September 19, 2024 • 37 mins
In this episode of Voiceless Behind Bars, Sarah dives into the case of Matthew Dorsey, a man who was sentenced to life in prison for fleeing from police during a traffic stop—despite no injuries or violence.
With no appeals left, Matthew's story is a striking example of the flaws in the justice system, where even his own lawyer worked against him, and police testimony confirmed that there was no intent to harm.Sarah will also be speaking with Monika Shepard, Matthew’s head advocate, who has compiled a list of the key figures to contact in the push for a sentence reduction.
Monika points out the importance of contacting state Senator Bryan Hughes of Smith County and Texas Senator John Coryn, both pivotal in advocating for justice in Matthew's case.Throughout the episode, Sarah emphasizes the importance of civic engagement, encouraging listeners to check their voter registration status—especially in states like Alabama, where voter rolls have been purged without notice.
Listen in as Sarah sheds light on Matthew’s shocking case and what can be done to help reduce his sentence. Make sure to stay tuned for Sarah’s upcoming interview with Monika Shepard, where they'll discuss the advocacy efforts to bring Matthew home.Links mentioned:
With no appeals left, Matthew's story is a striking example of the flaws in the justice system, where even his own lawyer worked against him, and police testimony confirmed that there was no intent to harm.Sarah will also be speaking with Monika Shepard, Matthew’s head advocate, who has compiled a list of the key figures to contact in the push for a sentence reduction.
Monika points out the importance of contacting state Senator Bryan Hughes of Smith County and Texas Senator John Coryn, both pivotal in advocating for justice in Matthew's case.Throughout the episode, Sarah emphasizes the importance of civic engagement, encouraging listeners to check their voter registration status—especially in states like Alabama, where voter rolls have been purged without notice.
Listen in as Sarah sheds light on Matthew’s shocking case and what can be done to help reduce his sentence. Make sure to stay tuned for Sarah’s upcoming interview with Monika Shepard, where they'll discuss the advocacy efforts to bring Matthew home.Links mentioned:
- Contact Senator Bryan Hughes: Senate Texas District 1
- Contact House Representative District 5 Cole Hefner: Texas House
- Contact District Attorney Jacob Putman: Smith County
- Contact Senator Phil King of Parker County: Texas Senate
- Contact House Representative District 12 Kay Granger: Kay Granger
- Register to vote: Rock the Vote
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Zoon me afraid of it's side.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Be care, foodstacks, not every light is gone and.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Cart you baby, don't let a very nice back keep.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Me close to your house. I love the pressures kind
of javy kazy because.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
You are to the man.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
In the morning.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's all kinda then it's show me afraid of it'say,
be care, foodstades, not.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Every I didn't gone, and guide you.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah, when I blow up, I'm gonna saw a highlight
Peter Pan, real life, be living out my dreams. Come
waking up. It's in the four land, whole risk coming
up and.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Walk on the watch to find bars. I'm your host
Sar the armand I am very happy to have my
guests Matthew Dorset on the show. Matthew, welcome, Hi, how
are you good? Like I said, it's good to have
you on what you're under very circumstances. But I know
school against the future, So matt minded to put yourself
(01:04):
to you listeners.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
Here, my name is Matthew Dorsey and I am on
the Michael's Unit in Texas, in pakistin Texas, and I'm
here on a wrongful conviction with a disproportionate senate.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
So how long have you been incarcerated?
Speaker 5 (01:32):
November the second of this year, twenty twenty four, will
be eighteen.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Years And how old were you when you all were sentenced?
When I was.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
I was arrested when I was twenty two, and I
was sentenced when I was twenty three.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
So all right, let's go back to beginning. All so
this also place in Texas from my correct yes, ma'am. Okay,
so eighteen years ago. What was it that happened? Because
I know this was except a certain thing, it's all
putting it lightly. So can you walk us through what happened?
Speaker 5 (02:18):
Okay? So in August of two thousand and six, I
was driving to Lindale, Texas.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
I was speeding, I was feeding, and I had a
small amount of drugs in the car, specifically annex, and
a state trooper was on the road ahead of me,
facing towards me, parked on the side of the road,
and he turned his lights on, and.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
I'm sure it picked you out.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Yes, yes, I've panicked immediately because I've had several run
ins with law enforcement and every time I get pulled over,
I get searched, and I go through it all the way.
So I panicked and I hit the gas instead of
pulling over, and it ended up being a pursuit over
(03:26):
about forty five minutes, and I got chased by four
state troopers over this time. The first one that I
passed by, I got out of his sight almost immediately,
so by the time he made a U turn to
(03:49):
chase after me, I was already up the road right
and I went down some back roads and I came
out on Highway one scene in Garden Valley, and immediately
another state trooper got behind me, and I sped up again,
(04:12):
and after a little while I took him down some
back roads and I lost him also, and I continued.
I continued on down these back roads and I came
out by the airport and Tyler, and another state trooper
(04:38):
was to the U turn and got behind me and
came after me. It was approximately like ten o'clock in
the morning, so the sun was was kind of low
and it was in our eyes, and I got in
the turning lane to turn into a neighborhood, and the
(04:58):
state trooper could not see that I got in the
turning land because the sun was in his eyes, so
he went right past me. The third one went right
past me and So I turned into this little subdivision
and I was driving at a low rate of speed,
and I saw another state trooper on the end of
(05:20):
the road in this subdivision, unpleasant hollow road in Tyler,
and I was creeping about ten to fifteen miles an hour,
just trying to see if there was somebody in this car,
in this state trooper car. And as I got closer,
(05:42):
I could tell that there was somebody in the car,
and he started moving towards me. So when he got
close enough to where I felt like I could get
by him without him trying to block the road, I
hit the gas and when I did, he pulled over
to the side of the road and jumped out of
(06:02):
his car and started shooting at the towers on my vehicle.
