0:00

A warning for listeners, this episode

0:03

contains discussion of child's sexual

0:05

abuse. Please listen with caution

0:07

and care. In

0:16

the summer of two thousand and one, Larinda Swain

0:18

was a forty year old single mother of two

0:21

living in Union City, Michigan. She

0:23

had just completed a three month jail

0:25

term for a drug charge and was back

0:27

home on parole. Larinda

0:30

was looking forward to seeing her boys, Ronnie

0:32

and Cody, who had been living with their

0:35

father while she was in jail. She'd

0:37

been trying to reach her ex husband to arrange

0:39

it, but he hadn't returned any.

0:41

Of her calls.

0:43

Larinda was relaxing in the bathtub at her

0:45

parents' farmhouse when there was a knock at

0:47

the door.

0:49

And so my dad tells that the police are

0:51

there. I figured the cops

0:53

was through there, and they're likes trying to say I threatened them

0:56

about having visitation, But

0:58

it.

0:59

Was much more serious than that.

1:02

When I tell people that I was sentenced twenty five

1:04

to fifty years, they automatically

1:06

assumed that I was accused of murder, and

1:09

I always tell them, no, I was accused of

1:11

worse than that.

1:13

From love of for good, This is wrongful

1:15

conviction with Maggie Freeling today

1:18

Lorenda Swain. Lorenda

1:34

Swain was born in nineteen sixty in

1:36

Hamilton, Ohio. The family

1:38

later moved to Michigan. She was the middle

1:41

child of six.

1:43

I've always heard that that's a bad place to be, you

1:45

know, But to be honest, my siblings,

1:47

if you had to ask every one of them who they're

1:49

the closest to, it would probably be me. So

1:53

I like to be in the middle child. I had the

1:55

very loving parents, George and Fay.

1:58

They've been married sixty eight years. My

2:01

dad was a two on die maker. My mother was

2:03

like a homemaker till we were all

2:05

in school, and then she got a job so that we

2:07

could buy a farm.

2:10

Laarinda admits that as a child she had

2:12

some unusual hobbies.

2:15

I was the cleaner out of the family. I

2:17

to cook and clean, and when I was a kid,

2:19

I would like, you know, stay up all night

2:21

and clean the silver drawers.

2:24

But she also enjoyed more typical

2:26

kid things.

2:28

Well. I had a good childhood.

2:30

I liked sports. We camped and

2:32

fished. My mom always took us to Saltaban

2:35

and we'd get cherries and ice cream

2:37

on the way. A

2:39

lot of my life felt very lucky to be me.

2:45

When she was a teenager, the family moved

2:47

to a farm in Burlington, about

2:49

forty miles away. Before

2:51

long, Larinda fell for someone and

2:53

they started a serious relationship. She

2:56

was seventeen, he was twenty seven.

2:58

They moved in together a year later.

3:01

Living together back then was like a big deal and

3:04

my parents were like, you know, we'll

3:06

design you. And the next week they were like

3:08

at my house and loved my husband. And I

3:11

lived there like maybe two years before we got

3:13

married. And then I was married to him for seven years.

3:16

But that marriage didn't work out, and

3:18

at twenty eight, Lorenda found herself

3:20

in transition, about to be divorced,

3:23

living in Union City, Michigan, and

3:25

working at a local Italian restaurant.

3:28

And that is where she met Ronald Swain.

3:31

I slipped on a piece of ice

3:33

cleaning up the salad bar Italian

3:35

pasta bar, and ron

3:38

you know, came to rescue me and

3:41

I met him, And to be honest, I you know, like

3:43

I said, I was getting a divorce from my first

3:45

marriage, and I ended up having to worry

3:47

if my divorce was going to be final Before

3:50

we got married.

3:51

Ron was sixteen years older than Lorenda,

3:54

and as she describes him, he was handsome

3:56

enough to be a movie star. He already

3:58

had a daughter and just says he was a

4:00

good dad. She looked forward to starting

4:02

a family with him.

