November 21, 2016 • 36 mins
Richard Rosario was convicted of a murder that took place in the Bronx on June 19, 1996, based on the testimony of two witnesses who had picked his picture out of a book of police photos. There was no other evidence linking him to the crime, and Richard did not know the victim or the witnesses. On June 30, 1996, after he heard that the authorities were looking for him, he got on a Greyhound bus in Florida, arrived in New York the next day, and voluntarily contacted the police. He named more than a dozen people in Florida who he said would vouch for him including a pastor and a sheriff’s deputy. But the police did not follow up, and prosecutors charged him with murder based on the statements of the two eyewitnesses. Richard was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life. When Richard challenged his conviction in state court in 2004, seven more witnesses appeared to say he had been in Florida around the time of the murder. He was released in 2016 after serving 20 years when the Bronx District Attorney’s office concluded that Richard did not receive a fair trial.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
I came from a beautiful neighborhood, had a beautiful life.
I went to sleep because September seven was the first
day of my high school year. I was gonna be
a senior at twenty two, I was set to start college.
I woke up and my life was never the same again.
Cops came out with guns drawn, and I never saw
(00:22):
freedom ever ever since after that. It's like roach Motown.
Once you get in and I getting out. This is
wrongful conviction with Jason Flower. Today's guest is Richard Rosario. Richard,
(00:57):
welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Richard
was convicted of a murder that happened in the Bronx
while he was a thousand miles away in Florida, with
thirteen alibi witnesses and various other types of evidence to
back it up. But let's go back. So you were
born in in Puerto Rico. Um, my parents were um
at the time. Just My mother was a seamstress. My
(01:20):
father used to work labor and they were poured by definition,
by today's definitions. But um, we had a house. We
had a little mango tree in the front of the house.
It was beautiful. I mean you didn't have all the
luxuries that you see in America, but you have what
you need. You know, you had the weather, the sustenance,
great weather, and people that loved you. There was in
(01:42):
a day that would go to sleep hungary or you
don't have any troubles in school anything. So it was beautiful.
When did you come here? When I was five years old,
immigrated to the United States, and um, we we resided
in the Bronx. In nineteen eight one, we we started
living in the Bronx. And it's an experience because you're
(02:02):
an immigrant. You don't know English, so you have to
acclimate to a whole new culture. And the coach in
New York back then was hip hop. And you know,
this whole drug phase happened in New York at the time,
where there was a lot of crime in the streets.
Was riddle with that. So here I am a young
boy from Puerto Rico who wasn't never exposed to that
(02:22):
type of stuff, being exposed to this different type of culture. Yes,
I had. I have two brothers and five sisters. At
that time, my mom separated from my dad and it
was one of the reasons why she relocated the United
States to find new life. And you know, everybody that
comes in migrates to the United States to find a
(02:44):
new life, a better life. And she came here single
parent and UM raised us on her own in the
South Bronx. New York was my main everything I knew,
So Puerto Rico was innappealable to me as a teenager.
So I stopped going at the age of the team.
I mean, we know New York was a little but
now in nineteen uh eighty eight, eighty nine nine, so yeah,
(03:07):
that was kind of the height of the crime way
of things are getting crazy, right and and then you
got you got a little altercation. And when you were
fifteen years old, Yeah, I was a kid, and um,
you know, once again, in Puerto Rico, I never witnessed
anything that that that I've witnessed in the United States
and the Bronx in particular at this time, and for
obvious reasons, the crimary, the drugs and everything that was
(03:29):
happening in this era. It was pretty tough. But you know,
I began, you know, my my teenage life, trying to
follow the new trends, wanting to have those sneakers. My
family spoort. We can't afford those sneakers, the lotos, the
new fashion statements back then. And so I started hanging
out with the wrong crowd as most teenagers and despite
(03:53):
what type of environment they grow up when you you
you meet your contemporaries at the time, and and you
start act made into what they like. Well, you know,
the music, the style, and I living in the South Bronx,
it's that's the environment that I'm acclimated to where his
crime it's drugs, it's closed, it's you have to go
(04:13):
out and get it. And so I got with this
bad crowd and you know, the one thing that they
used to do is go out there and um commit
crimes to get what they wanted as sure a pair
sneakers and stuff. And unfortunately I knew it was wrong,
but I followed and I got caught. One day, my
friends committed a robbery as a kid, and they had
(04:35):
the wallet. And my friend was older than me at
the time, he was seventeen years old. His name is
Danny and he died since but um he um passed
me the wallet and I took the wallet and I
put it in my pocket and had the guy's credit cards.
And that was my first UM in action with the
criminal justice system. I was caught with credit cards in
(04:56):
my pocket and that yes, I got probation eighteen years old.
And you weren't a violent guy. You know, we're gonna
go now from the time you're fifteen to the time
you're twenty. So we're talking about yes, right in n
Let's let's paint a picture here. So you're in Florida
(05:16):
and you what were you doing in Florida at the time.
First of all, which part of Florida where you I
was in on Orlando. And the reason why I went
over there is, you know, I was a quick learning
in life, and you know I made the mistakes as
a teenager. I got in trouble. I had my daughter,
and things started downing on me that I can't live
life like this. I have children to take care of.
I have, you know, a daughter that's gonna look up
(05:39):
to dad and the sun that's gonna need me there.
So I said it's time for me to change my environment.
New York was in the place the Bronx, especially at
the time, was in a place where I had opportunities
because I had messed up the mapportunities as a child,
and I was known in the local precinct as you know,
one of these troubled teenagers. And so I wanted to
(06:00):
just leave that past and go to Florida and give
my family a new life. And you know that's why
my plans were. So you went down to Florida to
sort of scope it out and try to figure out
what kind the opportunities were going to be there for
you exactly, and it's basically your your twenty now. So
you're saying, well, I wanna, Yeah, I want a piece
of the American dream. Why does that dream look like
(06:22):
to me? To me, it looked at like on Florida,
you know, Sunshine State, It's a slower speed um and
and I want folks to understand that I was still
young and still in mature so you know, it wasn't
beyond me smoking a little marijuana or hanging out in
the club. But I wasn't out there, you know, hurting people,
and I remember, but I was in Florida and I
(06:44):
was still you know, my my my biggest issue and
I want people to understand, is that I was dealing
with individuals that were still into that lifestyle. So although
I was in into these guys were still doing things
that weren't um good, and I find out from my mother,
you know, I called my mother check up as I
usually do my wife and the kids how they're doing.
(07:07):
And they're telling me the detectives are looking for you.
And I'm like, they were just here just a couple
of months ago, you know, tell them I'm here, I'm
in Florida. They want me, they know where I'm at.
She said, well, I told him he was in Florida.
They're saying they're looking for you for a murder. And
I'm like, I'm thinking at the time, my mother, she
she she knows English, but she's Puerto Rican descent. She's confused.
(07:29):
She's maybe she's confused, right. But then my my sister
tells me the same thing, and then my wife tells
me the same thing. Detectives are looking for you for murder.