He shot three times at the vehicle and missed, and
I proceeded on down the road and got away. Oh, yes,
(06:23):
now they're shooting at me, And yes I was. It
was a high adrenaline, high stake situation, and yes I was.
I was scared to death. I was trying not to
go to jail, and I was trying not to do
anything that was going to hurt anybody or get me
(06:45):
serious prison time. My soap. My sole intent was getaway,
get away, and I did that and I took At
the time, I was in my egg girlfriend's car, and
I took her car back to her and I told
(07:07):
her what happened because I was I did not know
if they got her license plate number or if they
would be able to identify her car. So I just
kind of warned her that that the cops might come
around trying to figure out who was driving her car.
(07:31):
And then I went to her roommate's house and I
told him about what happened, and he is the reason
that the whole investigation was triggered. He went to the
cops and told them that I told him about running
from the cops, and he wrote a statement. And this
(07:51):
is why I was implicated in the investigation. That is,
that was the what the whole case was based on
from the outset, because they did not get close enough
to the car to see the driver of the car.
And this issue came up during my trial. There was
(08:12):
no identification of the driver and there was no license
plate number, and most of the state troopers said they
were chasing a silver Poor Toys, but her car was
a golden Saturn eye on m So there were many
(08:32):
discrepancies on the description of the car, and the only
thing implicating me was my ex girlfriend's roommate saying that
I told him I committed this.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Crown, did all the police talk them into testifying against him?
Speaker 5 (08:54):
Yes, they did. I was still riding to my ex
girlfriend when I was in the county jail awaiting charal
and she had not planned on testifying on me, but
she had pending charges, and just before my trial started,
(09:18):
they arrested her in the courtroom and they used her
pending charges to sway her to testify.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
I was saying they used that against her.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Yes, so so, but she was not a witness to
the crime, and nor was her roommate. I was by myself.
There were no witnesses.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
So what was that they persuaded them to say against you?
Speaker 5 (09:50):
Well, all he could say was that I told him
that I ran from the cops. Oh she could say
was that I used her car on the day that
this happened. That's what they were going to testify too.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
So why isn't your lawyer convinced fumes she played guilty.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Well, there were multiple things going on during my trial.
We had already had uh two days of trial before
I pleaded guilty.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
And.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Several things had happened. The day that I played guilty,
my ex girlfriend Tatum, brought a letter to the da
and this letter contained disparaging remarks about my trial attorney.
(10:59):
And these letters, I was talking about his represent representation
and I said that he was fat and worthless in
this letter. And so the DA's introduced these letters to
the court pretty much to turn my lawyer against me.
But my lawyer was against me. My lawyer was against
(11:20):
me from day one. And the first time I talked
to him, that's what he was trying to get me
to do is flee guilty.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
I got hurt ball. I've seen that actually happen in
person where a person was a completely and sudden yet
their attorneys were still trying to get them to play guilty,
still trying.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
To take yeah, yes, And he was trying to convince
me that there was evidence that didn't exist. Like the
first time he came to see me, he said, they
have you on video, and I said that I want
to see that video. So he comes back to see
(11:59):
me about a week later and he's like, well, there
is no video, and I said, well, why did you
tell me that they have me on video, and he said, well,
there is a video, but you can't see anything on
the video. Well, there were i believe four videos from
the patrol cars of the State troopers, and you can't
(12:22):
see anything. You can, like, in two of the videos
you can barely see the car and the other two
you can't see anything. And upon watching those videos, I
learned that they had initially detained another person as a
(12:43):
suspect in this crime who just happened to get They
saw him pulling in his driveway in an erratic manner,
and his name was Juan Daniel Dawson Vincent, and he
was driving the exact same car is my ex girlfriend.
And so they detained him and they took him to
(13:06):
one of the only eye witnesses who worked at a
bed and breakfast at the Garden Valley golf course, and
they took this guy, Juan Daniel Dawson Vincent, and had
this person at the bed and breakfast identify him and
he said, yes, that that was the driver of the
(13:26):
car with ninety five percent certainty. This was the only
eye witness to the crime who said that he could
identify the driver, and he identified this other guy in
the crime.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Looks like he sounds like he was writing radically around
the same time you were yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
Yes, And they said that he pulled into his driveway
and his brakes were smoking, and uh, there was damage
to his car that he couldn't explain, and it looked
like there was stuff slung all around inside of his car,
so they initially thought it was him, but eventually he
(14:09):
produced a time card showing that he had just got
off work a few minutes before the chase had started,
So that's what discluded him as the suspect. But back
to why I decided to plead guilty after two days
(14:35):
of evidence that really exonerated me. There was the letter
that came up, and I was kind of embarrassed by
that and by what the court was seeing me say
(14:57):
about my lawyer and my lawyer and me got into
it multiple times, like he got into it so much
in the courtroom that another lawyer spoke up and tried
to intervene and asked if I would like her to
assist in my representation. But on the day that the
(15:24):
letters were introduced, we had a juror that had a
family member died on my jury. So the judge wanted
to recess the trial, and my lawyer did not advise
me of my right to continue on with eleven jurors.
