ziegler, suspected that Dick had been railroaded by the police.

He knew Dick well and knew it would not be difficult to coerce him into confessing to a crime he did not commit.

Officer Ziegler checked the ship’s records and determined that Dick had in fact been on the ship during the time Michelle was murdered.

Officer Ziegler went to his commanding officer and was told to cooperate fully with the civilian authorities, the prosecutors, and the defense lawyers.

He waited and waited, but no one contacted him to verify Dick’s alibi.

He later told The New York Times that he had “no doubt”

Dick was on duty the night of the murder.

The ship logs and attendance records were never reviewed by the police.

Joe Dick’s parents hired a Norfolk lawyer, Mike Fasanaro, who obtained a copy of the confession and quickly concluded that his new client was guilty.

He told the parents that, “without a doubt, Joe was involved in every aspect of the case.”

A few months earlier, Fasanaro had suffered through the dreadful experience of having a client executed by lethal injection, and that client was very much on his mind.

He began to work on a plea agreement that would keep Joe Dick off death row.

Two months after Dick’s confession, the state crime lab had more bad news for the police and prosecutors.

Joe Dick’s DNA did not match the blood, sperm, or other genetic material found at the crime scene.

The police and prosecutors suddenly had a new theory: Three men were involved! And the third guy was still out there.

By this time, Omar Ballard was in prison for his second known rape.

A DNA test of his blood would have solved the crime, but Detective Ford and his crack team were too busy for that.

Instead of looking at credible suspects, they were now determined to find #3, but they had no clue.

The crime scene evidence was of no use because they chose to ignore it.

Undaunted, Ford resorted to another dirty trick.

He paid cash to a jailhouse snitch to rat on Joe Dick.