And then they tell me that they June nineteenth, and
you have been in Florida for how long? For for
a couple of months. I was there, from me first
that I arrived to Florida all the way to the
time that I came back from Florida. So you come back,
(07:52):
you're here, they're looking for you. Yes, So you came
back to New York June thirty or five, got on
a Greyhound bus and arrived July first at six in
the morning, and I called my wife and I told her,
I'm heading home right now. And at the time, me
and my wife lived separately. I lived at my parents
house until we had enough money to get on a partner.
(08:13):
My wife is living at her parents house. She was working.
So I'm going over to my in laws house to
see my kids, see my wife before she went to work.
Seven in the morning. I get there and you know,
I had to talk with her and I told her, listen,
I've never killed no one in my life, So I'm
gonna go to the Bronx. I'll contact the priests in
and I should be home sometime tonight and we'll talk more.
(08:35):
And I spent that afternoon. I made breakfast with my kids.
I took him to the park, and I told my
daughter that end of the day and that afternoon before
I left to the Bronze that you know, she was crying.
She wanted to go with daddy, and I told her
I'll be back. I'll be back later on and I
left to go to the Bronsor to talk to the police,
(08:57):
and I never came back for twenty years. I just
got to digest that for a second and left her
and after saying goodbye, like any dad would, I gotta
go take care of something. I see you later. It's
the same thing any dad, any of that would react
a three year old girl. And so you go to
the police precinct and you go in there to clear
things up. And what happens. Well, Um, first I got
(09:21):
to the Bronx, I called detectives. Detective Charles Krueger picks
up the phone. He's from the Robbery Division. He has
nothing to do with his arms side. So Charles Krueger
tells me listen, they want to talk to you about
some homicide that occurred. Um, and one would be the
best time. And I told Charles Krueger, well, i'll be
in with my lawyers tomorrow. I'll get to the priest
(09:42):
and my lawyers. I didn't commit the crime. I've been
in Florida. And he said all right, So I hung
up the phone. A half an hour later, detectives come
to my mother's house. So I look at the peak
coal and I see the detectives. I opened the door
and it's nothing for me to worry about it. I
let them in the house. They talked him my mother briefly,
and this was Charles Krueger was there, but the main
(10:04):
two homicide detectors were also Martinez, and I'm Gary Whittaker.
Where the two detectives. So they come in. Um, Martinez
spoke to my mother. Whittaker spoke to me and they said, listen,
we just want to ask you questions and relating to
this murder, and if you were in Florida, we're gonna
find out and you're gonna be good. And I said, okay,
(10:24):
so let's go. And right before we left, they said,
but we have to cover you because it's procedure. And
my heart like skipped a little bit because I'm saying,
wait a minute, I'm leaving with you. Why do you
have to put cant cuffs on me. I'm telling you
I'm innocent, and I have evidence that I'm leaving with you.
It's not like I'm running. I opened the door for you,
And when they put them cuffs on me, it gave
(10:46):
me a little chill having them cuffs on me. And
I can understand that. I mean, I went to the
priests and then everything changed in the priests and Detective
Whittaker was very amicable. He tried to persuade me telling
him the truth, which I was that I was in Florida,
would be the best thing, and then Martinez would come
in after w will finish this interrogation start lasted five hours,
(11:10):
and he will tell me, we know you did it.
You know you're a murderer and you're gonna spend the
rest of your life in jail, and if you don't
tell me about it, you will never see your daughter.
And he's given me this. So after five hours, I said,
all right, you want me to write a statement, and
he passes me a piece of paper and a pen
and I wrote on it and then I passed it
(11:30):
back and they were really piste off of what I wrote.
I said, I've never committed a crime. I've never taken
someone's life, and God knows this and it is God's will.
And that was my exact statement. And that was it.
From that moment on. They they they just processed me
through the system. I spoke to um Detective Silverman, who
(11:53):
wasn't part of the case, which is still a mystery.
He was the one showing the witnesses pictures but he
was in the homicide detectives. He was not part of
the case at all, and he took the statement from
me where I gave thirteen alibi witnesses. In addition to that,
I described where I was, the homes, I mean, details
from the staircase, the houses to the right, the bedroom
(12:15):
is here. I gave a details description of where I was,
the people I was with, the phone numbers, phone records, um,
job applications, everything, and they never, not once, they didn't
pick up the phone to find out if I was
saying the truth. So you're presenting them with basically iron
(12:35):
clad evidence. Right, There's really no other way to describe it.
I mean, you can't have a better alibi than you
were a thousand miles away. Right, It's not like I
was at the movies and my sister said she saw
me and whatever what I mean? You know, I mean,
which is still an alibi. Right, it was impossible. It's impossible.
Here you are. Now you're in the system. Now you're
in lock up, right, you're waiting for your trial. You
(12:57):
got a lawyer. Yes, I'm thinking this will be over
in the day. You know, they're gonna find out I
was in Florida is done. So first I talked to
the detectives, went through that, talked to the d A,
went through, that went through the lineup with Lloyd named
Rudy Valaz. I was picked out of the lineup. Um,
they finally assigned me a lord named Joyce hearts Field.
(13:19):
And I poured out my heart tuk because it's been
more than a week now and I'm saying, hey, I
don't belong here. You know, my witnesses are in Florida.
The evidence is there, everything is there for you. And
I reiterated most of the things I did to them,
the detectives, and Joyce Hartsfield asked to judge for funds
to send an investigator. I'm indigenous. I don't have no
(13:39):
money for investigators. And so the judge granted the motion. Okay,
so now you're good. I'm supposed to be good. It's
it's supposed to work great, right, you get the evidence,
you have the investigators going. Um. What happened was that
Joyce Hartsfield, after a year, I'm telling her, please, you know,
find these people. She would not answer my letters. She
would not and to my my please, and I'm desperate.
(14:04):
It's been Yeah, I wrote the letters that we have
records of. You know, she was not being she was
in contact with me at all. And I'm desperate. I'm
in prison. I'm not seeing my children as much as
I would like to. I don't belong in. Yes, I
know it's a mistake. I'm dealing with these gang members
and police offers, and I'm really having a lot of
(14:24):
trouble because you know, I'm twenty years old and I
don't belong here, and you know, you have to deal
with this volatile environment that you don't belong in. And
she would not answer me, and it's chaos. It's chaos.
It's completely chaos. I mean, from the correctional officers to
the inmates. The corruption is just so you know, abhorrent
(14:45):
that that you know, I can't even put into the
words what I was experiencing. All I knew is that
if I had to talk to my lawyer and my wife,
I had to be at the mercy of gang bangers
and you know, malicious people that are actually in there
for crimes they committed and I'm nothing like these. What
do I do to talk to my family? And you know, unfortunately,
(15:07):
it led to a lot of fights and tribulations and
a lot of victimization because I don't I don't want
people to think that I glamorized that. But I've been
I've been slashed, I've been stabbed, I've been jumped by inmates,
and I've had to struggle and fight and clawed my
way out that type of environment, even correctional offices. I've
been brutalized by then. And you know, I've stood up
(15:30):
because I was in the right. I didn't belong there
and I had to suffer that, and you know, my
family had to suffer it. But it's it's chaos. It's
completely chaos. The lawyer is not only doing nothing, but
also not even returning your calls. So, now what happens?
Does she eventually come through, investigate through something? What? What
what happens next? What leads Let's get up to the trial.