(15:45):
He just went with what the judge wanted, and the
juror even wanted to continue on with the trial. And
six times that juror said I would like to continue
on with the trial, and every time the judge overrode
her and said, no, I wouldn't feel right if we
did that. And so the judge re says the trial
(16:07):
for a week. And during this week, my lawyer goes
to look at the car that was allegedly used in
the chase. And this is mid trial. Now he had already,
(16:29):
or he supposedly already looked at the car before my
trial and didn't find any bullet holes or bullet markings
or anything like that. So now mid trial he goes
to look at the car. And in my mind, the
defense has nothing to gain by investigating the car. So
(16:56):
when he does this, he his investigator discovers a hole
in the catalytic converter of the car that I was driving.
So when we come back to court, the DA knows
(17:19):
about this. Now, all right, this this evidence was not
in my discovery. And as far as we know, that
DA had no knowledge of there being a bullet hole,
because they would have they would have had to put
this evidence in my discovery packet so that I would
be aware of the evidence against me. Right so, but
(17:43):
there was no mention of it until we get back
from the break in my trial. And now even though
my lawyer was the one that discovered it, he betrayed
this information to the DA and gave the DA evidence
to help convict me. Mm hmm. So when he came
(18:06):
when we reconvened for a court, he told me about
this bullet oh that he found, and he assured me
that with that evidence that I would be convicted of
the crime, and told me that my best bet was
to change my plea uh to guilty, and that he
(18:31):
had already talked to the DA and that I would
receive mercy from the court for changing my plea. Oh so, so.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
How long did it teach them to reach hey sentence?
Speaker 5 (18:51):
I believe after I played guilty. I think we came
back maybe a week maybe two weeks later, and I
opted to get sentenced by the judge instead of by
the jury. So when we came back, the judge sentenced
(19:16):
me to life in prison for this prome.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
And what was your reaction when he sent you to
life in prison?
Speaker 5 (19:29):
I was shocked. I was shocked, like, yeah, I couldn't
believe it. I couldn't believe it because the state trooper
that I was accused of assaulting had testified in these
two days of testimony that we had, and the judge
(19:53):
Sentia Kent heard that testimony.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Did you do it fault him?
Speaker 5 (20:00):
Yes, it is his testimony. Upon questioning, my lawyer asked him,
at what point in time did the car swerve out
of his lane in an effort to run you down?
His response was, I don't believe he ever swerved out
of his lane in an effort to run me down.
(20:24):
My lawyer then asked him if I ever tried to
hit him. His exact response was not that I could
tell no, sir. Right then, then my lawyer asked him,
did he come close to your cruiser and an effort
to do you some harm? His response, no, sir, not
(20:46):
that I could tell no, cirve, So I would sendence
to life by the judge who heard that exact testimony
where the officer said that I did not try to
swerve at him. Did not try to hit him, did
not try to harm him, And this is my first
(21:10):
time coming to prison.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
What was your family's reaction.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
They were shocked. To my stepdad, he screamed out in
the courtroom and everybody, everybody was shocked completely.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Yeah, he said, this is your first time in person.
It's all life sentence.
Speaker 5 (21:40):
Yes, Yes, nobody was hurt, no damage was done, There
was no physical contact, and the officer said that I
did not try to run him over.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
So first I would say, you're in prison. What was
that like for you?
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (22:04):
It was an adjustment. It was I mean more than anything.
The mental aspect of coming to prison and knowing you're
gonna be here for a really, really really long time
with the life sentence. That that was harder than the
(22:25):
physical aspect of what goes on in prison. Waking up
every day knowing I have a life Senate, it was Uh.
It took me about five years to accept it and
deal with it and get on with it to where
(22:46):
it didn't just consume my mind all of the time,
every thought that I had.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
So I go, doubt that consume your mind? How could
it not ass shames that kind of environment.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Now, Oka, But it was.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
What was Sam.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Sorry.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, the environment uh didn't really help because I, uh
my very first unit was Tilford Unit, which is notorious
for violence and games. So it was as a Max
Mac security and it is is still one of the
most notorious prisons in Texas for violence.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
M So what helped you start to uh adjust? I
guess I could say, I'll realize how you know there's
there's hope.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Well, at the time, I did have my appeals going
mm hmm, and I just found I found stuff to do,
working out, I found things to do to relieve stress
and get on get on and not just sit around
(24:12):
and think about my circumstances. I found constructive things to do.
I started reading, I started working on myself and waiting
on my appeals, just knowing that the appeals court was
going to fix this injustice.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
So as far as the appeals court goes like, how
has that process been for you?
Speaker 5 (24:42):
Uh, Well, the appeals courts are a joke. They're going
to They're going to deny you pretty much no matter what.
Unless you have like blatant constitutional errors that you can prove.
(25:05):
It's very hard to prove that stuff because you don't
have a camera in the courtroom. And if it's not
in your transcripts, then you can't prove it. Yeah, Like,
there were many things that happened in my trial that
didn't make it into my transcripts, one of them being
(25:29):
two of the witnesses against me threatened me. One of
them my ex girlfriend sent me a letter saying that
she was going to kill my unborn baby. And because
(25:50):
I had at the time, I had a girl pregnant
when I got locked up, and my ex girlfriend wrote
a letter saying that she was going to kill my
unborn baby, and I gave this letter. I gave this
letter to my lawyer, and soon after the letter disappeared,
(26:15):
I never heard anything else about the letter, and he
never brought it up. He never I don't know what
happened to it. And right before I started going to trial,
I walked in the courtroom one day and I always
(26:36):
shackled down in handcuffs and leg irons, and her dad
is in the courtroom with her, and he jumps up
and motions to me that he's gonna cut my head
off in the courtroom. My gosh, and he was going
to be one of the witnesses against me. So all
(27:02):
of the inmates that walked in the courtroom with me
that were shackled right there sitting in the same area.