4:04

I used to love kids more than anybody in

4:06

the entire world. I'm talking nieces and

4:08

nephews. Prior to having my

4:10

own children. We

4:13

tried twice to have a test two baby and it didn't

4:15

work. So we ended up getting

4:17

into foster care and adopting.

4:23

They adopted two boys, Ronnie and Cody

4:25

Joe, who were thirteen months apart.

4:29

They brought me a lot of joy, they did.

4:32

I loved them and I was so happy

4:34

being a mom. I was so I

4:37

spoiled them. They brought me so

4:39

much joy.

4:40

Oh, she was

4:42

an Ulliban mother.

4:45

This is George Johnson, Lorenda's father.

4:48

She loved them, ever loved

4:50

her child.

4:51

But she couldn't have children, and so

4:54

where she got to adopt these two bull

4:57

boys.

4:57

It was like a guest from God, you know, worship

5:00

them boys.

5:03

But unfortunately ron didn't

5:05

feel the same about the children.

5:06

Lorenda says, they didn't

5:09

make him happy. And you know, so

5:13

you know, the marriage didn't work out, and I

5:16

think they were like five and six, maybe

5:19

four and five. When

5:21

we got divorced, I had the custody

5:24

and he hardly visited. You

5:26

know, he got to claim him for taxes

5:29

as long as he was current on support, and

5:32

he didn't even come and visit

5:35

home, or you know.

5:37

Is this her the two boys as their family

5:39

now? She really

5:41

pleased that she was the

5:43

mother and the father and

5:45

they wasn't going to be short changed in any

5:48

way.

5:49

But still being a single parent

5:52

wasn't easy. Lorenda says, before

5:54

long, things in her life started to go downhill.

5:57

She found a new boyfriend who turned out

5:59

to be violent, and he introduced her

6:01

to hard drugs.

6:06

And that's what I'm guilty of, is that I made

6:08

a bad choice.

6:11

I did use crack. I

6:14

did I was depressed, and you

6:16

know, maybe that's just an excuse whatever. I

6:19

never even knew what it was and sure

6:21

didn't plan it, and it's one of my deepest

6:23

regrets, but it's you know, I

6:25

can't change it.

6:28

After she got out of that relationship, Lorenda

6:31

got back on her feet. Her living situation

6:33

got more stable, and she began to feel like

6:35

she and the boys were doing okay.

6:39

I was living with a boyfriend that I

6:42

did treework for in my parents

6:45

one of their rental properties. They

6:47

had more than one, and I

6:49

would move there and I would like fix it up,

6:51

landscape, clean the yard, clean the house.

6:54

That great, and then they would get me to

6:56

move to another. We'll get Larna to move there because

6:58

she'll fix it up.

7:00

But then Lorenda made another

7:02

bad choice. She stole one

7:04

of her parents' credit cards and used

7:06

it to score drugs.

7:08

She got it, maxed it out, maxed

7:11

it out overnight.

7:14

My parents didn't prosecute, but

7:17

I got probation. I had no criminal

7:19

history prior to this.

7:22

Lorenda wasn't incarcerated, but she

7:24

was on parole and she couldn't

7:27

kick old habits.

7:29

I did go back out news and

7:31

my dad loved me and was so worried about

7:33

me that he turned me in. He

7:36

wanted me to go to jail because he was afraid if I didn't

7:38

that I was going to get killed. You know,

7:40

doing drugs.

7:42

Well that was really the We

7:45

got to do something, and

7:48

you steal from your parents, that's about

7:50

as low as you can get, you know. And

7:53

we worked with her all along, but

7:55

at that point somebody else had to help

7:57

her.

7:58

I wasn't able to do it.

8:00

Lorendo was sent to prison on the drug violation

8:03

for ninety days, and while

8:05

she was there, Ronnie and Cody were in the custody

8:07

of their dad and his new wife Lynn.

8:10

When Lorendo was released in August of two

8:13

thousand and one, she was still on probation

8:15

and had to wear an ankle monitor. She

8:18

wasted no time trying to contact

8:20

ron to see her children.