(15:52):
What happens? This is the amazing part that I saw
the learning law and I had to this lady is
not defending me. So I put an emotion to have
taking off my case and giving me another lawyer. The
judge does this, he gives me Stephen Kaiser and so
Stephen Kaiser comes in. He has no clue of what
what motion has been approved and denied. He comes in
(16:14):
under the belief that the investigative funds were denied, no investigation.
And he never asked you, he I told him, I
mean my witnesses. I mean, here's a year later and
I'm I'm I'm I'm living, I'm talking the same thing
for years. I'm innocent. This is where the evidence is
that these are the people. And he says, well, the
(16:35):
judge denied the funds for investigators, So I'm I don't
know that nothing. So you think now that maybe maybe
the first one had it wrong, or maybe the judges
changed their mind, or whatever it is. And now you're
dealing with a lawyer who who do We're dealing with
two lawyers, both of them are incompetent and so now
so so somehow, amazingly, in between the transition from the
(16:57):
first lawyer to the second lawyer, the information, the one
thing that could have helped you gets lost and get
screwed up, which is the idea that there was money
for some of the Go to Florida, confirmed the alibis
and come back on a white horse and go very sorry,
it's all a big mistake. Go home. Let's go find
the real killer. That's what's supposed to happen. That's what's
(17:19):
supposed to happen. That's not what happened. That's not what happened.
So what happened now, So now you gotta go to trial.
Now I gotta go to trial with a lawyer that's
prepared to defend me. And they're balancing all these other things.
They're going to court, they're juggling all these cases, cases,
and and and one thing that I want to add
to that, which is important. You know, I don't want
to make excuses for these lawyers that misrepresenting me. And
(17:40):
you know it's it's completely appropriate to say that they
dropped the ball. But before that, the d A gets
the case. The police get the case. So before lawyer
touches your case, if anybody's gonna know whether you're innocent
or not, it's going to be the district Attorney and
the police, if they do the investigative work and the
work that they support was to be doing to protect
(18:02):
the citizens that they've been sworn to protect to serve.
So the d A drops the ball. Now they give
it to these over world overstressed lawyers. What do you
think is going to happen. You're in trial and the
(18:26):
pressure is incredible. Now your lawyer gets up. Are there
any other witnesses from Florida that came up to testifi behalf? Yeah,
Janine say, then John Torres came and that d A said, well,
they're his friends, they would life in him. But what
we know now is that the DA was telling the
jury a lie, that this crime that occurred was not premeditated,
(18:49):
that it was coincidental. So they testified on your behalf
and they're saying, all these are your friends and say
whatever you want. In the meantime, they came all the
way up from Florida just to lie for you, okay, whatever.
And there were some eyewitnesses for the prosecution. Um it
was George, George Coloso's best friend. And I want to
get into this because this is very telling and important
(19:10):
for the narrative. Michael Sanchez testified guy never met in
his life. UM don't know him, never met him, don't
know his history, his background, We have no connection. UM.
Robert Davis was the second witness. Don't know. I've never
seen him in my life. Another independent UM witness picked
my picture out, picked me out of the lineup and
(19:31):
um jose Dias, another old man had the food truck
at the time, said that he witnessed the shooting. What's
amazing about all these three witnesses is that they have
all said the same thing. At the time, jose A
Diaz was deemed incredible because when he was actually did
you see the shooter? They said, he said, yeah, I've
(19:52):
seen the shooter. They said, do you see him in
the court room. He says, no, I don't see him
in the court room. And he says, but I remember
picture that I was shown. And he said that two times,
and that testimony was made obsolete because now a DA
has to shift and say, well, you know, he initially
said it was Richard or picked out his picture. Now
(20:14):
he's not saying that. And so these other two witnesses
were allowed to testify and perjured themselves because now we
know both of the witnesses are saying that why the
police told them that they had the right guy. That
is how I went to trial based on police telling
these people, you know, they write these reports and said
(20:35):
they looked at two hundred pictures. We come to find
out now that not only these three witnesses are saying
the police show them a pictures. But there were several
witnesses in my case that they did not allow us
to see, to interview or to testify my trial. And
these witnesses said the same thing. The police came to
them with a picture of one man and they mentioned
(20:56):
that he was somehow connected to Florida. None of these
witnesses ever testified, right, And we don't know. I mean,
they may have made some sort of a deal with them.
You know, we don't know that, but we know for
a fact at least this is what we know now.
According to the witnesses, the police told them that's the
right guy. So I want to talk about this for
a second. This is very interesting to me. While experts
(21:19):
agreed to eyewitness testimony is inherently flawed, Americans and potential
potential jurors continue to place a great deal of weight
in eyewitness testimony. In a two thousand and one survey
of addles the United States funded by the National Institute
of Health sixty three, they found the sixty three percent
of Americans believe that memory works like a video camera,
forty percent believe memory is permanent, and thirty seven percent
(21:42):
believe the testimony of a single confident eyewitness should be
enough to convict the criminal defendant. And it should be
noted that mistaken eyewitness identification was a factor in over
seventy of the nation's DNA. I hope that people will
remember when they take away they'll take away for this
podcast that that the I was identification is something that
is very very and it's something that you have to analyze.
(22:05):
Was this person in a panic mode? Was it dark?
Were there across the street that they have do they
have a motive? And by this person was there in
a interior motive? Because now we're finding out that the
main witness, Michael Sanchez, was sleeping with the young lady
that was slapped by his best friend, George Colozzo, two
(22:27):
weeks from before the murder happened. Now this is all speculation,
but now we know that someone came up to Michael
Sanchez a week before the murder and told them we're
coming after your friend. Now we know that the food
truck guy saw the shooter for more than several hours.
Now we know that another witness is coming and saying, well,
(22:49):
this wasn't a coincidental shooting, This wasn't a shooting of
two people that didn't know each other because the shooter
called the victim by name. We know this now, the
this back then. So they presented to jury for the
misrepresentation by telling them, oh, they don't know each other.
This was a mistake. Now we know there was a
getaway car. But what they knew back then is that
(23:11):
they could not prove that all those facts fit me.
There was no connection with me. So they had to
lie to the jury. They had to concoct this story
to get a conviction. And what we also know that
the victim was carrying a gun, yes, and that his
sister has sas divide or set on camera, that he
(23:31):
began carrying a gun because he had been threatened, and
because he had slapped the girl that you were talking about,
and that her friends or her family was had threatened
to get him. So again, if you would follow that trail,
he would say, well maybe, I mean, if it would
seem to me, if I was a rational officer said
let me go, let me go check that out. That
(23:52):
sounds a little dicey to me, you know, like, let's
go see. But none of that, none of that happened
ended with my picture again picked out, and they is
the whole. They got somebody they're poor, particularly a person
of color, and you are basically about to get ground
up by the gears. And that's what happened to you.
So so you get convicted. Yes, so twenty years of
(24:13):
five year life sentence. Yes, let's talk about the prison experience.
It's a psychological and physical torture. You know, you don't
belong in this place. But now you have to face
the indignations of what being a prison is and and
and with with respect to the system. You know, if
you committed the crime, you have to deal with these
security measures. You have to get naked, you have to
(24:35):
show cavity. You know your your but you have to
go through cavity searches. You have to have your family
go through searches, and you know, a lot of indignations.
