Visual Evidence Clears Confusion

Visual evidence again proved to be an unrelenting witness to the truth in the trial of former Judge and District Attorney W. Michael Ryan in Northampton Mass. Ryan was accused of assault and battery on a police officer as well as disorderly conduct for reaching to take back his wallet after a pat frisk.

Reviewing the video and stills, a jury promptly returned a verdict of innocent on all charges. The video, produced by the mobile video recorder in a Northampton police vehicle, showed a gentleman reaching for his wallet rather than attempting violence. Parsing the movement with a number of still frames, it should have been amply clear that a reach is not a slap.

The video came into question because normally mobile video recorders have audio that preserves the verbal exchanges of officers with citizens, but this video did not. Somehow, the officers responsible “forgot” to unmute the mic, although the detained judge was advised that he was being “audio and video-recorded.” The spectre of spoliation of evidence is raised if there should have been audio and somehow no audio was recorded on the copy given to defense.

In spite of the question of what the audio might have revealed, there were at least four critical points that tended toward the exoneration of the accused, among them subtle movements discerned only after forensic analysis. When everything was put before the jury, vision led to vindication.

Surveillance Video Analysis Proves Misidentification

SPRINGFIELD – Citing a possible misidentification, the state has ended the murder prosecution of 24-year-old Darryl J. Daniels for the July 21, 2008, fatal shooting of Jamile R. Guest outside a convenience store in the city’s South End neighborhood.

Daniels’ murder trial was set to begin on Wednesday in Hampden Superior Court, but assistant district attorney James C. Orenstein on Tuesday gave a document to Judge Constance M. Sweeney saying the prosecution will be dropped.

The “nolle prosequi” filing, which technically ends the murder case at this time, cited identification as the primary issue for the prosecution.

“Information has become known to the commonwealth since the time of the indictment that was not available to the grand jury that raises a question as to the accuracy of the identification,” Orenstein said.

That information, received as recently as January and February, came from several sources, including other law enforcement agencies, according to Orenstein. “It is not in the best interests of justice to proceed without fully investigating this additional information,” the prosecutor wrote.

If a continuing investigation uncovers new evidence, Daniels’ case could be brought before a grand jury for another indictment.

Guest was gunned down at 2:15 a.m. on June 16, 2008, as he exited the Honeyland Farms convenience store at 806 Main St. His assailant was waiting for him in the parking lot and fired several times, according to police.

Guest was hit once and tried to flee, but collapsed at Main and Central streets. He died later at Baystate Medical Center, police said.

Daniels, who was out on bail in a 2006 case when the shooting occurred, was arrested a month after the killing on the murder warrant while playing blackjack at Mohegan Sun casino, police said.

Daniels’ time spent in jail since his 2008 arrest will be credited to a four-year sentence for an unrelated drug and gun case. Daniels pleaded guilty on July 21, 2008, to charges from a 2006 case involving his arrest when police responded to a report of shots fired outside a Lil’ Wayne concert at the Hippodrome nightclub. A gun and quantities of cocaine and marijuana were seized from the car driven by Daniels.

The agreement was that Daniels would be sentenced to four years in state prison. The sentence was not formally imposed at that time so Daniels could remain in the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow for court appearances while the murder case was pending.

David M. Hodge, Daniels’ lawyer in the murder case, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Orenstein said the Guest homicide investigation will now focus on a key piece of electronic evidence, which he did not specify.