Federal judge declares mistrial in wrongful conviction lawsuit against former Detroit cop

Detroit — In a scathing ruling that chastised a Wayne County assistant prosecutor for being "obstinate, argumentative and garrulous," a federal judge last week declared a mistrial in a wrongful conviction lawsuit against a former Detroit homicide detective who is accused of withholding evidence in a murder because he feared a Mexican drug cartel would harm his family.

Alexandre Ansari served nearly five years in prison for the 2012 shooting death of 15-year-old Ilena Cuevas in southwest Detroit before an investigation by the Wayne County Conviction Integrity Unit in 2019 reportedly found problems with how former Detroit police homicide detective Moises Jimenez had handled the case.

Jimenez retired from the Detroit Police Department in 2021.

An assistant Wayne County prosecutor wrote in a Feb. 14, 2019, memo that Jimenez told county investigators that he had withheld evidence linking convicted drug dealer Jose Sandoval to the killings of Cuevas and a man who was gunned down four days after the teen, 28-year-old Tommy Edwards. The memo claimed Jimenez said he'd been reluctant to investigate Sandoval because the detective had family in Texas and Mexico, and feared they'd be harmed by the drug cartel.

Sandoval, who has not been charged in connection with either killing, was convicted in 2013 of cocaine and heroin distribution and is serving a 14-year federal prison sentence.

Ansari was released from prison in March 2019 after a judge granted the prosecutor's motion to vacate his murder conviction based on the CIU investigation. In March 2020, Ansari filed a lawsuit in federal court against Jimenez and the city, seeking an undisclosed sum.

After more than two years, the trial started June 20, but in his June 30 order granting a mistrial, U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy said: "Simply put, the trial suffers from too many issues that undermine its integrity to allow its continuance."

On June 28, Ansari's attorney Wolfgang Mueller called Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Erika Tusar to testify, and Murphy said she "was an extraordinarily difficult witness."

"Ms. Tusar was obstinate, argumentative and garrulous," the judge said in his 10-page ruling. "Nearly every answer she gave was unmoored from the question to which it responded. In fact, Ms. Tusar answered almost none of (defense attorney Krystal Crittendon's) clear, simple questions, and her answers obscured, rather than clarified the truth."

Murphy said in the ruling he "found it necessary to intervene" in the cross-examination so he could "promote efficiency of the trial process." The judge said he asked Tusar several times when she'd learned about an investigation into Sandoval, the cartel-connected drug dealer.

"When Ms. Tusar did not answer, the court warned her, 'You're not answering me ... you're telling me a bunch of stuff that's not relevant.'" The judge also accused Tusar of "obstructing the efforts of these lawyers to get the facts ... to these jurors."

The next day, Ansari's attorney Mueller filed a motion asking to have the case dismissed because the court had "put its thumb on the scale of credibility" by admonishing the plaintiff's witness in front of the jury.

"Defendant Jimenez also moved for a mistrial at exactly the same time because, he argued, defendant had received a great deal of negative media attention the day before he made the motion as a result of a separate, highly-publicized lawsuit against him," the judge said.

On June 28, attorneys for Kenneth Nixon announced they'd filed a federal lawsuit against Jimenez and other former Detroit police officers for allegedly manufacturing false evidence and suppressing exculpatory evidence during the investigation into a 2005 firebombing that killed 20-month-old Tamyah Vaughn and her 10-year-old brother, Raylon Vaughn. Nixon was convicted and spent 16 years in prison before he was released following a CIU investigation.

When Jimenez's attorneys last week filed for a mistrial in the Ansari lawsuit, they claimed the media attention given to the Nixon suit prevented Jimenez from getting a fair trial.

"One thing is clear: both parties unequivocally and without hesitation want the court to declare a mistrial in this case," the judge said. "The court must regretfully conclude that neither party wants the case resolved by litigation of the present jury trial."

Murphy granted both parties' motions for a mistrial, but warned that his docket is full, and that he wouldn't be able to re-hear the case until spring, 2024. The judge added that he would entertain requests to refer the case to federal Magistrate David Grand.

Ansari's attorney Mueller said Monday he plans to refile the lawsuit "hopefully before spring if we can get the magistrate to hear the case. The evidence is strong that Jimenez withheld evidence from the prosecutor's office and it cost Alexandre Ansari several years of his life."

Detroit Deputy Corporation Counsel Charles Raimi said in an email: "The opinion should be read carefully and it speaks for itself."

According to the prosecutor's memo and police investigator's report, the 2012 killings of Cuevas and Edwards were sparked by the theft of 3.5 kilograms of raw heroin that belonged to Sandoval, who was later convicted with five other members of a drug gang that operated in southwest Detroit. 

Instead of investigating Sandoval prosecutors said Jimenez focused on Ansari.

After the Conviction Integrity Unit wrapped up its investigation into Ansari's innocence claim, prosecutors forwarded to Detroit police the memo in which it was alleged that Jimenez had confessed to ignoring evidence because he feared cartel retaliation.

An internal DPD investigation found that Jimenez had withheld evidence in the case, according to a January 2020 Detroit police investigator's report and warrant request that sought undisclosed charges against Jimenez. The request for charges was denied by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's Office.

"It has been shown through this investigation that Detective Jimenez willfully withheld information and potential evidence of both the Cuevas and Edwards homicides," the investigator's report said.  "Based upon his interview with the (prosecutor's integrity unit), it appears Detective Jimenez purposefully withheld this much of the investigatory information to circumvent the complicity of Jose Sandoval to these murders."

But in March 2022, police reopened the investigation after DPD officials said they'd obtained new information that wasn't available during the earlier probe. Following a three-month investigation, DPD officials said they were unable to prove the prosecutor's allegations that Jimenez had hindered two murder investigations because he feared retaliation from a Mexican drug cartel.

The author of the memo accusing Jimenez of making the statement about the cartel said DPD never contacted her during their internal investigation.

Jimenez, who for years worked in homicide's "REDRUM" squad that investigated drug-related killings, filed a lawsuit in April, saying the claims by prosecutors that fear of the cartel had influenced him were "discriminatory and false allegations."

"(Prosecutors) would not have made similar false and discriminatory accusations towards a non-Hispanic individual or someone who did not have family in Mexico," the lawsuit said.

ghunter@detroitnews.com

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Twitter: @GeorgeHunter_DN