But if you committed the crime, and this is what
the system is built for, then all right, fine, you
know they have to keep the security of the prison
and safe. Right, But here is a man that didn't
commit a crime, and now I have to go through
(24:56):
the same indignities. I have to deal with alsers that
got me like a no good citizen. Because most prisoners
are considered you know um, people that are not wanted
in society, people that have committed acts against society. So
here I am amongst these people and nothing like them,
and I'm being treated as such, being pushed as such,
(25:19):
being put in positions where it's either I have to
fight to be able to talk to my family, to
to keep the little things that my family get me,
provide me, whether it's some money for commissary. And here
you have a real hearted murderer and a criminal trying
to take what's yours, or correctional to coming in his
(25:39):
son because he feels that you're not You're not you're
sub human, You're you're worthless. They destroy your property. And
now I'm going through these conflicts. I don't belong in here.
And now I'm I'm lashing out. I'm standing up. It's
not even lashing out saying you don't have a right
to do this, you don't have a right to abuse
a mean inmates or correctional officers. I stood up, and
(26:03):
you know, I bear the scars of it, you know,
physically and internally. I bear the scars. Every little one
of those things would seem on the outside like a
big problem. And there's just one of a hundred problems
one of a hundred because starting with your personal safe,
your personal safety, and you think a correctional officer is
(26:23):
gonna protect you, and a lot of times the correction
of the officers the one that opens yourself so that
in they could get in there and rob your property
or you have and and and I want to be
up front with this, not all correctional officers. For the majority,
most of these people are just wanting to come and
do their job and provide for their families. So I
(26:44):
don't want to seem like anti corrections because I met
some great correctional or some some great men in there
that live every day to just do the best to
provide for their family and do their job with some
type of integrity. But then you have those more numbers
of officers that you know, and and same thing with
police officers, the same thing I could be said about them.
(27:07):
For the most part, great individuals. They here to protect
our people in our communities. But you have that small
percentage that just you know, causes adverse effect that everybody
believes that old correctional officers are like this. And I'm
with you, I mean, I don't want to sound like
I'm against the entire criminal justice system. I'm again, I'm
in favor of fixing the problems so we don't have
(27:29):
to have more stories like yours. So let's get to
the part of the exoneration and to the UH and
to what life has been like for the last four
(27:50):
months on the outside. So the day, uh, well, what happened,
UH is that the the new DA came into the
Bronx recently, right, And so she came in and all
of a sudden, your your your faith turned your your
luck turned around, everything changed. Because um, I want I
wanted to to make sure that that people know these stats. First,
(28:11):
Robert Johnson, who was the d A and the Bronx
for twenty seven years and who is now amazingly a judge.
Under his tenure in office, he had the lowest conviction
rate in the Bronx, meaning that murderers lend being allowed
to run the streets. These murderers, whatever you want to
call criminals, were allowed to run the streets. The conviction
(28:32):
rate in the Bronx was the lowest in the city.
But what's telling is the highest rate of raw food
convictions were in the Bronx, and they didn't have a committee.
So you know, in essence, what this is telling you
is that he was in convicting criminals. He was convicting
innocent people. And that's just a horrible statistic. And now
this man is a judge. How do people you know,
(28:55):
It's like saying the food is bad and the portions
are too small, right, I mean you can't. I mean
you're striking out on both sides. Absolutely, that's terrible. So
that's that's what happened with that, and those facts speak
for themselves. But here we are, twenty years later, no
one has ever done the investigation in this new DA says, well,
you know what, I want to start something new. She
(29:16):
came into office under cloud of suspicion she didn't she
wasn't voted in. They pulled the political maneuver the Democratic Party,
he um Robert Johnson exited through retirement and they left
the voters out and put Durstal Clark in through the
Democratic Party of voting inventing a person. So now here
(29:36):
she is she has an opportunity to change these policies,
and she took a bolt step and after investigating my
case for the first time in twenty years, she sent
investigators to Florida on a Friday. I was released on
a Wednesday. This is amazing. This this woman investigating my
case twenty years later and deemed that there was enough
(29:59):
evidence there innocence to release me. So now you're walking
out into the fresh area, into the sunlight. What happened
and then what I felt? You know, one one way,
I felt relief being my family finally, and you know,
and the sudden that you know that I deserved, you know,
and I'm happy. I'm with my wife and my children.
(30:19):
I'm with my yes, yes, yes they were all there.
But my thing when I came out, I felt a
sense of anger because you know, I was happy to
be with my family, but it was like I was
like just thrown out into society, and you know, in
a fashion where there was no empathy towards what I
(30:40):
went through other than people want to know what I
felt like. But d A's office, no one other than
my family and you know, individuals like yourself. I don't
have a job. I don't you know, have any needs
of providing for my wife and my children. Twenty years later,
so I'm having a hard time reintegrating into a life
(31:00):
of having to work, getting back into the workforce. But
it's difficult for me. The transition is still is, but
I'm making the best out of it. What happened to
Richard Rosario was horrible. He spent twenty years, the best
years of his life behind bars. When a criminal justice
system makes a mistake, it's not just the individual that
(31:20):
gets hurt. It's families, friends, partners, and children. Richard's children,
Amanda and Richard Jr. Turned their stress and creep into music,
and I wanted to share this audio note and song
they made for their dad. Good one to day will
(31:40):
fishish whoop? We have two. All of my life, I've
been hearing and He's coming home. He's coming home, and
I've had so much hope. One day it really had
gotten to me. I was right, really, really down in um.
I was sitting in our living room and I heard
my brother in his closet playing the piano riff. It
(32:00):
was like a sad time in the house. So I
was just playing around with keys and I just ended
up coming up with this riff. The song is about,
you know, I wish he was here for my dance recitals.
I wish he was here for this and and for
my brother's baseball games to cheer us on. You know,
we have collect calls and we have letters and all
those things, but I wanted to I want to experience
(32:24):
this world and everything that I'm doing with you. I
want you to be able to enjoy it, not through pictures,
but right here physically with me. Who call on this together,
wish this and never no. I wanted to expire into
(32:49):
this world with you by my side, who tune for
me from the sud All home man tell me it's
gonna be oh oh, no words I can explain that
(33:26):
feeling of just hearing those words that he's coming home.
I was like, you know, don't get your hopes up.
This happens all the time. We think he's coming home.
And that was the craziest moment of my life. And
he's always showed love, and now that he's out, he's
done it to the high extent. Every day I went
to wake up to see his face every day nothing
(33:49):
this is supposed too much fun. Oh click calls and
let her short be it together. Wish this would him?
(34:09):
Every night click calls and let her short fases together.
Wish this would and every night. I wanted to experience
this world with you by my side. He'll cheer for
(34:33):
me from the sideline, Homie in town. It's gonna be
oh right, I Ola, Won't you place home to night
from me your aunt? Hold me time through the dark
(34:56):
and see the light. Won't you place tonight? Won't you
please home tonight from me your Aunt's home? Me time
through the darkness, see the line you please gonight? I
wanted to experience this world. Where do you buy my side? Here?
(35:19):
You cheering for me from the sun line, Hold me
and tell me it's gonna be oh right. Oh on
it to experience this world. Don't forget to give us
(35:47):
a fantastic review wherever you get your podcasts, it really helps.