8:22

And my husband wouldn't answer the phone or whatever,

8:25

and I just told that, Hey, if you don't get a hold of

8:27

me by Friday, you'll be in contempt

8:29

at court.

8:30

A couple of days later, Lorinda was

8:32

at her parents' farm.

8:34

I'm actually in the bathtub with my leg

8:36

up on the side of the tub with a

8:38

plastic bag around it because back then you couldn't

8:40

get the tethers wet. And so

8:43

my dad tells that the police are there. I

8:50

figured the cops will be there, and they're likes trying to say

8:52

I threatened them about having

8:54

visitation.

8:55

But it wasn't about the visitation at

8:57

all. The police were there to take

9:00

Lorenda in. She had been accused

9:02

of committing an unimaginable

9:04

crime.

9:12

And so can you walk us through what happened

9:14

in this case, not necessarily the prosecution

9:17

theory, but what happened.

9:19

Ronnie, who was the older son, who

9:21

by this point was about fourteen years

9:23

old, was caught by

9:25

his stepmother committing

9:27

sexual misconduct with a relative.

9:29

This is Dave Moran. He's the co director

9:32

and co founder of the Michigan Innocence Clinic

9:34

at the University of Michigan Law School.

9:37

And the stepmother apparently suggested

9:40

to Ronnie that he must have learned

9:42

that from someone else, and

9:45

Ronnie then implicated Lorenda and

9:47

claimed that Lorenda had performed

9:50

oral sex on him.

9:51

According to the allegations, this had

9:54

all happened years before, when Ronnie

9:56

was about seven.

9:58

Many many times, in fact, every day before

10:01

catching the school bus. According to Ronnie, Lorenda

10:04

pulled down his pants and performed oral sex on

10:06

him.

10:07

Ronnie was the most honest kid.

10:10

So when they first accused me of it down

10:12

at the jail halls after they've picked me up

10:14

at my parents' firm, I told

10:16

the guy, I don't believe Ronnie said that. He said

10:18

I witnessed Ronnie said, I said, well, then he's

10:20

a goddamn liar. Because I said,

10:23

I never dreamed of doing

10:25

that.

10:26

Oh, I know she didn't do it. I

10:28

know she didn't do it the

10:31

way she loved them. Rayne

10:33

don't Wayne Hill and she harmed up boys

10:36

like something like that.

10:38

But based on Ronnie's allegation alone,

10:40

Lorenda was arrested and charged

10:43

with sexually molesting her oldest son.

10:45

The trial was scheduled for the following August,

10:49

and then soon after his mother was

10:51

arrested, Ronnie confessed that

10:53

the story was a lie. It

10:55

would be the first of many times that

10:57

he tried to recant.

11:03

The first time he recranted, my dad

11:05

and my sister and my

11:08

nephew went with a tape

11:10

recorder thing and asked

11:13

if they, you know, he would

11:15

talk to him, and he agreed to.

11:17

You know, I asked him, what on earth did you?

11:20

You know? What? What's sadil? And

11:24

me it wasn't true.

11:26

Then they called the other grandma, his birth grandma,

11:28

and he admitted to her that I didn't do it, And

11:31

he admitted to my parents that I didn't do it,

11:34

and my dad had it on tape.

11:36

But those tapes were never introduced

11:38

at trial by Lorenda's defense.

11:41

My lawyer just counted on Ronnie

11:43

telling the truth, and

11:46

that was when I realized at the trial, I'm

11:48

going to be found guilty.

12:01

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12:03

Freeling. You can listen to this and all

12:06

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12:22

Lorenda's trial began in August of

12:24

two thousand and two in Calhoun County,

12:27

Michigan. The

12:30

primary witnesses for the prosecution were

12:32

Ronnie, who was now fifteen, and

12:34

his younger brother, Cody, who was fourteen.