They were all aware of my case and that I
was about to go to trial, and they all said
that I should speak up until the bailiff what just happened,
and that they were going to beat my witnesses.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
That this.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
God just threatened me in the courtroom. So I turned
around and looked at the bailiff and he motions to
me that he saw what happened. So the bailiff goes.
After the judge comes in, the bailiff goes and talks
(27:43):
to the judge and tells the judge that Tatum's dad,
John Terrroll, just openly threatened me in the courtroom. And
the judge calls him up in front of the courtroom
and she she tells him about himself and then tells
(28:04):
him to go wait in the DA's office until they
figure out what they're gonna do with them. They didn't
never put any charges on them, They just decided to
not use him to testify against me. So and that
was prior to my guilty please, So that is something
(28:28):
that's not on the record, and I don't I don't
know how I could get a record of that in
order to use that on an appeal, but because that
could potentially render my guilty plea involuntary, because a guilty
plea cannot be made under any type of threat. And
(28:52):
the court was well aware that I was threatened by
two of the witnesses against me.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
And and you're right, Like I was talking about the
appeals process, and I talked about this friend of mine
the podcast, like unless there's like he said, technicality out,
you know, they're you got to deny you And with
your case, you do have I mean you have, you
have more than one that but they didn't put in
(29:23):
the transcript And I've also run to that with people
I've been advocating for where they didn't put something in
the transcripts or they didn't give them the transcripts, which
is they're right. I mean, it's like what saying is
the joke, oh boy? But continuing right now, where what
(29:46):
can we do to help you the public? Because this
is where we step in. This is where all politicians,
at the end of the day, they work for us,
They work for the voters. There are employees repay their salary.
So we're the one with the I'll say so, and
when we see injustice, we speak up and they need
(30:08):
to listen because their jumper on the line. So how
can we help you?
Speaker 5 (30:12):
Yes, well, that's the best way that we can speak up.
We can call our politicians, we can call Smith County.
We can tell the judges and DA's in Smith County
that this is wrong and they need to make it right.
We can we can try to pass a law through
(30:39):
the legislative sessions that would address wrongful convictions and situations
like mine.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Integrity unit. And you're like every city.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
Yes, yes, and currently only the may your cities have
conviction integrity units like San Antonio, Dallas, Houston.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
So the DA that would be a good person. Where
is it you're located?
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Where is the DA located or where is it you're located? Uh? Well,
that happened in Smith County, Texas in Tyler.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
Okay, that's the DA we need to contact? Yes, Okay,
all right, got you there? So contact with DA Smith County, Texas?
What what how the senator there as well?
Speaker 5 (31:49):
The current judge over that court is Austin reed Jackson.
And I believe U that would be another good person
to contact. I have ah, so that about contacting the
Saint Trooper it gave the exonerating testimony and have him
(32:09):
to speak out. But yeah, I don't know how to
go about finding him.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
Yeah, that is something I definitely want to talk to
you about all after word on the interviews that you
have some advice there, So anybody listening, I'm just gonna
go ahead and give this advice right now, and you
and I will definitely talk about it too. But all
there are private investigators that can help. I just you know,
(32:38):
I don't want to keep this advice to myself, but
there are priory investigators that can help. And I will
leave for advice and the description because I don't want
to take up too much time with his interview with that.
But yelp, that thing you and I will talk about.
But as far as all anyone else, if they're a senator,
we can contact as well. Jean Cornan, Okay, that's his advocate.
(33:03):
He spoke thank you. Oh that sounds good. So what
would we say, like, can we get a reduction in sim.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
We can apply for a commutation of senate, but that
is almost unheard of in the state of Texas. Last
I checked, the last time a governor acted on a
commutation in Texas. It was two thousand and three mm.
(33:37):
So but that that is a possible avenue that we
could we could travel.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Well, it's still possible. With give it getting everyone on board.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
It's still possible.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
So yes, And also this where I want to encourage everyone.
I'm going to leave the links in my bio because
I have links where you can register the boat. Make
sure or check on your registration that's your still register
to vote in your area, because I can promise to
you we're an election year, every vote does count. You
(34:10):
need to participate your local elections, not just the big ones,
your local ones. Everything on the ballot, because they are
the ones who really decide if these laws get tasked,
if they're a criminal integrity unit that gets built. They
are the ones who make all those decisions subtle. Make
sure you're registered to vote. We vote every election year.
(34:34):
But but just you know, want to put out there
because what's not too far from you and that would
definitely help you.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
So yes, yes, I love the politician too a not
representing the people in enacting change and reform. We need
to vote them out of us.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
Its exactly because like I said, they work for us
and if they're not doing their job, vote them out.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
It definitely all right. So with the power in the
people's hands.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Yes, there we go. But so what unit of what
prison are you at now? Is it a mineral security? Person?