And I'm a proud donor to the Innocent Project and
I really hope you'll join me in supporting this very
important cause and helping to prevent future wrong for evictions.
Go to Innocence Project dot org to learn how to
donate and get involved. I'd like to thank our production team,
Connor Hall and Kevin Wordis. The music in the show
(36:09):
is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and
on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason
Flam is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts and
association with Signal Company Number one
I came from a beautiful neighborhood, had a beautiful life.
I went to sleep because September seven was the first
day of my high school year. I was gonna be
a senior at twenty two, I was set to start college.
I woke up and my life was never the same again.
Cops came out with guns drawn, and I never saw
(00:22):
freedom ever ever since after that. It's like roach Motown.
Once you get in and I getting out. This is
wrongful conviction with Jason Flower. Today's guest is Richard Rosario. Richard,
(00:57):
welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Richard
was convicted of a murder that happened in the Bronx
while he was a thousand miles away in Florida, with
thirteen alibi witnesses and various other types of evidence to
back it up. But let's go back. So you were
born in in Puerto Rico. Um, my parents were um
at the time. Just My mother was a seamstress. My
(01:20):
father used to work labor and they were poured by definition,
by today's definitions. But um, we had a house. We
had a little mango tree in the front of the house.
It was beautiful. I mean you didn't have all the
luxuries that you see in America, but you have what
you need. You know, you had the weather, the sustenance,
great weather, and people that loved you. There was in
(01:42):
a day that would go to sleep hungary or you
don't have any troubles in school anything. So it was beautiful.
When did you come here? When I was five years old,
immigrated to the United States, and um, we we resided
in the Bronx. In nineteen eight one, we we started
living in the Bronx. And it's an experience because you're
(02:02):
an immigrant. You don't know English, so you have to
acclimate to a whole new culture. And the coach in
New York back then was hip hop. And you know,
this whole drug phase happened in New York at the time,
where there was a lot of crime in the streets.
Was riddle with that. So here I am a young
boy from Puerto Rico who wasn't never exposed to that
(02:22):
type of stuff, being exposed to this different type of culture. Yes,
I had. I have two brothers and five sisters. At
that time, my mom separated from my dad and it
was one of the reasons why she relocated the United
States to find new life. And you know, everybody that
comes in migrates to the United States to find a
(02:44):
new life, a better life. And she came here single
parent and UM raised us on her own in the
South Bronx. New York was my main everything I knew,
So Puerto Rico was innappealable to me as a teenager.
So I stopped going at the age of the team.
I mean, we know New York was a little but
now in nineteen uh eighty eight, eighty nine nine, so yeah,
(03:07):
that was kind of the height of the crime way
of things are getting crazy, right and and then you
got you got a little altercation. And when you were
fifteen years old, Yeah, I was a kid, and um,
you know, once again, in Puerto Rico, I never witnessed
anything that that that I've witnessed in the United States
and the Bronx in particular at this time, and for
obvious reasons, the crimary, the drugs and everything that was
(03:29):
happening in this era. It was pretty tough. But you know,
I began, you know, my my teenage life, trying to
follow the new trends, wanting to have those sneakers. My
family spoort. We can't afford those sneakers, the lotos, the
new fashion statements back then. And so I started hanging
out with the wrong crowd as most teenagers and despite
(03:53):
what type of environment they grow up when you you
you meet your contemporaries at the time, and and you
start act made into what they like. Well, you know,
the music, the style, and I living in the South Bronx,
it's that's the environment that I'm acclimated to where his
crime it's drugs, it's closed, it's you have to go
(04:13):
out and get it. And so I got with this
bad crowd and you know, the one thing that they
used to do is go out there and um commit
crimes to get what they wanted as sure a pair
sneakers and stuff. And unfortunately I knew it was wrong,
but I followed and I got caught. One day, my
friends committed a robbery as a kid, and they had
(04:35):
the wallet. And my friend was older than me at
the time, he was seventeen years old. His name is
Danny and he died since but um he um passed
me the wallet and I took the wallet and I
put it in my pocket and had the guy's credit cards.
And that was my first UM in action with the
criminal justice system. I was caught with credit cards in
(04:56):
my pocket and that yes, I got probation eighteen years old.
And you weren't a violent guy. You know, we're gonna
go now from the time you're fifteen to the time
you're twenty. So we're talking about yes, right in n
Let's let's paint a picture here. So you're in Florida
(05:16):
and you what were you doing in Florida at the time.
First of all, which part of Florida where you I
was in on Orlando. And the reason why I went
over there is, you know, I was a quick learning
in life, and you know I made the mistakes as
a teenager. I got in trouble. I had my daughter,
and things started downing on me that I can't live
life like this. I have children to take care of.
I have, you know, a daughter that's gonna look up
(05:39):
to dad and the sun that's gonna need me there.
So I said it's time for me to change my environment.
New York was in the place the Bronx, especially at
the time, was in a place where I had opportunities
because I had messed up the mapportunities as a child,
and I was known in the local precinct as you know,
one of these troubled teenagers. And so I wanted to
(06:00):
just leave that past and go to Florida and give
my family a new life. And you know that's why
my plans were. So you went down to Florida to
sort of scope it out and try to figure out
what kind the opportunities were going to be there for
you exactly, and it's basically your your twenty now. So
you're saying, well, I wanna, Yeah, I want a piece
of the American dream. Why does that dream look like
(06:22):
to me? To me, it looked at like on Florida,
you know, Sunshine State, It's a slower speed um and
and I want folks to understand that I was still
young and still in mature so you know, it wasn't
beyond me smoking a little marijuana or hanging out in
the club. But I wasn't out there, you know, hurting people,
and I remember, but I was in Florida and I
(06:44):
was still you know, my my my biggest issue and
I want people to understand, is that I was dealing
with individuals that were still into that lifestyle. So although
I was in into these guys were still doing things
that weren't um good, and I find out from my mother,
you know, I called my mother check up as I
usually do my wife and the kids how they're doing.
(07:07):
And they're telling me the detectives are looking for you.
And I'm like, they were just here just a couple
of months ago, you know, tell them I'm here, I'm
in Florida. They want me, they know where I'm at.
She said, well, I told him he was in Florida.
They're saying they're looking for you for a murder. And
I'm like, I'm thinking at the time, my mother, she
she she knows English, but she's Puerto Rican descent. She's confused.
(07:29):
She's maybe she's confused, right. But then my my sister
tells me the same thing, and then my wife tells
me the same thing. Detectives are looking for you for murder.
And then they tell me that they June nineteenth, and
you have been in Florida for how long? For for
a couple of months. I was there, from me first
that I arrived to Florida all the way to the
time that I came back from Florida. So you come back,
(07:52):
you're here, they're looking for you. Yes, So you came
back to New York June thirty or five, got on
a Greyhound bus and arrived July first at six in
the morning, and I called my wife and I told her,
I'm heading home right now. And at the time, me
and my wife lived separately. I lived at my parents
house until we had enough money to get on a partner.
(08:13):
My wife is living at her parents house. She was working.
So I'm going over to my in laws house to
see my kids, see my wife before she went to work.