12:38

Cody didn't implicate her directly in any kind

12:40

of sexual misconduct, but just

12:42

kind of backed up that she supposedly

12:45

had behaved inappropriately. Then

12:48

you had the stepmother testifying

12:50

about what Ronnie had told

12:52

her, and that was pretty

12:54

much. Yet the prosecution didn't really have any other

12:57

substantial witnesses.

12:59

The story worry that the jury heard from Ronnie and

13:01

Cody at trial went like

13:03

this.

13:04

The allegations were quite specific,

13:07

namely that for this period of several

13:09

years, Lorenda would get the

13:12

boys up and get them ready for school, and then

13:14

she would send the younger son, Cody

13:16

out to wait for the school bus, and

13:18

then she would molest Ronnie, and

13:21

then Cody would come running down the driveway

13:23

to alert everybody that the school bus

13:25

was coming, and then Lorenda

13:28

would pull up Ronnie's pants and send them out

13:30

there to join Cody and catch the bus.

13:32

No kid ever waited out there alone. They

13:35

usually were watching cartoons, eating

13:37

fruit roll ups, and when I see

13:39

the bus coming, I'd had to hurry

13:41

and get them to go run out to the end of the driveway.

13:44

You know what I'm saying. No one kid ever

13:46

sat out there by himself.

13:48

And so Lorenda at her trial,

13:50

she didn't have a very good lawyer, but she

13:53

tried to assert the defenses herself, and

13:55

so at one point while she was testifying, she blurted

13:58

out, the story is not true, asked

14:00

the neighbor boy and the school bus driver.

14:03

My lawyer should stop the trial right then, and said, look,

14:05

we need to get the bus driver in. The little

14:07

neighbor boy so he was telling the truth here,

14:10

but he didn't do that.

14:12

Instead, Lorenda's attorney was

14:14

counting on Ronnie to tell the truth on the stand,

14:17

but that didn't happen either.

14:20

Ronnie recanted before trial and

14:23

in fact, he recanted at trial,

14:25

and then he had a private conversation

14:28

with a prosecutor. Then he came back in and unrecanted.

14:31

My lawyer said to Ronnie three times,

14:33

don't you want to tell the truth here today? The

14:35

third time Ronnie started crying, the

14:38

judge stopped the trial ordered everybody

14:41

out of the courtroom. I

14:44

knew he was crying because he knew I had

14:46

never dreamed of doing anything like that.

14:49

But I realized to the twelve strangers,

14:52

they think he's crying because they guy

14:54

really did do this.

14:57

On August twentieth, two thousand and two, the

15:00

jury found Lorenda guilty on all

15:02

four counts of first degree criminal

15:04

sexual conduct. She was

15:06

sentenced to twenty five to fifty

15:09

years in prison.

15:11

When I was first found guilty of a

15:13

crime I never dreamed of doing, I

15:16

was sure. I was so naive to think

15:18

that when they realized that I

15:20

didn't do it, they'll tear the doors down,

15:23

you know. Eventually, I

15:25

knew they knew they had made a mistake,

15:28

but they'd sooner appeal

15:31

or fight it and not care if

15:33

my family and my life is wrecked.

15:39

To this day, I can't believe it was real.

15:42

The whole while I was in there. I knew it was real,

15:45

but I couldn't believe it was real at

15:47

the same time. You

15:49

know, I've done some wrong in my day, I

15:52

really have, but I sure

15:54

didn't do this. Like

15:58

I said, a lot in my life, I felt really lucky

16:01

to be me. But when

16:04

I was in a jail cell on my forty

16:07

first birthday, accused of when

16:09

I was accused of, I felt

16:11

like the most unlucky person

16:13

in the entire world for a very

16:16

long time. You

16:37

know, when I tell people that I was sentenced twenty

16:39

five to fifty years, they automatically

16:41

assumed that I was accused of murder,

16:45

and how always tell him, no, I was accused

16:47

of worse than that. You

16:50

know, I would have rather been accused of killing my mom

16:52

and dad than to be accused of molesting

16:54

your adopted son.