Speaker 5 (35:15):
Now, I'm at a maximum security Michael unit and uh
it's actually Tennessee Colony right next to the pile of
the same Texas m hm.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
So yeah, I I'll have a game for people who
are maximum security as well. So but I really love
the fact that you know, you've been reading, working out,
you just keeping yourself focused, like and tell you know,
despite your very just thing unfair again, I know I
(35:51):
say put it like a lot, but it's just that
that's really cutting it, my old league. But despite that,
you are doing very well. And I can tell you
hope is not lost, especially when we get the public
involvement and when they hear about this injustice, there's definitely hope,
absolutely and oh absolutely, And I do want to thank
(36:16):
you for coming on. We will have you back on
for sure. You just heard Wanica for a second, his
dead advocate. She will be on the show soon too,
so you will hear more from her. But yeah, we
will definitely continue to keep up with them this case
until he comes home. So Matthew, once again, I want
to thank you for coming on, thank you for having us,
(36:40):
thank you, and again we'll hear from them soon. We
will keep you up here in this case. We will
leave all the details in the description about how you
can help, and please keep spreading that word.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
So be afraid it.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Be care food, stars, and gut your baby. Don't add
a main ice s big, get it close to your heart.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
I love the precious kind of drive you crazy because
your eyes to the madness in the morning.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
It's all kind of man.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
It's don't be afraid of say, be careful with stars,
not every id's gone, and guide you.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Yeah, when I blow up, I'm gonna saw a highlight
Peter Pan in real life, be living at my dreams.
Come waking up percent the fourth land, whole wrist, covering
up in ice, stealing ship, never asked the price,
Zoon me afraid of it's side.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Be care, foodstacks, not every light is gone and.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Cart you baby, don't let a very nice back keep.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Me close to your house. I love the pressures kind
of javy kazy because.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
You are to the man.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
In the morning.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's all kinda then it's show me afraid of it'say,
be care, foodstades, not.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Every I didn't gone, and guide you.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah, when I blow up, I'm gonna saw a highlight
Peter Pan, real life, be living out my dreams. Come
waking up. It's in the four land, whole risk coming
up and.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Walk on the watch to find bars. I'm your host
Sar the armand I am very happy to have my
guests Matthew Dorset on the show. Matthew, welcome, Hi, how
are you good? Like I said, it's good to have
you on what you're under very circumstances. But I know
school against the future, So matt minded to put yourself
(01:04):
to you listeners.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
Here, my name is Matthew Dorsey and I am on
the Michael's Unit in Texas, in pakistin Texas, and I'm
here on a wrongful conviction with a disproportionate senate.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
So how long have you been incarcerated?
Speaker 5 (01:32):
November the second of this year, twenty twenty four, will
be eighteen.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Years And how old were you when you all were sentenced?
When I was.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
I was arrested when I was twenty two, and I
was sentenced when I was twenty three.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
So all right, let's go back to beginning. All so
this also place in Texas from my correct yes, ma'am. Okay,
so eighteen years ago. What was it that happened? Because
I know this was except a certain thing, it's all
putting it lightly. So can you walk us through what happened?
Speaker 5 (02:18):
Okay? So in August of two thousand and six, I
was driving to Lindale, Texas.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
I was speeding, I was feeding, and I had a
small amount of drugs in the car, specifically annex, and
a state trooper was on the road ahead of me,
facing towards me, parked on the side of the road,
and he turned his lights on, and.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
I'm sure it picked you out.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Yes, yes, I've panicked immediately because I've had several run
ins with law enforcement and every time I get pulled over,
I get searched, and I go through it all the way.
So I panicked and I hit the gas instead of
pulling over, and it ended up being a pursuit over
(03:26):
about forty five minutes, and I got chased by four
state troopers over this time. The first one that I
passed by, I got out of his sight almost immediately,
so by the time he made a U turn to
(03:49):
chase after me, I was already up the road right
and I went down some back roads and I came
out on Highway one scene in Garden Valley, and immediately
another state trooper got behind me, and I sped up again,
(04:12):
and after a little while I took him down some
back roads and I lost him also, and I continued.
I continued on down these back roads and I came
out by the airport and Tyler, and another state trooper
(04:38):
was to the U turn and got behind me and
came after me. It was approximately like ten o'clock in
the morning, so the sun was was kind of low
and it was in our eyes, and I got in
the turning lane to turn into a neighborhood, and the
(04:58):
state trooper could not see that I got in the
turning land because the sun was in his eyes, so
he went right past me. The third one went right
past me and So I turned into this little subdivision
and I was driving at a low rate of speed,
and I saw another state trooper on the end of
(05:20):
the road in this subdivision, unpleasant hollow road in Tyler,
and I was creeping about ten to fifteen miles an hour,
just trying to see if there was somebody in this car,
in this state trooper car. And as I got closer,
(05:42):
I could tell that there was somebody in the car,
and he started moving towards me. So when he got
close enough to where I felt like I could get
by him without him trying to block the road, I
hit the gas and when I did, he pulled over
to the side of the road and jumped out of
(06:02):
his car and started shooting at the towers on my vehicle.
He shot three times at the vehicle and missed, and
I proceeded on down the road and got away. Oh, yes,
(06:23):
now they're shooting at me, And yes I was. It
was a high adrenaline, high stake situation, and yes I was.
I was scared to death. I was trying not to
go to jail, and I was trying not to do
anything that was going to hurt anybody or get me
(06:45):
serious prison time. My soap. My sole intent was getaway,
get away, and I did that and I took At
the time, I was in my egg girlfriend's car, and
I took her car back to her and I told
(07:07):
her what happened because I was I did not know
if they got her license plate number or if they
would be able to identify her car. So I just
kind of warned her that that the cops might come
around trying to figure out who was driving her car.
