Suit Filed Alleging Mansfield Police Officer Fabricated Evidence In Murder Case

Share   Here is the full text, and a link to the latest Shreveport Times coverage by Vicki Wellborn of the suit filed on behalf of our client Terrence Glaster, who was falsely accused of murder by a Mansfield Police officer. Mr. Glaster is represented by Senior Associate Chris Hatch. Mansfield officer accused of fabricating evidence in murder probe   A Mansfield man twice-arrested for a homicide has filed suit in federal court, claiming the arresting officer fabricated evidence and lied during court proceeding.   Terrance Glaster states as a result of his false arrest and incarceration he’s suffered damage to his reputation, loss of income and incurred attorney fees and expenses. He’s seeking unspecified monetary compensation for the damages he said he endured with violations of his constitution, civil and statutory rights.   Attorney Christopher Hatch filed the lawsuit late Friday, naming the city of Mansfield, Mansfield Police Department, Police Chief Gary Hobbs and Sgt. Billy Locke as defendants. Hobbs and Locke are named individually and in their official capacities.   “At this time, I have not been served,” Mayor Curtis McCoy said of the lawsuit. “Through conversation, I have heard about it, but no one has served papers at City Hall so … I can’t comment on it at this time.”   Glaster, 31, has been charged on two separate occasions with the Dec. 24, 2012 shooting death of LaDerrick Hadnott, 29, of Mansfield. Hadnott was shot in the head in a house on Topeka Street he shared with a roommate.   Glaster was first arrested Jan. 25, 2013 and charged in Hadnott’s murder. The charge was dropped after a grand jury on Feb. 13, 2013 declined to indict him.   His second arrest was on March 21, 2013. Glaster was jailed until May 28, when he was released on a $200,000 bond. On Nov. 14, the DeSoto District Attorney’s office dismissed the second-degree murder charge against Glaster.   No arrest has been made in Hadnott’s murder. Hadnott’s death was the first homicide investigation for Locke. Glaster accuses the sergeant of not conducting a thorough forensic investigation nor seeking assistance from another agency with more investigative resources.   Glaster provided Locke with an alibi and the names and contact numbers for those he was with the night Hadnott was killed. Locke did not follow up on Glaster’s information, nor did he take action on information supplied by others, including a known police informant, who identified another man involved in a stabbing incident with Hadnott 23 days prior to his death, as a suspect, the lawsuit states.   The informant, identified in the lawsuit as Anthony Jackson, told Locke he was less than 10 feet from Hadnott’s house when he saw the shooter run out with a “black nine millimeter.” Jackson gave other, sometimes conflicting, statements.   “Despite the patent unreliability of Jackson’s uncorroborated statement, and despite the fact that Jackson actually implicated an entirely different person for the shooting (the man who Hadnott had stabbed), plaintiff was arrested and charged with the murder of Hadnott on January 25, 2013, based entirely on Jackson’s statement,” the lawsuit states.   Ten days after Glaster was first released from custody, a police informant reportedly contacted Locke to say he could get a confession from Glaster. In Locke’s written report he states he met with the informant, gave him a recording device, followed him to a house on Grove Street where Glaster was standing in the yard and watched Glaster get into the informant’s vehicle. Locke “loosened surveillance” and met with the informant 30 minutes later to retrieve the recording.   Defense witnesses who...

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Desoto Parish Man Freed after Murder Charges Dismissed

Share Here is the full text, and a link to the latest Shreveport Times coverage by Vicki Wellborn of the dismissal of charges against our client Terrence Glaster, who was falsely accused of murder last Christmas. Mr. Glaster is represented by Senior Associate Chris Hatch. MANSFIELD — The shooting death of a Mansfield man almost a year ago remains unsolved. And a criminal charge against an alleged shooter has been dismissed for a second time. Last month, DeSoto District Judge Robert Burgess formally dismissed an indictment handed up in March that accused Terrence Glaster, 31, of second-degree murder in the slaying Dec. 24 of LaDerrick Hadnott. Court records show no reason for the dismissal.   The indictment marked the second time Glaster had been accused of Hadnott’s death. He was arrested in January after Mansfield police developed him as a suspect. A grand jury in February declined to indict him, so he was freed.The panel convened the next month after Mansfield police generated more information about Hadnott’s death. Hadnott was discovered dead of a single gunshot to the head in a house on Topeka Street that he shared with a roommate.   Glaster’s attorney, Christopher Hatch, raised questions about the investigation and filed a pretrial motion in September seeking disclosure of grand jury testimony, particularly that of investigator Billy Locke. Hatch’s motion takes issue with information Locke provided at a previous hearing during which the detective said he saw or observed Glaster in front of a Grove Street house where a cooperating witness obtained a recording that was presented to the grand jury. “This evidence would be favorable to the defendant for impeachment purposes because it would be inconsistent with Locke’s testimony at the (preliminary examination) held on July 17, 2013, that he did not, in fact, actually see a person that he knew to be Mr. Glaster in front the Grove Street residence,” Hatch’s motion says.   Records do not indicate the court ruled on Hatch’s motion since evidence sharing in the discovery phase was ongoing just prior to the decision by the DeSoto district attorney’s office to dismiss the indictment. Mansfield Police Chief Gary Hobbs said the investigation into Hadnott’s death is...