16:56

You know, Laurinda

17:04

knew that because of the nature of the crime she

17:06

was charged with, she was going to have

17:08

a tough time of it in prison.

17:10

People were cruel to some

17:13

people, and a lot of

17:15

times it was like sexual assault people.

17:18

You know, I had a couple different

17:20

confrontations where one girl did say

17:22

to me, you sucked your kid's dick the

17:25

size of my pinky and put her pinky up

17:27

and said that in my face. The

17:30

thought was in my head to pick

17:32

the pan up and beat her fricking

17:35

brains out. But

17:41

God also put the thought in my head. Sticks

17:43

and stones can break your bones, but

17:46

names can never harm you unless you hurt

17:48

that girl. I'll

17:51

tell you what I drink. I

17:53

smoke pot. I swear. I

17:57

certainly am not a saint, but I

17:59

love God. I know he's real. I'm

18:01

sorry, I'm the sinner. I talked to him all

18:03

the time, and when I was in

18:05

prison, I was talking to him and I was even swearing

18:08

at him, telling them the Bible is a damn

18:10

lie says, you don't put more on

18:12

us and we can bear, and this is way more than I

18:14

can bear.

18:24

The Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan

18:26

opened its doors in January of two thousand

18:29

and nine. Dave remembers that Lorenda's

18:32

was one of the first cases they took on.

18:34

We took it within the first few months of

18:36

the clinic being open because

18:39

it came to us recommended by Bill Procter,

18:41

who was an investigative journalist and

18:44

then later private investigator that

18:47

we knew and trusted, and we heard from Brad

18:49

Edwards, another investigative journalist who'd done a story

18:51

on Lorenda's case, and so after

18:54

meeting Lorenda in prison, we very quickly

18:56

decided to take on the case.

18:58

Well, so how did you disprove it? Because that's the like

19:00

what it was. It was ninety six and ninety four

19:02

he said his mom was molesting him, and

19:05

now you know, we're years later.

19:06

So how did you Well, because

19:09

we talked to Ronnie

19:12

pretty early on and Cody both

19:14

and they were both firm that

19:16

this did not happen, that Ronnie

19:20

and Cody had been manipulated

19:22

by the stepmother into making

19:24

these charges against Lorenda, And so that

19:27

made us think that this was a wrongful

19:29

conviction. But we knew that Ronnie

19:31

and Cody alone couldn't do it because they had

19:34

already recanted. So that wasn't going to be new

19:36

evidence. We had to find new evidence, and the

19:38

most obvious place to look was

19:40

what Lorendo had shout out at trial,

19:42

the they were kid and the school bus driver. The

19:45

jury never heard from them, what

19:47

about that neighbor boy? What about that school bus driver?

19:49

And we found them and the

19:51

neighbor boy agreed that the

19:54

Swain brothers came out every morning together

19:56

and waited with him for the school bus. And

19:59

then we actually found the school bus driver, and

20:01

she had an amazing memory

20:05

of the routes that she drove and

20:07

who she picked up at each point.

20:10

At a post conviction hearing before Judge Conrad,

20:12

since both the neighbor and the bus

20:15

driver were called as witnesses, the

20:19

bus driver testified that she saw the Swain

20:22

brothers waiting at the stop together every

20:24

day along with the neighbor boy. She

20:27

never saw Cody running to get his brother

20:29

from the house.

20:31

The prosecutor got up, you know, just

20:33

dripping with sarcasm, like, oh yeah, sure,

20:35

after all these years. You know, by

20:37

this point we're close to twenty years or

20:39

fifteen twenty years, and so so the prosecutor

20:42

just fell right into the trap and he said, all right,

20:44

so you know, who did you pick up the stop

20:46

before the Swains? And she named

20:48

like two or three kids, and all

20:51

right, what about what about the stop before

20:53

that? She named two or three more kids. Well what about to stop

20:55

after the swing kids? And she named the kids she

20:57

picked up there, and you can just tell the judge

21:00

was utterly convinced by this veteran

21:02

school bus driver with the photographic memory.