(07:31):
And then I went to her roommate's house and I
told him about what happened, and he is the reason
that the whole investigation was triggered. He went to the
cops and told them that I told him about running
from the cops, and he wrote a statement. And this
(07:51):
is why I was implicated in the investigation. That is,
that was the what the whole case was based on
from the outset, because they did not get close enough
to the car to see the driver of the car.
And this issue came up during my trial. There was
(08:12):
no identification of the driver and there was no license
plate number, and most of the state troopers said they
were chasing a silver Poor Toys, but her car was
a golden Saturn eye on m So there were many
(08:32):
discrepancies on the description of the car, and the only
thing implicating me was my ex girlfriend's roommate saying that
I told him I committed this.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Crown, did all the police talk them into testifying against him?
Speaker 5 (08:54):
Yes, they did. I was still riding to my ex
girlfriend when I was in the county jail awaiting charal
and she had not planned on testifying on me, but
she had pending charges, and just before my trial started,
(09:18):
they arrested her in the courtroom and they used her
pending charges to sway her to testify.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
I was saying they used that against her.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Yes, so so, but she was not a witness to
the crime, and nor was her roommate. I was by myself.
There were no witnesses.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
So what was that they persuaded them to say against you?
Speaker 5 (09:50):
Well, all he could say was that I told him
that I ran from the cops. Oh she could say
was that I used her car on the day that
this happened. That's what they were going to testify too.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
So why isn't your lawyer convinced fumes she played guilty.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Well, there were multiple things going on during my trial.
We had already had uh two days of trial before
I pleaded guilty.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
And.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Several things had happened. The day that I played guilty,
my ex girlfriend Tatum, brought a letter to the da
and this letter contained disparaging remarks about my trial attorney.
(10:59):
And these letters, I was talking about his represent representation
and I said that he was fat and worthless in
this letter. And so the DA's introduced these letters to
the court pretty much to turn my lawyer against me.
But my lawyer was against me. My lawyer was against
(11:20):
me from day one. And the first time I talked
to him, that's what he was trying to get me
to do is flee guilty.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
I got hurt ball. I've seen that actually happen in
person where a person was a completely and sudden yet
their attorneys were still trying to get them to play guilty,
still trying.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
To take yeah, yes, And he was trying to convince
me that there was evidence that didn't exist. Like the
first time he came to see me, he said, they
have you on video, and I said that I want
to see that video. So he comes back to see
(11:59):
me about a week later and he's like, well, there
is no video, and I said, well, why did you
tell me that they have me on video, and he said, well,
there is a video, but you can't see anything on
the video. Well, there were i believe four videos from
the patrol cars of the State troopers, and you can't
(12:22):
see anything. You can, like, in two of the videos
you can barely see the car and the other two
you can't see anything. And upon watching those videos, I
learned that they had initially detained another person as a
(12:43):
suspect in this crime who just happened to get They
saw him pulling in his driveway in an erratic manner,
and his name was Juan Daniel Dawson Vincent, and he
was driving the exact same car is my ex girlfriend.
And so they detained him and they took him to
(13:06):
one of the only eye witnesses who worked at a
bed and breakfast at the Garden Valley golf course, and
they took this guy, Juan Daniel Dawson Vincent, and had
this person at the bed and breakfast identify him and
he said, yes, that that was the driver of the
(13:26):
car with ninety five percent certainty. This was the only
eye witness to the crime who said that he could
identify the driver, and he identified this other guy in
the crime.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Looks like he sounds like he was writing radically around
the same time you were yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
Yes, And they said that he pulled into his driveway
and his brakes were smoking, and uh, there was damage
to his car that he couldn't explain, and it looked
like there was stuff slung all around inside of his car,
so they initially thought it was him, but eventually he
(14:09):
produced a time card showing that he had just got
off work a few minutes before the chase had started,
So that's what discluded him as the suspect. But back
to why I decided to plead guilty after two days
(14:35):
of evidence that really exonerated me. There was the letter
that came up, and I was kind of embarrassed by
that and by what the court was seeing me say
(14:57):
about my lawyer and my lawyer and me got into
it multiple times, like he got into it so much
in the courtroom that another lawyer spoke up and tried
to intervene and asked if I would like her to
assist in my representation. But on the day that the
(15:24):
letters were introduced, we had a juror that had a
family member died on my jury. So the judge wanted
to recess the trial, and my lawyer did not advise
me of my right to continue on with eleven jurors.
(15:45):
He just went with what the judge wanted, and the
juror even wanted to continue on with the trial. And
six times that juror said I would like to continue
on with the trial, and every time the judge overrode
her and said, no, I wouldn't feel right if we
did that. And so the judge re says the trial
(16:07):
for a week. And during this week, my lawyer goes
to look at the car that was allegedly used in
the chase. And this is mid trial. Now he had already,
(16:29):
or he supposedly already looked at the car before my
trial and didn't find any bullet holes or bullet markings
or anything like that. So now mid trial he goes
to look at the car. And in my mind, the
defense has nothing to gain by investigating the car. So
(16:56):
when he does this, he his investigator discovers a hole
in the catalytic converter of the car that I was driving.
So when we come back to court, the DA knows
(17:19):
about this. Now, all right, this this evidence was not
in my discovery. And as far as we know, that
DA had no knowledge of there being a bullet hole,
because they would have they would have had to put
this evidence in my discovery packet so that I would
be aware of the evidence against me. Right so, but
(17:43):
there was no mention of it until we get back
from the break in my trial. And now even though
my lawyer was the one that discovered it, he betrayed
this information to the DA and gave the DA evidence
to help convict me. Mm hmm. So when he came
(18:06):
when we reconvened for a court, he told me about
this bullet oh that he found, and he assured me
that with that evidence that I would be convicted of
the crime, and told me that my best bet was
to change my plea uh to guilty, and that he
(18:31):
had already talked to the DA and that I would
receive mercy from the court for changing my plea. Oh so, so.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
How long did it teach them to reach hey sentence?
