TULSA, Okla. — A lawsuit filed on April 14 claims decades of deliberate hiding of evidence by former and current Tulsa police officers and the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office.
In 2015, after completing his 24 years in prison for a 1991 rape, Henry Jamerson began the fight to clear his name.
In the summer of 2024, a judge threw out the rape conviction.
“You know, most people get out of prison, leave it alone. I ain’t that type,” said Jamerson.
2 News was there in November 2024, when he fought to get his name off the sex offender registry. Kayleen Dubbs, the rape victim, was also there. She maintains to this day, police coerced her into pinning the crime on Jamerson.
“Now that I am old and I think back on all of this, I see everything they did and I am going to stay with him until it is over,” said Dubbs.
Now, in the quest for justice, a civil rights lawsuit is filed by Jamerson’s attorney, Dan Smolen.
“Anyone who looks at this case objectively would be disgusted by what they see,” he said.
It was Smolen who fought the courts to search the TPD property room from what he believed was inside—exonerating DNA evidence. The judge let him and he found it.
According to the complaint, the rape kit slides were, “hid… in a gun locker… to prevent Jamerson’s counsel from finding it… it had been in TPD’s possession the entire time.”
“I already told him, I said, Dan, you’re gonna find that evidence,” Jamerson said. “You know, most lawyers, they ain’t gonna take time like he did.”
Jamerson’s sentence was vacated largely due to that discovered DNA.
Also in the lawsuit:
- the suspect composite was sketched by a TPD detective, not a forensic artist, and based on a photograph of Jamerson. It was shown to the rape victim after the drawing was complete. (Composite photo credit: The Frontier)
- the arrest warrant was issued without a probable cause affidavit.
- At no time, even after his arrest, was Jamerson interviewed by the Tulsa Police Department.
“It is very important that the public know what happened to Henry Jamerson, period,” said Smolen. “It is very simple to look at the facts of what happened to him and how his life was ruined and say, you know what Mr. Jamerson, we are so sorry this happened.”
The Tulsa County District Attorney is appealing Jamerson’s overturned conviction.
A Tulsa Police spokesperson said they do not comment on pending litigation.
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