21:05

And in their investigation, Dave's

21:08

team had uncovered another witness,

21:10

Dennis Book, who was Larinda's

21:12

living boyfriend at the time of the alleged

21:15

abuse.

21:16

And he provided utterly crucial testimony

21:18

because he was there when

21:21

the boys would catch the bus, because he

21:23

would leave after that to go to work, and

21:25

so he could affirm that this absolutely

21:28

didn't happen. And what made him such

21:30

a great witness was that he absolutely

21:32

hated Larinda. They

21:34

had a terrible breakup. But even

21:36

more crucially what he revealed

21:39

is that he had been contacted by Detective

21:41

Picket, who was the officer

21:43

in charge of the case against Larinda, and he

21:45

had told Detective Picket and know uncertain terms,

21:48

you know, I detest that woman, but

21:50

this absolutely didn't happen, and if it had

21:52

happened, I would have turned her in myself.

21:55

Knowing how much Dennis Book hated Larinda,

21:57

her defense attorney never called him

21:59

at trial. He was afraid that Dennis's

22:02

testimony would hurt Larinda's

22:04

case. An officer Pickett never

22:06

revealed to the defense what Dennis

22:09

Book had told him that Larinda

22:11

didn't do it.

22:13

And so that became a Brady violation

22:15

because had the defense lawyer

22:17

known what Dennis Book had told Detective

22:20

Picket, then that would have changed the calculus

22:22

entirely.

22:23

What made him want to testify?

22:25

For you guys, he didn't,

22:27

especially it took several visits

22:29

with him to persuade him to testify,

22:32

and then of course we did subpoena him, so he actually

22:34

was under legal obligation to show up.

22:36

So I can imagine the person that you've

22:38

had the worst breakup in your life with

22:41

coming in and saying, basically, you're a

22:43

terrible person, but you didn't do this.

22:47

That is a credible witness.

22:51

In August of two thousand and nine, as a result

22:54

of the new evidence, Judge sent granted

22:56

Larinda a new trial and she was

22:58

released on bond.

23:01

When I was in prison, I watched two sets

23:03

of Olympics, and

23:05

I used to think the closest thing I'd ever

23:07

feel to what they must feel when they touch

23:09

that pool first or cross that finish

23:12

line, would be if my name

23:14

was cleared and I got justice. Well

23:17

it felt good leaving there August fifth, o nine,

23:20

and I thought, I'm going to know what it feels

23:22

like to be the Olympic athlete in six

23:24

months to a year. For sure, that's

23:27

what it looked like.

23:29

But Loreinda's journey wasn't over when

23:31

she was released on bond.

23:33

And then the case though, lingered for another

23:35

seven years from that point for

23:37

us trying to you know, finalize the victory,

23:40

and it kept going up and down the appellate chain, and we

23:42

would lose rounds and then we'd win around,

23:44

and the prosecution, when we'd lose

23:47

around, would move to send her back to prison.

23:49

So we have to go back to the trial judge and try and keep her out

23:52

of prison.

23:53

I had no idea it was going to be seven more

23:55

years that I'd have to worry

23:57

that I'm going to have to either go back to prison or kill

23:59

me myself, because I wasn't going back to prison,

24:01

and I wasn't going to take off and make my

24:04

parents lose their thirty thousand dollars

24:06

they'd put up for bond.

24:07

And there were some scary moments

24:10

because Lorenda was very dead set about

24:12

not going back to prison, and so

24:14

we were very concerned about her health and safety.

24:17

Did she express to you her maybe

24:19

suicidal idiations that if she was going to

24:21

go back, that was that was it.

24:23

Yes, And you know, we were try and talk her out

24:25

of it, but it was a lot of pressure on it. And there

24:27

was one hearing in particular where we had just lost

24:29

around and then the prosecution moved

24:31

to cancel her bond and tether and send

24:33

her back to prison. And we went to court and

24:36

there was a guy there from the Department of Corrections

24:38

waiting and he was

24:40

he was holding his you know, leg irons

24:42

and waist chain and handcuffs and

24:45

you know, playing with them, cling, clinking

24:47

them like the grim Reaper.