Speaker 5 (18:51):
I believe after I played guilty. I think we came
back maybe a week maybe two weeks later, and I
opted to get sentenced by the judge instead of by
the jury. So when we came back, the judge sentenced
(19:16):
me to life in prison for this prome.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
And what was your reaction when he sent you to
life in prison?
Speaker 5 (19:29):
I was shocked. I was shocked, like, yeah, I couldn't
believe it. I couldn't believe it because the state trooper
that I was accused of assaulting had testified in these
two days of testimony that we had, and the judge
(19:53):
Sentia Kent heard that testimony.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Did you do it fault him?
Speaker 5 (20:00):
Yes, it is his testimony. Upon questioning, my lawyer asked him,
at what point in time did the car swerve out
of his lane in an effort to run you down?
His response was, I don't believe he ever swerved out
of his lane in an effort to run me down.
(20:24):
My lawyer then asked him if I ever tried to
hit him. His exact response was not that I could
tell no, sir. Right then, then my lawyer asked him,
did he come close to your cruiser and an effort
to do you some harm? His response, no, sir, not
(20:46):
that I could tell no, cirve, So I would sendence
to life by the judge who heard that exact testimony
where the officer said that I did not try to
swerve at him. Did not try to hit him, did
not try to harm him, And this is my first
(21:10):
time coming to prison.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
What was your family's reaction.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
They were shocked. To my stepdad, he screamed out in
the courtroom and everybody, everybody was shocked completely.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Yeah, he said, this is your first time in person.
It's all life sentence.
Speaker 5 (21:40):
Yes, Yes, nobody was hurt, no damage was done, There
was no physical contact, and the officer said that I
did not try to run him over.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
So first I would say, you're in prison. What was
that like for you?
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (22:04):
It was an adjustment. It was I mean more than anything.
The mental aspect of coming to prison and knowing you're
gonna be here for a really, really really long time
with the life sentence. That that was harder than the
(22:25):
physical aspect of what goes on in prison. Waking up
every day knowing I have a life Senate, it was Uh.
It took me about five years to accept it and
deal with it and get on with it to where
(22:46):
it didn't just consume my mind all of the time,
every thought that I had.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
So I go, doubt that consume your mind? How could
it not ass shames that kind of environment.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Now, Oka, But it was.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
What was Sam.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Sorry.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, the environment uh didn't really help because I, uh
my very first unit was Tilford Unit, which is notorious
for violence and games. So it was as a Max
Mac security and it is is still one of the
most notorious prisons in Texas for violence.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
M So what helped you start to uh adjust? I
guess I could say, I'll realize how you know there's
there's hope.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Well, at the time, I did have my appeals going
mm hmm, and I just found I found stuff to do,
working out, I found things to do to relieve stress
and get on get on and not just sit around
(24:12):
and think about my circumstances. I found constructive things to do.
I started reading, I started working on myself and waiting
on my appeals, just knowing that the appeals court was
going to fix this injustice.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
So as far as the appeals court goes like, how
has that process been for you?
Speaker 5 (24:42):
Uh, Well, the appeals courts are a joke. They're going
to They're going to deny you pretty much no matter what.
Unless you have like blatant constitutional errors that you can prove.
(25:05):
It's very hard to prove that stuff because you don't
have a camera in the courtroom. And if it's not
in your transcripts, then you can't prove it. Yeah, Like,
there were many things that happened in my trial that
didn't make it into my transcripts, one of them being
(25:29):
two of the witnesses against me threatened me. One of
them my ex girlfriend sent me a letter saying that
she was going to kill my unborn baby. And because
(25:50):
I had at the time, I had a girl pregnant
when I got locked up, and my ex girlfriend wrote
a letter saying that she was going to kill my
unborn baby, and I gave this letter. I gave this
letter to my lawyer, and soon after the letter disappeared,
(26:15):
I never heard anything else about the letter, and he
never brought it up. He never I don't know what
happened to it. And right before I started going to trial,
I walked in the courtroom one day and I always
(26:36):
shackled down in handcuffs and leg irons, and her dad
is in the courtroom with her, and he jumps up
and motions to me that he's gonna cut my head
off in the courtroom. My gosh, and he was going
to be one of the witnesses against me. So all
(27:02):
of the inmates that walked in the courtroom with me
that were shackled right there sitting in the same area.
They were all aware of my case and that I
was about to go to trial, and they all said
that I should speak up until the bailiff what just happened,
and that they were going to beat my witnesses.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
That this.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
God just threatened me in the courtroom. So I turned
around and looked at the bailiff and he motions to
me that he saw what happened. So the bailiff goes.
