Our client had just been bonded out of jail when the Baltimore City Police department swooped in and arrested him for an attempted murder that occurred on March 3, 2015. He was held on a no bail status. Our client was not the person who had committed this crime. He was in Cumberland Maryland on March 3, 2015. We were able to subpoena video records from a Sheetz store in Cumberland Maryland that showed our client in their store at the time of the crime. Our bail bond attorneys brought this to the State’s Attorney’s Office, but they were still not convinced.
We subpoenaed phone records from different providers to try to show where our client was at the time of the incident. The state was slow to give up the discovery. We went to the prosecutor’s office to give them the Sheetz video and try to get the discovery. We were advised that the victim and another had made identifications of the defendant as the perpetrator, but they were unable to give us the discovery at that time. Our client had now been sitting in jail for over two months. We continued to ask for the discovery and identifications through the arraignment and the first trial date. The prosecutor assigned to the case then gave the case to another prosecutor.
We started our pleas with the new prosecutor for our client’s innocence. Finally, three weeks prior to the next trial date we received the discovery. There was only one identifying witness and the description both witnesses gave of the assailant did not match our client, he was much taller than the assailant and had a different complexion. We supplied pictures to the prosecutor and asked her to speak to her victims. Finally, the day before the last trial date the prosecutor spoke to the victim and the witness. The prosecutor dismissed the case in court only after she walked up next to our client, took off her shoes, and verified his height. The court apologized to our client for making him stay in jail for six months on a misidentification.
To add insult to injury, the jail took two days to process our client for release. Luckily our client is home with his family now.