In 2009, a woman was sexually assaulted.
I did not commit this crime.
The woman, who I will not name to respect her right to privacy and healing, did what any survivor of an attack should do -- she went to the police and filed a report. In her report, she described a dark complected Black man, standing between 5'10" and 6'0" tall, with shoulder length braided or locked hair. When describing the vehicle of the man who assaulted her, she identified 7 different types of vehicles, and gave 3 partial license plate numbers.
In the aftermath of an attack like the one she suffered, it is understandable for some details to be more clear than others. During investigation, it is the imperative of the police force to find the facts and evidence that best align with the survivor's narrative.
On August 10, 2011, Det. Ronald Hahn (Aurora Police Department) arrested me in Lone Tree, Colorado. In the arrest warrant affidavit, he swore under oath that DNA Analyst Beth Hewitt (Colorado Bureau of Investigations) contacted him stating that DNA surreptitiously collected when I spat on the ground in a gas station service lane was a match for the assault on the woman that occurred in 2009, along with two other open assault cases obtained through CODIS (Combined DNA Index System).
After my arrest, officers at the Douglas County Detention Center completed my first booking, where they took second DNA sample, as mandated by Colorado law. C.R.S. Section 16-23-103(1)(a), 2024, Katie's Law. I was, then, taken to Adams County, where I was officially charged, officers booked me in for a second time, taking a third DNA sample, as mandated by law.
September 7, 2011, Adams County Court held my preliminary hearing. While reading from DNA Analyst Hewitt's August 9th forensic lab report, Det. Hahn testified that my surreptitiously collected DNA sample "did not qualify" for upload to CODIS, nor did Hewitt perform "statistical analysis" on my pre-arrest DNA sample.
The Colorado Supreme Court REQUIRES statistical analysis be completed to establish DNA identity. Fishback v People, 851 P.2d 884, 893 n.18 (Col.App.1993).
Then District Attorney (DA) David Blackett corroborated Det. Hahn' s testimony by advising the court (i.e., judge), "My copy of the report says the same thing." DA Blackett advised the court of his intent to submit a motion requesting a 4th post-arrest collection of my DNA, "for determining and establishing [I] committed the charged offenses." (Blackett's statements are omitted from the current, but incomplete record on appeal, which I've tried to acquire during two "First Appeals as of Right.")
At the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, Judge Jeffrey Romeo bound my case over for trial, after "finding":
1) my DNA was a match to the charged offense, which could not be proven without statistical analysis and,
2) the two cases obtained from CODIS were "how they originally came across [me] as a suspect in this particular matter," even though Det. Hahn's testimonial reading of DNA Analyst Hewitt's report revealed my pre-arrest DNA sample "did not qualify" for upload to CODIS.
DA Blackett did not present any other evidence or testimony during my preliminary hearing.
One month after Det. Hahn arrested me, both he and DA Blackett admitted to the judge that the DNA they collected and tested did not identify me as the suspect to arrest.
89 days after my arrest, Blackett submitted a motion requesting
a fourth post-arrest collection of my DNA, "for determining and
establishing [I] committed the charged offenses."
During the Nov. 9th hearing set in response to the motion, DA Blackett acknowledged law enforcement had previously taken multiple collections of my DNA, "but those have not been made available to us. The swabs I need are for CBI for further interpretation statistical analysis on that." Judge Jill-Ellen Straus granted DA Blackett's motion and the public defender, Janene McCabe, presented Det. Hahn to take a fourth post-arrest collection of my DNA in order to establish my DNA identity to arrest.
At this point, DNA testing still has not identified me as the suspect to arrest.
Although law enforcement collected my DNA a 5th (116 days post-arrest) and 6th (over 130 days post-arrest) for identification purposes, the only DNA DA Blackett presented at my trial on August 20, 2012 was the 4th post-arrest sample taken by Det. Hahn three months after my arrest.
Det. Ronald Hahn did not fulfill his imperative to find all of the facts and evidence to corroborate the report given by the survivor. DA David Blackett chose to continue Det. Hahn's abuse of the legal system by requesting more DNA samples to establish an identity, my identity, that should have been established before I was arrested. Adams County Court Judges Jeffrey Romeo & Jill-Ellen Straus did not uphold their roles of hearing a fair, unbiased case based on facts.
Because the facts would have concluded that I was not identified for arrest, and should not have been arrested.
I am seeking my immediate release and exoneration.
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