After the judge comes in, the bailiff goes and talks
(27:43):
to the judge and tells the judge that Tatum's dad,
John Terrroll, just openly threatened me in the courtroom. And
the judge calls him up in front of the courtroom
and she she tells him about himself and then tells
(28:04):
him to go wait in the DA's office until they
figure out what they're gonna do with them. They didn't
never put any charges on them, They just decided to
not use him to testify against me. So and that
was prior to my guilty please, So that is something
(28:28):
that's not on the record, and I don't I don't
know how I could get a record of that in
order to use that on an appeal, but because that
could potentially render my guilty plea involuntary, because a guilty
plea cannot be made under any type of threat. And
(28:52):
the court was well aware that I was threatened by
two of the witnesses against me.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
And and you're right, Like I was talking about the
appeals process, and I talked about this friend of mine
the podcast, like unless there's like he said, technicality out,
you know, they're you got to deny you And with
your case, you do have I mean you have, you
have more than one that but they didn't put in
(29:23):
the transcript And I've also run to that with people
I've been advocating for where they didn't put something in
the transcripts or they didn't give them the transcripts, which
is they're right. I mean, it's like what saying is
the joke, oh boy? But continuing right now, where what
(29:46):
can we do to help you the public? Because this
is where we step in. This is where all politicians,
at the end of the day, they work for us,
They work for the voters. There are employees repay their salary.
So we're the one with the I'll say so, and
when we see injustice, we speak up and they need
(30:08):
to listen because their jumper on the line. So how
can we help you?
Speaker 5 (30:12):
Yes, well, that's the best way that we can speak up.
We can call our politicians, we can call Smith County.
We can tell the judges and DA's in Smith County
that this is wrong and they need to make it right.
We can we can try to pass a law through
(30:39):
the legislative sessions that would address wrongful convictions and situations
like mine.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Integrity unit. And you're like every city.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
Yes, yes, and currently only the may your cities have
conviction integrity units like San Antonio, Dallas, Houston.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
So the DA that would be a good person. Where
is it you're located?
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Where is the DA located or where is it you're located? Uh? Well,
that happened in Smith County, Texas in Tyler.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
Okay, that's the DA we need to contact? Yes, Okay,
all right, got you there? So contact with DA Smith County, Texas?
What what how the senator there as well?
Speaker 5 (31:49):
The current judge over that court is Austin reed Jackson.
And I believe U that would be another good person
to contact. I have ah, so that about contacting the
Saint Trooper it gave the exonerating testimony and have him
(32:09):
to speak out. But yeah, I don't know how to
go about finding him.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
Yeah, that is something I definitely want to talk to
you about all after word on the interviews that you
have some advice there, So anybody listening, I'm just gonna
go ahead and give this advice right now, and you
and I will definitely talk about it too. But all
there are private investigators that can help. I just you know,
(32:38):
I don't want to keep this advice to myself, but
there are priory investigators that can help. And I will
leave for advice and the description because I don't want
to take up too much time with his interview with that.
But yelp, that thing you and I will talk about.
But as far as all anyone else, if they're a senator,
we can contact as well. Jean Cornan, Okay, that's his advocate.
(33:03):
He spoke thank you. Oh that sounds good. So what
would we say, like, can we get a reduction in sim.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
We can apply for a commutation of senate, but that
is almost unheard of in the state of Texas. Last
I checked, the last time a governor acted on a
commutation in Texas. It was two thousand and three mm.
(33:37):
So but that that is a possible avenue that we
could we could travel.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Well, it's still possible. With give it getting everyone on board.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
It's still possible.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
So yes, And also this where I want to encourage everyone.
I'm going to leave the links in my bio because
I have links where you can register the boat. Make
sure or check on your registration that's your still register
to vote in your area, because I can promise to
you we're an election year, every vote does count. You
(34:10):
need to participate your local elections, not just the big ones,
your local ones. Everything on the ballot, because they are
the ones who really decide if these laws get tasked,
if they're a criminal integrity unit that gets built. They
are the ones who make all those decisions subtle. Make
sure you're registered to vote. We vote every election year.
(34:34):
But but just you know, want to put out there
because what's not too far from you and that would
definitely help you.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
So yes, yes, I love the politician too a not
representing the people in enacting change and reform. We need
to vote them out of us.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
Its exactly because like I said, they work for us
and if they're not doing their job, vote them out.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
It definitely all right. So with the power in the
people's hands.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Yes, there we go. But so what unit of what
prison are you at now? Is it a mineral security? Person?
Speaker 5 (35:15):
Now, I'm at a maximum security Michael unit and uh
it's actually Tennessee Colony right next to the pile of
the same Texas m hm.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
So yeah, I I'll have a game for people who
are maximum security as well. So but I really love
the fact that you know, you've been reading, working out,
you just keeping yourself focused, like and tell you know,
despite your very just thing unfair again, I know I
(35:51):
say put it like a lot, but it's just that
that's really cutting it, my old league. But despite that,
you are doing very well. And I can tell you
hope is not lost, especially when we get the public
involvement and when they hear about this injustice, there's definitely hope,
absolutely and oh absolutely, And I do want to thank
(36:16):
you for coming on. We will have you back on
for sure. You just heard Wanica for a second, his
dead advocate. She will be on the show soon too,
so you will hear more from her. But yeah, we
will definitely continue to keep up with them this case
until he comes home. So Matthew, once again, I want
to thank you for coming on, thank you for having us,
(36:40):
thank you, and again we'll hear from them soon. We
will keep you up here in this case. We will
leave all the details in the description about how you
can help, and please keep spreading that word.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
So be afraid it.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Be care food, stars, and gut your baby. Don't add
a main ice s big, get it close to your heart.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
I love the precious kind of drive you crazy because
your eyes to the madness in the morning.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
It's all kind of man.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
It's don't be afraid of say, be careful with stars,
not every id's gone, and guide you.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Yeah, when I blow up, I'm gonna saw a highlight
Peter Pan in real life, be living at my dreams.
Come waking up percent the fourth land, whole wrist, covering
up in ice, stealing ship, never asked the price,
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