Jersey Justice: The Story of the Trenton Six

Epilogue

210 I would love to conclude that the tale of the Trenton Six is merely a manifestation of the nation’s evolving justice system in the middle of the twentieth century and could not happen today. However, history has seemingly repeated itself in the Clinton-Bush-Obama era in the case of the Norfolk Four.1 On July 7, 1997, Michelle Moore-Bosko was raped and murdered in Norfolk, Virginia. She was discovered the next day by her husband, Billy, on his return from a naval cruise. All indications from the crime scene were that one man perpetrated the attack. Police detectives, in particular Robert Ford, focused on neighbor Danial Williams, who soon broke down and confessed.When his DNA did not match, they wrung a confession out of his roommate, Joe Dick. When Joe Dick’s DNA did not match, they got the name of Eric Wilson from him and soon Eric Wilson confessed. Then Joe Dick stunned investigators by naming two more men: Derek Tice and Geoffrey Allen Farris. Derek Tice named Richard Dale Pauley Jr. Pauley offered to take a lie detector test, took it, and was told he failed. He later confessed, as did Tice. Each man along the way was told that the others had already explained their parts in the rape and murder and that police knew they were guilty. Most did not ask for lawyers to be present, as they thought legal representation unnecessary, since they knew they had done nothing wrong. By the time they realized they needed attorneys , they had already waived their Miranda rights. When Farris requested an attorney, detectives ignored him and continued their questioning. Each man confessed after being subjected to long hours of interrogation.2 However, to the growing consternation and puzzlement of prosecutors, none of the DNA or fingerprints found at the crime scene matched any of the six men. Tice decided to accept a plea bargain, testifying against all the codefendants and identifying a seventh perpetrator, in return for which he  Epilogue would not face a death sentence. He named a friend, John Danser, as the last individual involved in the attack. Detective Ford arrested Danser, gave him a polygraph test, and told him he failed it. Danser demanded a lawyer but then agreed to answer questions without a lawyer being present. Predictably, he ended up confessing. By February 1999, police had seven men in jail, with no DNA match. They now searched for an eighth suspect in a crime in which the apartment had not been visibly disturbed; nothing had been overturned or broken, and Michelle Moore-Bosko’s vaginal injuries were consistent with one attacker. The defendants’ stories did not mesh with each other. Yet, their confessions led them straight to serious threat of execution, given that Virginia’s use of the death penalty is second only to that of Texas. Throughout this entire time, detectives worried that one guilty person was still out there, never considering the obvious: they had seven innocent young men locked up. On February 22, 1999, Delvie Stover, the mother of Michelle MooreBosko ’s friend Tamika Taylor, handed police a letter to her daughter Karen, in which the writer, Omar Abdul Ballard, wrote about the murdered woman: “Guess who did that. Me, ha, ha. It wasn’t the first time. I’m good ain’t I. . . . Tell the police, tell the FBI. You thought you knew me. You don’t Karen. Trust me. I’m untouchable Karen. And I’m coming.” Ballard wrote this frightening letter from the Augusta County Correctional Center in northwestern Virginia, where he was in prison for raping a fourteen-year-old girl ten days after Michelle Moore-Bosko’s death. He had been sentenced to forty-one years in prison. Tamika Taylor had asked police to check out Ballard after her friend’s murder, but they never did. Detectives told Judge Charles E. Poston at a hearing for John Danser that they now had a lead on an additional suspect. Ballard’s DNA matched that found on the blanket in Moore-Bosko’s bedroom. Ballard told detectives that he had committed the crime by himself. Detective Ford repeatedly tried to get Ballard to implicate the other seven defendants, but he refused, saying with some pride that he alone was responsible . With Derek Tice refusing to testify against them, the Commonwealth of Virginia let Pauley, Farris, and Danser go. On June 16, 1999, Eric Wilson’s trial proceeded with charges reduced so he no...