HomeMy WebLinkAbout04- Don Jordan •
THE JIMMY SEGURA CASE /�
(Presented to the San Bernardino Mayor and City Council on March 18, 199
A. INTRODUCTION.
My name is Don Jordan. I, along with Jimmy's large family and the Justice for Jimmy
Committee, all of whom I ask to stand at this time, are here before you to ask you to
form a commission to look into the conduct of police officers resulting in the wrongful
conviction of Jimmy Segura, a former resident of this city. I appreciate the letters I
received explaining that you feel it was inappropriate to place this matter on the council's
agenda, so I take the 3 minutes allotted to me in the public comments portion of your
meeting to address you.
B. JIMMY'S CASE.
As those of you who have had a chance to look at the 200 pages of material submitted
to you know, Jimmy went into jail on the case when he was 23; he is now 41. He has
been in prison since 1978. Today is his 6,534`h day in prison, a period stretching over
216 months and 18 years. He is currently in Soledad State Prison.
1. THE CONVICTION.
Jimmy, a Hispanic-American, was convicted in the courthouse just two blocks from here
for the murder of David Leon, the 21 year old son of former police homicide detective
Angel Leon. David's body was found, shot in the eye, on Easter Sunday morning on
March 26, 1978, in plain view on the steps of the old school at Rialto and I Streets, just 6
blocks from here.
2. THE BACKGROUND.
In those turbulent times, most people assumed that the murder was done as revenge
against David's father, Det. Leon. The murder occurred within a week of two Hispanic-
American gang shootings; within 4 days of the announcement by the school board that
school busing was going to be required; and the morning after a major Peace Rally was
held at Valley College, where warring gangs signed a truce and then went to party at
Lytle Creek Park. David's body was found just a few blocks from this park. For two
weeks, the police had no leads, and the community became frantic.
3. THE FACTS.
Time does not permit me to summarize the events leading up to Jimmy's wrongful
conviction, but they are all set forth in the material provided, a great deal of which
comes from the attorney general. Skipping things which can be argued, let me just
mention a few of the many highlights which cannot and have not been be denied:
a) The Recantations.
Two then-heroin addicts, Rick Riggins and Nick Cummings, were first persuaded by
then-Homicide Det. Randy Bliss to say they were with Jimmy when Jimmy shot David.
As police reports show, both denied their initial statements before trial, but they were
offered "deals" to cause them to nonetheless testify against Jimmy. Later, both have
sworn under oath for years that they were coerced by Det. Bliss to give false testimony,
and that neither they nor Jimmy to their knowledge no anything about David's murder.
43 ice/- �
� 1
D� T �4,17
b) No Physical Evidence.
No physical evidence ever connected Jimmy, who from the beginning has denied
knowing David or anything about his murder, to the crime. The two expert prosecution
witnesses both first concluded that the crime happened differently from the way Rick
and Nick said it did. But both modified their testimony at trial to say, not that it did, but
that it could, have happened the way Rick and Nick were saying it did.
C) Det. Bliss' Perjury at Trial.
At trial, Det. Bliss testified that there was no transcript of his initial interview with Rick at
Pismo Beach because the batteries on his tape recorder had run down. Yet in 1991, a
conscientious Deputy Attorney General provided the tape and a transcript he had
prepared. If the jury had had the tape, they would have know that Rick knew nothing
about the murder--among many other inconsistencies, he said the body was dropped off
a few streets from Del Rosa Avenue on the Crosstown Freeway, instead of five miles
away at Rialto and I Streets.
d) Nick's Request That Rick Tell Him What To Say.
The attorney general also provided a tape on which Nick, who was placed in a room
alone with Rick at the police department after Nick's arrest while he was going through
severe heroin withdrawals, can be heard telling Rick that he has to tell him what to say
about the crime. The prosecutor, John Arden, denied at trial that the statement was on
the tape, and the court reporter did not hear it. Yet the reporter did hear it when she
listened again to the tape while preparing it for the appeal, and it can be heard on the
tape the attorney general provided.
e) The Cover-Up By the Police.
In 1979, less than a year after the trial, Nick called Jimmy's lawyer, Alan Spears, and
told him he wanted to meet him that night to explain that his testimony had been false.
Spears cooperated with the police, who sent along an undercover officer, Wes Farmer,
wearing a hidden transmitter and posing as Alan's law clerk. Nick met them in Alan's
van that night and recanted in detail. But when Alan went to a phone to call a lie
detector expert, as Nick had agreed, the four officers who were taping the conversation
in a nearby car swooped down on the van and removed Off. Farmer. Both the police
and the DA's office have refused ever since to release the tape. Off. Farmer has
admitted that he was removed from the van in this fashion in a 1991 declaration.
f) The Cover-Up by the DA's Office.
In 1987, while Jimmy's first habeas petition was pending, the DA's Office sent
investigator Hans Vander Veen to the State of Washington to interview Rick. When
Rick persisted in saying that his trial testimony had been false, and that neither he nor
Nick knew anything about the murder, Vander Veen made him promise not to tell
anyone else, thereby committing the crime of dissuading a witness. This also cannot be
denied, because the attorney general has provided a tape and a transcript of the
conversation.
g) The Seaman Investigation.