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Once facing a lifetime in prison, Michael Madden is returning to real life.

Share Here is the full text to the latest coverage of the dismissal of Murder charges against our client Michael Madden by Sara Machi at KTBS TV. Click here to view the story. BOSSIER CITY, La. – Once facing a lifetime in prison, Michael Madden is returning to real life. He was accused of second degree murder for the 2011 shooting death of James Dean Smith in Bossier City.   Madden’s attorney, Elton Richey, says his client should never have been put in this position and puts the blame on police misconduct.   “Living in jail, being confined is bad,” Richey says. “It’s even worse when you’re innocent, and you know you’re innocent.”   Michael Madden’s lawyer says his client is focused on returning to a normal life after being accused of the 2011 shooting of James Dean Smith. Madden was released from custody April 9th- more than a year after the grand jury put him there on April 2, 2012.   Richey says- at best- there were several missteps in the investigation. “They didn’t even record their interview with Michael,” Richey says. “Which is troubling. You’re interviewing someone who is supposed to be a murder suspect, and yet you’re not taking a recorded interview?”   At the worst, he says investigators fabricated a case even after their key witness identified another man as the shooter in a live lineup.   “There’s a difference between an architectural project and an archaeology dig,” Richey says. “An archaeology dig, you’re digging through the ground, searching for the truth, trying to see what occurred in the past. In an architectural project, you’re trying to construct something in the future. Well, there’s a difference between searching for the truth and trying to build a case. And what I can say is, that they were trying to build a case.   The Bossier Police department stands behind their work and denies the use of a live lineup. Public Information Officer Mark Natale says, “We do not do live line ups, nor do we have the facilities to conduct live line ups. All of the investigators involved in the case are still with the department. No internal investigation is being conducted.” Natale also says the homicide investigation continues with Madden as a suspect.   Despite Richey’s distrust of the police investigation, he applauds District Attorney Schuyler Marvin’s decision to formally drop the charges against Madden. Calls to the Bossier Parish District Attorney’s office were not returned.   As for the Smith family, the victim’s sister, Amy Smith, tells KTBS 3 News that the DA did not inform them in advance that the charges against Madden were going to be dropped.   James Dean Smith was shot and killed July 23, 2011, while driving on Old Minden Road after a night at Rockin’ Rodeo in Bossier...

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Murder charge dismissed – A case of Mistaken Identification

The Shreveport Times is reporting today about the dismissal of murder charges against our client, Michael Madden. You can read the article at The Times or download the pdf here. For a year Michael Madden sat in the Bossier Parish Detention Center accused of a crime he did not commit. Michael is at home now with his family and we are honored to have been able to represent him. Every year over 750,000 people are arrested based on their identification in a police line-up, photo array or show-up. Although we have known about the problems with eyewitness identification for decades, there has been little change in the legal system or in police practices to prevent mistaken identification and the miscarriages of justice that flow from them. As a result mistaken eyewitness testimony remains the leading cause of wrongful convictions. According to the Innocence Project—Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in nearly 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing. In 1998, then Attorney General Janet Reno sought to deal with the inherent problems of Eyewitness Evidence and appointed a number of prosecutors, police officers, defense lawyers, and psychologists to work under the auspices of the United States Department of Justice and the National Institute of Justice to address the problem. This Technical Working Group authored Eyewitness Evidence: A Guide for Law Enforcement, National Inst. of Justice, U.S. Dept. of Justice (Oct. 1999) and  Eyewitness Evidence: A Trainer’s Manual for Law Enforcement. These publications set out guidelines and best practices for the conduct of lineups and photo-arrays. Nationwide, many police departments have adopted these as standard practices. Sadly however, many police officers and agencies in our community and throughout Louisiana remain totally unfamiliar with these documents and the guidelines and best practices they...

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Shreveport mother’s murder conviction reversed – KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports

Chris Hatch represented Satonia Small in seeking to have her conviction or Second Degree murder arising from the tragic death of her child in an apartment fire. Satonia was overwhelmed when Chris called her today to let her know that the Supreme Court agreed with us that she was not guilty of Second Degree Murder. The court set aside her conviction and life sentence and imposed a conviction for t the lesser offense of negligent homicide and a five year sentence. Here is the full text of the  Louisiana Supreme Court opinion overturning Satonia Small’s conviction for Second Degree Murder Shreveport mother’s murder conviction reversed – KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather &...

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Sentence postponed for Satonia Small – KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports

Sentence postponed for Satonia Small – KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports.

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