Seven in the morning. I get there and you know,
I had to talk with her and I told her, listen,
I've never killed no one in my life, So I'm
gonna go to the Bronx. I'll contact the priests in
and I should be home sometime tonight and we'll talk more.
(08:35):
And I spent that afternoon. I made breakfast with my kids.
I took him to the park, and I told my
daughter that end of the day and that afternoon before
I left to the Bronze that you know, she was crying.
She wanted to go with daddy, and I told her
I'll be back. I'll be back later on and I
left to go to the Bronsor to talk to the police,
(08:57):
and I never came back for twenty years. I just
got to digest that for a second and left her
and after saying goodbye, like any dad would, I gotta
go take care of something. I see you later. It's
the same thing any dad, any of that would react
a three year old girl. And so you go to
the police precinct and you go in there to clear
things up. And what happens. Well, Um, first I got
(09:21):
to the Bronx, I called detectives. Detective Charles Krueger picks
up the phone. He's from the Robbery Division. He has
nothing to do with his arms side. So Charles Krueger
tells me listen, they want to talk to you about
some homicide that occurred. Um, and one would be the
best time. And I told Charles Krueger, well, i'll be
in with my lawyers tomorrow. I'll get to the priest
(09:42):
and my lawyers. I didn't commit the crime. I've been
in Florida. And he said all right, So I hung
up the phone. A half an hour later, detectives come
to my mother's house. So I look at the peak
coal and I see the detectives. I opened the door
and it's nothing for me to worry about it. I
let them in the house. They talked him my mother briefly,
and this was Charles Krueger was there, but the main
(10:04):
two homicide detectors were also Martinez, and I'm Gary Whittaker.
Where the two detectives. So they come in. Um, Martinez
spoke to my mother. Whittaker spoke to me and they said, listen,
we just want to ask you questions and relating to
this murder, and if you were in Florida, we're gonna
find out and you're gonna be good. And I said, okay,
(10:24):
so let's go. And right before we left, they said,
but we have to cover you because it's procedure. And
my heart like skipped a little bit because I'm saying,
wait a minute, I'm leaving with you. Why do you
have to put cant cuffs on me. I'm telling you
I'm innocent, and I have evidence that I'm leaving with you.
It's not like I'm running. I opened the door for you,
And when they put them cuffs on me, it gave
(10:46):
me a little chill having them cuffs on me. And
I can understand that. I mean, I went to the
priests and then everything changed in the priests and Detective
Whittaker was very amicable. He tried to persuade me telling
him the truth, which I was that I was in Florida,
would be the best thing, and then Martinez would come
in after w will finish this interrogation start lasted five hours,
(11:10):
and he will tell me, we know you did it.
You know you're a murderer and you're gonna spend the
rest of your life in jail, and if you don't
tell me about it, you will never see your daughter.
And he's given me this. So after five hours, I said,
all right, you want me to write a statement, and
he passes me a piece of paper and a pen
and I wrote on it and then I passed it
(11:30):
back and they were really piste off of what I wrote.
I said, I've never committed a crime. I've never taken
someone's life, and God knows this and it is God's will.
And that was my exact statement. And that was it.
From that moment on. They they they just processed me
through the system. I spoke to um Detective Silverman, who
(11:53):
wasn't part of the case, which is still a mystery.
He was the one showing the witnesses pictures but he
was in the homicide detectives. He was not part of
the case at all, and he took the statement from
me where I gave thirteen alibi witnesses. In addition to that,
I described where I was, the homes, I mean, details
from the staircase, the houses to the right, the bedroom
(12:15):
is here. I gave a details description of where I was,
the people I was with, the phone numbers, phone records, um,
job applications, everything, and they never, not once, they didn't
pick up the phone to find out if I was
saying the truth. So you're presenting them with basically iron
(12:35):
clad evidence. Right, There's really no other way to describe it.
I mean, you can't have a better alibi than you
were a thousand miles away. Right, It's not like I
was at the movies and my sister said she saw
me and whatever what I mean? You know, I mean,
which is still an alibi. Right, it was impossible. It's impossible.
Here you are. Now you're in the system. Now you're
in lock up, right, you're waiting for your trial. You
(12:57):
got a lawyer. Yes, I'm thinking this will be over
in the day. You know, they're gonna find out I
was in Florida is done. So first I talked to
the detectives, went through that, talked to the d A,
went through, that went through the lineup with Lloyd named
Rudy Valaz. I was picked out of the lineup. Um,
they finally assigned me a lord named Joyce hearts Field.
(13:19):
And I poured out my heart tuk because it's been
more than a week now and I'm saying, hey, I
don't belong here. You know, my witnesses are in Florida.
The evidence is there, everything is there for you. And
I reiterated most of the things I did to them,
the detectives, and Joyce Hartsfield asked to judge for funds
to send an investigator. I'm indigenous. I don't have no
(13:39):
money for investigators. And so the judge granted the motion. Okay,
so now you're good. I'm supposed to be good. It's
it's supposed to work great, right, you get the evidence,
you have the investigators going. Um. What happened was that
Joyce Hartsfield, after a year, I'm telling her, please, you know,
find these people. She would not answer my letters. She
would not and to my my please, and I'm desperate.
(14:04):
It's been Yeah, I wrote the letters that we have
records of. You know, she was not being she was
in contact with me at all. And I'm desperate. I'm
in prison. I'm not seeing my children as much as
I would like to. I don't belong in. Yes, I
know it's a mistake. I'm dealing with these gang members
and police offers, and I'm really having a lot of
(14:24):
trouble because you know, I'm twenty years old and I
don't belong here, and you know, you have to deal
with this volatile environment that you don't belong in. And
she would not answer me, and it's chaos. It's chaos.
It's completely chaos. I mean, from the correctional officers to
the inmates. The corruption is just so you know, abhorrent
(14:45):
that that you know, I can't even put into the
words what I was experiencing. All I knew is that
if I had to talk to my lawyer and my wife,
I had to be at the mercy of gang bangers
and you know, malicious people that are actually in there
for crimes they committed and I'm nothing like these. What
do I do to talk to my family? And you know, unfortunately,
(15:07):
it led to a lot of fights and tribulations and
a lot of victimization because I don't I don't want
people to think that I glamorized that. But I've been
I've been slashed, I've been stabbed, I've been jumped by inmates,
and I've had to struggle and fight and clawed my
way out that type of environment, even correctional offices. I've
been brutalized by then. And you know, I've stood up
(15:30):
because I was in the right. I didn't belong there
and I had to suffer that, and you know, my
family had to suffer it. But it's it's chaos. It's
completely chaos. The lawyer is not only doing nothing, but
also not even returning your calls. So, now what happens?
Does she eventually come through, investigate through something? What? What
what happens next? What leads Let's get up to the trial.
(15:52):
What happens? This is the amazing part that I saw
the learning law and I had to this lady is
not defending me. So I put an emotion to have
taking off my case and giving me another lawyer. The
judge does this, he gives me Stephen Kaiser and so
Stephen Kaiser comes in. He has no clue of what
what motion has been approved and denied. He comes in
(16:14):
under the belief that the investigative funds were denied, no investigation.