All the above cannot be denied. But there is much more, most notably the investigative
reports of Nick's investigator, whose investigation prior to trial showed so strongly that
2
Rick and Nick were at Rick's apartment with more than ten other people the night of the
murder and did not leave. This information was given to the prosecutor; the result was
that Nick was given a deal on other cases to induce him to testify against Jimmy.
h) Jimmy's Witnesses.
In addition, more than ten people were with Jimmy all night at Jimmy's home, where the
family's Easter Sunday Picnic was being planned. Unfortunately, for some reason, only
four of them were called as witnesses at Jimmy's trial. Would those in the audience
who were there that night and know Jimmy was home all night please stand?
4. THE PENDING 8TH HABEAS PETITION.
I As you know, Judge Krug of the San Bernardino Superior Court has granted an order to
show cause on Jimmy's 8th habeas petition, but the Court of Appeal has stopped the
proceedings since May, while they consider the attorney general's mandate petition.
But the request made here today has nothing to do with the pending litigation. What we
want is for a commission to investigate the police conduct on the case, to produce more
facts, which we are certain will further substantiate Jimmy's innocence, and which can
be used in court.
C. WHO ARE WE?
The members of the Justice for Jimmy Committee come from many backgrounds.
1. JIMMY'S FAMILY.
Jimmy had eight brothers and two sisters, all of whom, along with Jimmy's parents, live
in San Bernardino. Most of them are common folk, a few of whom have been in trouble,
but most of them wibw have lived a normal and productive life. Two of them are in law
enforcement: one is a federal probation officer and one is a correctional officer. They all
love Jimmy, and want him home. So does Jimmy's daughter, Veronica.
2. WITNESSES.
Other members of the committee are witnesses, like Rick and Nick, who would testify as
to his innocence if a court ever grants him a hearing. Rick and Nick have also been
victimized by what happened in the case, and feel they cannot return to living a whole
life until Jimmy is freed.
3. COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL SUPPORTERS.
Others on the committee are the increasing numbers of people who have learned about
Jimmy's case, from local contacts, from memories of the strangeness of the case years
ago, from the summaries of the case which have been distributed, and recently all over
the nation, now that Jimmy has a homepage on the internet which tells his story. The
number is growing weekly.
4. MYSELF.
suppose I should mention something about myself. While I am Jimmy's lawyer in
court, I am here before you today not as his lawyer, but as a long-time resident of San
Bernardino.
3
a) My San Bernardino Roots.
My family has been here nearly a hundred years, ever since my grandfather and his
new bride, Dr. and Mrs. P.M. Savage, Sr., arrived here. They had four children, all of
whom spent nearly their entire lives here, and were involved in countless civic activities.
Two of them, Drs. Phil'arid .Jim Savaged, practiced here for many years. One, a
veterinarian, was the father of'Swede Savage, a race driver who represented San
Bernardino at the Indianapolis 500 until he was killed in the 1973 race. My mother, a
curie Leader, lived here with my father, a well-known lawyer who practiced here for forty
years., His nephew, my cousin, Phil Savage, former president of the County Bar
Association and the current President of Downtown Rotary, carries on in my father's
tradition, as he does that of our grandfather, who was President of Rotary exactly 70
yearsleaftr.- My brother, Craig,"is-the Assistant County Council for the county.
. .. is
ply Connection To Jimmy's Case.
I volunteered to help Jimmy on his case in 1991, when I learned of the terrible
miscarriage of justice which resulted in his conviction. I have been working on it ever
since, and vow to continue to do so until he is freed.
D. OUR GOALS TODAY.
1. TO HAVE A COMMISSION APPOINTED.
We hope that you will take note of the difficult questions which Jimmy's case presents.
We also hope that you, as our community leaders, will accept a degree of responsibility
for the fact that an innocent man is in jail today because of things which occurred in this
city so long ago, largely in the police department for which you have ultimate
responsibility. We think you owe it to us and this community, as we face the challenges
of the 21st Century, to get rid of this stain, which will never go away until Jimmy is
released. Please help Jimmy by appointing a fact-finding commission.
2. TO LOCATE WITNESSES ON HIS CASE.
While we have located many witnesses who will prove Jimmy's innocence, there are
many which have been lost with the passage of time. If any of you, those in the
audience, or watching on television, know the whereabouts of any of the following,
please let us know. You may call me at 888-0185; repeat 888-0185: Charles Hanford,
Mike Cotton, Diane Sawyer, Bob Cole, Philip Del Tondo, Butch Seacrist, Gary and
Robin Weiss, and Donnie Ewing. In addition, if anyone knows anything about the case,
please call me at 888-0185.
I 3. A MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR JIMMY.
Obviously, three minutes permits only the briefest mention of this complicated case.
ask that all of us remain silent for the next few seconds, while we contemplate the
tragedy which has happened right in our own back yard. As we do so, I hope that you,
I as our leaders, will recognize that you should do what you can to get to the bottom of
the case. Won't you sleep better if you do? Let us remain silent.
E. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ANTICIPATED HELP.
4