Hundreds of Black Lives Matter Protester Cases DISMISSED in Detroit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Detroit Coordinated Defense Coalition Contact: Arni Chambers 313-658-1338
Detroit Coordinated Defense Coalition Led the Fight Resulting in Hundreds of Dismissals in Black Lives Matter Protester Cases
Featured photo with this post was taken by John Sippel.
36th District Court Judges have dismissed about 400 cases arising from last summer's arrests of protesters who marched in defense of Black lives and against police brutality. The Detroit Coordinated Defense Coalition represented 275 of those protesters in 387 cases. For the few cases that remain, including those of Detroit Will Breathe organizer Tristan Taylor, the Coalition will continue to fight for dismissals.
The Coalition spent months in court while the Detroit City Law Department ignored defense requests to produce discovery evidence relevant to the charges against their clients, such as body camera videos, police reports, and the identities of the arresting officers. With the City failing to fulfill what would be routine discovery requests, the Coalition began filing motions to dismiss the charges in November 2020.
On January 14, 2021, Judge Larry D. Williams, Jr. granted the motions to dismiss for over 30 protesters. The City objected despite admitting that it could not identify a single arresting officer who would be called to testify in the cases against the protesters. Following oral argument by Attorney John Royal, Judge Williams found that the City had an obligation, under state law, to produce evidence that would be introduced at trial. The City’s failure to do so meant that the cases had to be dismissed.
The City Prosecutor initially objected to the dismissals, claiming that they had provided all evidence that the City had to the protesters' lawyers. However, after Judge Williams’ ruling in favor of protesters, the City announced, in a January 26, 2021 press release, that they had reviewed additional evidence and decided to dismiss the vast majority of cases they brought against protesters arrested from late May to early June, 2020.
Significantly, the City’s announcement failed to mention that they planned to continue prosecuting some protesters, who are involved in a civil rights lawsuit against the Detroit Police Department.
The City argued that they uncovered more evidence to support the continued prosecution of some protesters. However, after reviewing the City’s additional evidence, Coalition attorneys argued to the Court that the City’s evidence still fell short and failed to show any illegal conduct by the protestors. Five judges agreed and dismissed protester cases that the City had intended to pursue. Even after these rulings, the City has claimed that as they “discover” more evidence, they will bring back charges that are now being dismissed.
A lead Coalition attorney, Arni Chambers, from the Wayne County Criminal Bar Association explained:
“This is a due process issue, as every person charged with a criminal offense has a right to know how the prosecution plans to prove his or her guilt and not face trial by ambush. After months, the City has failed to provide us with a single piece of relevant evidence against any of our clients. It is now very apparent that the City has insufficient evidence to move forward on any of these cases. Despite not being able to produce any relevant evidence against our clients, the City objected to our Motion to Dismiss. Judge Larry D. Williams, Jr. made a proper and honorable ruling by dismissing these actions due to the City’s failure to provide discovery, insufficient evidence, and the obvious fact that they cannot proceed. As we have felt from the beginning, these cases should not have been brought in the first place.”
The Coalition’s critical defense work exposes that the Detroit Police Department’s disparaging narrative about last summer’s protesters lacks merit. “All Detroit protesters are benefiting from the vigorous defense work of the attorneys assembled by the NLG and other Coalition groups, who exposed the police's failure to keep track of the names of arresting officers, and the City's failure to provide discovery. These Coalition attorneys will continue to aggressively represent all of the remaining BLM protesters in Detroit, Shelby Township, and around the state. These victories light our way to the future,” said Attorney John Royal, member of the Coalition and President of the Detroit & Michigan NLG Chapter.
The Detroit Coordinated Defense Coalition is an alliance of six social justice organizations that came together in the wake of the local arrests of hundreds of protesters following the murder of George Floyd. Over 100 attorneys volunteered to fight for the rights of Black Lives Matter protesters. The Coalition includes the Detroit & Michigan National Lawyers Guild, Detroit Justice Center, National Conference of Black Lawyers, Neighborhood Defender Service of Detroit, Michigan Liberation, and the Wayne County Criminal Bar Association.
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