And he never asked you, he I told him, I
mean my witnesses. I mean, here's a year later and
I'm I'm I'm I'm living, I'm talking the same thing
for years. I'm innocent. This is where the evidence is
that these are the people. And he says, well, the
(16:35):
judge denied the funds for investigators, So I'm I don't
know that nothing. So you think now that maybe maybe
the first one had it wrong, or maybe the judges
changed their mind, or whatever it is. And now you're
dealing with a lawyer who who do We're dealing with
two lawyers, both of them are incompetent and so now
so so somehow, amazingly, in between the transition from the
(16:57):
first lawyer to the second lawyer, the information, the one
thing that could have helped you gets lost and get
screwed up, which is the idea that there was money
for some of the Go to Florida, confirmed the alibis
and come back on a white horse and go very sorry,
it's all a big mistake. Go home. Let's go find
the real killer. That's what's supposed to happen. That's what's
(17:19):
supposed to happen. That's not what happened. That's not what happened.
So what happened now, So now you gotta go to trial.
Now I gotta go to trial with a lawyer that's
prepared to defend me. And they're balancing all these other things.
They're going to court, they're juggling all these cases, cases,
and and and one thing that I want to add
to that, which is important. You know, I don't want
to make excuses for these lawyers that misrepresenting me. And
(17:40):
you know it's it's completely appropriate to say that they
dropped the ball. But before that, the d A gets
the case. The police get the case. So before lawyer
touches your case, if anybody's gonna know whether you're innocent
or not, it's going to be the district Attorney and
the police, if they do the investigative work and the
work that they support was to be doing to protect
(18:02):
the citizens that they've been sworn to protect to serve.
So the d A drops the ball. Now they give
it to these over world overstressed lawyers. What do you
think is going to happen. You're in trial and the
(18:26):
pressure is incredible. Now your lawyer gets up. Are there
any other witnesses from Florida that came up to testifi behalf? Yeah,
Janine say, then John Torres came and that d A said, well,
they're his friends, they would life in him. But what
we know now is that the DA was telling the
jury a lie, that this crime that occurred was not premeditated,
(18:49):
that it was coincidental. So they testified on your behalf
and they're saying, all these are your friends and say
whatever you want. In the meantime, they came all the
way up from Florida just to lie for you, okay, whatever.
And there were some eyewitnesses for the prosecution. Um it
was George, George Coloso's best friend. And I want to
get into this because this is very telling and important
(19:10):
for the narrative. Michael Sanchez testified guy never met in
his life. UM don't know him, never met him, don't
know his history, his background, We have no connection. UM.
Robert Davis was the second witness. Don't know. I've never
seen him in my life. Another independent UM witness picked
my picture out, picked me out of the lineup and
(19:31):
um jose Dias, another old man had the food truck
at the time, said that he witnessed the shooting. What's
amazing about all these three witnesses is that they have
all said the same thing. At the time, jose A
Diaz was deemed incredible because when he was actually did
you see the shooter? They said, he said, yeah, I've
(19:52):
seen the shooter. They said, do you see him in
the court room. He says, no, I don't see him
in the court room. And he says, but I remember
picture that I was shown. And he said that two times,
and that testimony was made obsolete because now a DA
has to shift and say, well, you know, he initially
said it was Richard or picked out his picture. Now
(20:14):
he's not saying that. And so these other two witnesses
were allowed to testify and perjured themselves because now we
know both of the witnesses are saying that why the
police told them that they had the right guy. That
is how I went to trial based on police telling
these people, you know, they write these reports and said
(20:35):
they looked at two hundred pictures. We come to find
out now that not only these three witnesses are saying
the police show them a pictures. But there were several
witnesses in my case that they did not allow us
to see, to interview or to testify my trial. And
these witnesses said the same thing. The police came to
them with a picture of one man and they mentioned
(20:56):
that he was somehow connected to Florida. None of these
witnesses ever testified, right, And we don't know. I mean,
they may have made some sort of a deal with them.
You know, we don't know that, but we know for
a fact at least this is what we know now.
According to the witnesses, the police told them that's the
right guy. So I want to talk about this for
a second. This is very interesting to me. While experts
(21:19):
agreed to eyewitness testimony is inherently flawed, Americans and potential
potential jurors continue to place a great deal of weight
in eyewitness testimony. In a two thousand and one survey
of addles the United States funded by the National Institute
of Health sixty three, they found the sixty three percent
of Americans believe that memory works like a video camera,
forty percent believe memory is permanent, and thirty seven percent
(21:42):
believe the testimony of a single confident eyewitness should be
enough to convict the criminal defendant. And it should be
noted that mistaken eyewitness identification was a factor in over
seventy of the nation's DNA. I hope that people will
remember when they take away they'll take away for this
podcast that that the I was identification is something that
is very very and it's something that you have to analyze.
(22:05):
Was this person in a panic mode? Was it dark?
Were there across the street that they have do they
have a motive? And by this person was there in
a interior motive? Because now we're finding out that the
main witness, Michael Sanchez, was sleeping with the young lady
that was slapped by his best friend, George Colozzo, two
(22:27):
weeks from before the murder happened. Now this is all speculation,
but now we know that someone came up to Michael
Sanchez a week before the murder and told them we're
coming after your friend. Now we know that the food
truck guy saw the shooter for more than several hours.
Now we know that another witness is coming and saying, well,
(22:49):
this wasn't a coincidental shooting, This wasn't a shooting of
two people that didn't know each other because the shooter
called the victim by name. We know this now, the
this back then. So they presented to jury for the
misrepresentation by telling them, oh, they don't know each other.
This was a mistake. Now we know there was a
getaway car. But what they knew back then is that
(23:11):
they could not prove that all those facts fit me.
There was no connection with me. So they had to
lie to the jury. They had to concoct this story
to get a conviction. And what we also know that
the victim was carrying a gun, yes, and that his
sister has sas divide or set on camera, that he
(23:31):
began carrying a gun because he had been threatened, and
because he had slapped the girl that you were talking about,
and that her friends or her family was had threatened
to get him. So again, if you would follow that trail,
he would say, well maybe, I mean, if it would
seem to me, if I was a rational officer said
let me go, let me go check that out. That
(23:52):
sounds a little dicey to me, you know, like, let's
go see. But none of that, none of that happened
ended with my picture again picked out, and they is
the whole. They got somebody they're poor, particularly a person
of color, and you are basically about to get ground
up by the gears. And that's what happened to you.
So so you get convicted. Yes, so twenty years of
(24:13):
five year life sentence. Yes, let's talk about the prison experience.
It's a psychological and physical torture. You know, you don't
belong in this place. But now you have to face
the indignations of what being a prison is and and
and with with respect to the system. You know, if
you committed the crime, you have to deal with these
security measures. You have to get naked, you have to
(24:35):
show cavity. You know your your but you have to
go through cavity searches. You have to have your family
go through searches, and you know, a lot of indignations.
But if you committed the crime, and this is what
the system is built for, then all right, fine, you
know they have to keep the security of the prison
and safe. Right, But here is a man that didn't
commit a crime, and now I have to go through
(24:56):
the same indignities. I have to deal with alsers that
got me like a no good citizen. Because most prisoners
are considered you know um, people that are not wanted
in society, people that have committed acts against society. So
here I am amongst these people and nothing like them,
and I'm being treated as such, being pushed as such,
(25:19):
being put in positions where it's either I have to
fight to be able to talk to my family, to
to keep the little things that my family get me,
provide me, whether it's some money for commissary. And here
you have a real hearted murderer and a criminal trying
to take what's yours, or correctional to coming in his
(25:39):
son because he feels that you're not You're not you're
sub human, You're you're worthless. They destroy your property. And
now I'm going through these conflicts. I don't belong in here.
