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Remarks add new concern for panel
Detective's comments on Marker-case recollection stun many who hear them
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Published: May 16, 2008
"Every time he brought the suspects in he would say, ‘I've got the man. I've got the man.'
"I had said to a co-worker of mine, ‘I'd hate to be that guy.' And my co-worker said, ‘Why?' And I said, ‘Because he's going down for it whether he did it or not.' Now, I don't know if the man was guilty or not. I have no idea. But that man ended up being Kalvin Smith."
Those remarks last week by Winston-Salem police Lt. Joseph Ferrelli III were his recollection of how Detective Don "D.R." Williams investigated the near-fatal beating of Jill Marker in 1995 at the Silk Plant Forest store. Kalvin Smith was convicted of the assault in 1997 and is serving a sentence that could run to nearly 29 years.
Ferrelli made the remarks while being interviewed by the Silk Plant Forest Citizen Review Committee, which is investigating the Winston-Salem Police Department's work in the case. Smith has maintained his innocence, and, after years of work by the Innocence Project at the Duke University School of Law, recently filed a motion requesting a new trial.
During the interview, Ferrelli's comments about Williams were not met with any follow-up questions from members of the review committee, who wound up choosing him and Sgt. Chuck Byrom to help them with their work.
But ever since, city officials and Smith's supporters have been talking about what Ferrelli said.
When city staff members read Ferrelli's comments to members of the Winston-Salem City Council's public-safety committee this week, their reactions were audible.
Council Member Nelson Malloy said during that meeting that Ferrelli's comments raised serious concerns about Williams' work as a detective.
"That's a really disturbing statement for an officer to make about another," Malloy said. "If he could make that statement about one of his peers -- my goodness."
The motion filed by Smith's attorneys alleges that he was wrongly convicted because, among other things, the case against him depended on the testimony of three witnesses who lied, two of whom were pressured by police.
In 2004, the Winston-Salem Journal published a five-part investigation that raised questions about many aspects of the case and Smith's conviction. In that series, for example, Williams said he didn't document certain evidence to avoid giving it to the defense.
Duke's team has shown that Williams did not document in writing police lineups that were shown to Marker during a videotaped interview. Those lineups included one in which Marker appeared to choose a person who was not a suspect, another in which Marker did not identify Smith, and a third in which Marker indicates that the first suspect in the case, Kenneth Lamoureux, had been in the store on the night that she was attacked.
Williams is now retired, and since 2004 he has declined to discuss the case.
Council Member Vivian Burke, the chairwoman of the council's public-safety committee, said that Ferrelli's comments highlight the city's need to raise citizens' confidence in the police department and the city.
"We are not naive," Burke said. "We know that these types of things have been happening."
Ferrelli's comments have also sparked discussion among Smith's supporters.
Darryl Hunt said that the comments raise questions about the quality of Williams' investigation.
Hunt was wrongly convicted of the 1984 murder of Deborah Sykes and spent nearly 19 years in prison before DNA evidence proved that another man committed the crime and that the witnesses who police and prosecutors had used to make their case were mistaken.
Ferrelli and Byrom had previously worked for the Deborah Sykes Citizens Administrative Review Committee, which was set up in July 2005 to study how the police department investigated Sykes' slaying.
Hunt said that Ferrelli did a good job in the Sykes review. Hunt, who has become an advocate for Smith, said he was glad that Ferrelli put his recollections about Williams on the record.
"I think it's refreshing to have someone who would admit those comments, because so often people are afraid to tell the truth about those things," Hunt said.
Jim Coleman, a Duke law professor who heads the innocence project, said that Ferrelli's comments should be part of the Silk Plant Forest committee's investigation. "I certainly think his comment and the basis for his comment should be part of the record because it may reflect what police officers thought about D.R. and his methods," he said. "What that says is he is so anxious to solve it that he would charge an innocent person."
City Manager Lee Garrity said he learned of Ferrelli's recollections the day before Ferrelli testified before the committee. He said he left it up to the panel to decide whether Ferrelli is still capable of investigating the case on its behalf. Committee members unanimously approved him.
"We are leaving that choice up to the committee," Garrity said. "The Silk Plant Forest committee is choosing and making that decision about whether they can do it objective and fair."
■ Blair Goldstein can be reached at 727-7284 or at bgoldstein@wsjournal.com.
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