And now I'm I'm lashing out. I'm standing up. It's
not even lashing out saying you don't have a right
to do this, you don't have a right to abuse
a mean inmates or correctional officers. I stood up, and
(26:03):
you know, I bear the scars of it, you know,
physically and internally. I bear the scars. Every little one
of those things would seem on the outside like a
big problem. And there's just one of a hundred problems
one of a hundred because starting with your personal safe,
your personal safety, and you think a correctional officer is
(26:23):
gonna protect you, and a lot of times the correction
of the officers the one that opens yourself so that
in they could get in there and rob your property
or you have and and and I want to be
up front with this, not all correctional officers. For the majority,
most of these people are just wanting to come and
do their job and provide for their families. So I
(26:44):
don't want to seem like anti corrections because I met
some great correctional or some some great men in there
that live every day to just do the best to
provide for their family and do their job with some
type of integrity. But then you have those more numbers
of officers that you know, and and same thing with
police officers, the same thing I could be said about them.
(27:07):
For the most part, great individuals. They here to protect
our people in our communities. But you have that small
percentage that just you know, causes adverse effect that everybody
believes that old correctional officers are like this. And I'm
with you, I mean, I don't want to sound like
I'm against the entire criminal justice system. I'm again, I'm
in favor of fixing the problems so we don't have
(27:29):
to have more stories like yours. So let's get to
the part of the exoneration and to the UH and
to what life has been like for the last four
(27:50):
months on the outside. So the day, uh, well, what happened,
UH is that the the new DA came into the
Bronx recently, right, And so she came in and all
of a sudden, your your your faith turned your your
luck turned around, everything changed. Because um, I want I
wanted to to make sure that that people know these stats. First,
(28:11):
Robert Johnson, who was the d A and the Bronx
for twenty seven years and who is now amazingly a judge.
Under his tenure in office, he had the lowest conviction
rate in the Bronx, meaning that murderers lend being allowed
to run the streets. These murderers, whatever you want to
call criminals, were allowed to run the streets. The conviction
(28:32):
rate in the Bronx was the lowest in the city.
But what's telling is the highest rate of raw food
convictions were in the Bronx, and they didn't have a committee.
So you know, in essence, what this is telling you
is that he was in convicting criminals. He was convicting
innocent people. And that's just a horrible statistic. And now
this man is a judge. How do people you know,
(28:55):
It's like saying the food is bad and the portions
are too small, right, I mean you can't. I mean
you're striking out on both sides. Absolutely, that's terrible. So
that's that's what happened with that, and those facts speak
for themselves. But here we are, twenty years later, no
one has ever done the investigation in this new DA says, well,
you know what, I want to start something new. She
(29:16):
came into office under cloud of suspicion she didn't she
wasn't voted in. They pulled the political maneuver the Democratic Party,
he um Robert Johnson exited through retirement and they left
the voters out and put Durstal Clark in through the
Democratic Party of voting inventing a person. So now here
(29:36):
she is she has an opportunity to change these policies,
and she took a bolt step and after investigating my
case for the first time in twenty years, she sent
investigators to Florida on a Friday. I was released on
a Wednesday. This is amazing. This this woman investigating my
case twenty years later and deemed that there was enough
(29:59):
evidence there innocence to release me. So now you're walking
out into the fresh area, into the sunlight. What happened
and then what I felt? You know, one one way,
I felt relief being my family finally, and you know,
and the sudden that you know that I deserved, you know,
and I'm happy. I'm with my wife and my children.
(30:19):
I'm with my yes, yes, yes they were all there.
But my thing when I came out, I felt a
sense of anger because you know, I was happy to
be with my family, but it was like I was
like just thrown out into society, and you know, in
a fashion where there was no empathy towards what I
(30:40):
went through other than people want to know what I
felt like. But d A's office, no one other than
my family and you know, individuals like yourself. I don't
have a job. I don't you know, have any needs
of providing for my wife and my children. Twenty years later,
so I'm having a hard time reintegrating into a life
(31:00):
of having to work, getting back into the workforce. But
it's difficult for me. The transition is still is, but
I'm making the best out of it. What happened to
Richard Rosario was horrible. He spent twenty years, the best
years of his life behind bars. When a criminal justice
system makes a mistake, it's not just the individual that
(31:20):
gets hurt. It's families, friends, partners, and children. Richard's children,
Amanda and Richard Jr. Turned their stress and creep into music,
and I wanted to share this audio note and song
they made for their dad. Good one to day will
(31:40):
fishish whoop? We have two. All of my life, I've
been hearing and He's coming home. He's coming home, and
I've had so much hope. One day it really had
gotten to me. I was right, really, really down in um.
I was sitting in our living room and I heard
my brother in his closet playing the piano riff. It
(32:00):
was like a sad time in the house. So I
was just playing around with keys and I just ended
up coming up with this riff. The song is about,
you know, I wish he was here for my dance recitals.
I wish he was here for this and and for
my brother's baseball games to cheer us on. You know,
we have collect calls and we have letters and all
those things, but I wanted to I want to experience
(32:24):
this world and everything that I'm doing with you. I
want you to be able to enjoy it, not through pictures,
but right here physically with me. Who call on this together,
wish this and never no. I wanted to expire into
(32:49):
this world with you by my side, who tune for
me from the sud All home man tell me it's
gonna be oh oh, no words I can explain that
(33:26):
feeling of just hearing those words that he's coming home.
I was like, you know, don't get your hopes up.
This happens all the time. We think he's coming home.
And that was the craziest moment of my life. And
he's always showed love, and now that he's out, he's
done it to the high extent. Every day I went
to wake up to see his face every day nothing
(33:49):
this is supposed too much fun. Oh click calls and
let her short be it together. Wish this would him?
(34:09):
Every night click calls and let her short fases together.
Wish this would and every night. I wanted to experience
this world with you by my side. He'll cheer for
(34:33):
me from the sideline, Homie in town. It's gonna be
oh right, I Ola, Won't you place home to night
from me your aunt? Hold me time through the dark
(34:56):
and see the light. Won't you place tonight? Won't you
please home tonight from me your Aunt's home? Me time
through the darkness, see the line you please gonight? I
wanted to experience this world. Where do you buy my side? Here?
(35:19):
You cheering for me from the sun line, Hold me
and tell me it's gonna be oh right. Oh on
it to experience this world. Don't forget to give us
(35:47):
a fantastic review wherever you get your podcasts, it really helps.
And I'm a proud donor to the Innocent Project and
I really hope you'll join me in supporting this very
important cause and helping to prevent future wrong for evictions.
Go to Innocence Project dot org to learn how to
donate and get involved. I'd like to thank our production team,
Connor Hall and Kevin Wordis. The music in the show
(36:09):
is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and
on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason
Flam is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts and
association with Signal Company Number one
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Bright Pacheco
Maggie Freleng
Jason Flom
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