24:50

We've heard that Ronnie recant did his allegation many

24:53

times, and he continued to maintain

24:56

that Lorenda hadn't done this. But

24:58

that still leaves the question why

25:00

did Ronnie make up this story in the first

25:03

place. It

25:07

all started when Lorenda was in prison for

25:09

the drug violation and Ronnie and

25:11

Cody were living with their father and stepmother.

25:15

As it came out later, fourteen year old Ronnie

25:17

had been caught in an act of sexual misconduct

25:20

with a young relative, a three year old

25:22

girl who was also living in the house.

25:26

He knew he had done wrong. The little girl

25:28

told on him. Ronnie first denied

25:30

it, then he admitted he did it and said he

25:32

was playing game called babies. So

25:35

they took him to the therapist and had him tell

25:37

the therapists I had done this, you

25:39

know, lots of times, way

25:42

years ago, and that's why he

25:44

did it.

25:46

Years later, Ronnie admitted that actually

25:49

he had learned about oral sex from

25:51

watching some of the movies and magazines in his

25:53

father's porn stash.

25:55

And so how did it

25:57

come about where they were like, oh, we're

25:59

going to blame Lorinda.

26:01

Do you know how that happens?

26:03

Yes? Yes, because the stepmother

26:06

told Ronnie. She said, Ronnie,

26:08

if this happened to you, you won't go to jail.

26:11

Your mom will get a little bit of time in

26:13

jail and we'll help her with her using her drugs.

26:16

She'll get six months in jail, but

26:19

I got twenty five to fifty years

26:21

in jail.

26:22

Allegations of child sexual abuse are

26:24

taken very seriously by the courts,

26:27

But Ronnie had recanted his story multiple

26:29

times to authorities, So why

26:32

would that not be enough to overturn

26:34

the conviction. As Dave explains,

26:37

when it comes to these kinds of cases, It's

26:39

not always that simple.

26:42

Even a recantation from the complainant

26:45

is likely not to be enough because

26:47

there are so many reasons that the courts will appoint

26:49

to. If the prosecutors will point to as to why somebody

26:52

might recant a child sexual

26:54

abuse allegation, it's true, for

26:56

example, because they're under pressure from family

26:58

members, or because they feel guilty about

27:00

sending somebody to prison, or they think that somebody

27:03

has been punished enough and it's time time

27:05

to bring them home. And so it's just

27:08

never enough to have the

27:10

complainant in a child sex abuse case wecan't

27:12

and in fact it wasn't enough in this case.

27:15

Loreinda had gotten nowhere, even though Ronnie

27:17

had vociferously recanted many

27:19

times. You have to be able to

27:22

corroborate the recantation. You have to be able

27:24

to show why the claim

27:26

objectively couldn't be true. And

27:28

so we were very lucky in this case that we were able to

27:30

do that.

27:31

And that was through the bus driver

27:34

and the neighbor boy.

27:35

And the ex boyfriend Dennis Book.

27:49

Over the next seven years, Loreinda was

27:51

granted a retrial multiple times,

27:53

but Calhoun County Prosecutor Susan

27:55

Maladanov objected each time.

28:00

Finally, in twenty sixteen, the

28:02

Michigan Innocence Clinic persuaded the

28:04

state Supreme Court to order

28:06

a new trial for Lareinda, and

28:09

then on May nineteenth, twenty sixteen,

28:11

the prosecution dropped the charges.

28:14

She was finally free.

28:17

I did end up getting to feel what that athlete

28:19

felt like when they touched that pool. When

28:24

Dave called me and told me the

28:27

Supreme Court decision is back and

28:29

you're exonerated.

28:33

That was great. I mean, that was euphoork.

28:36

A lot of pressure on her, a lot of pressure

28:39

on us all those years.

28:41

But to actually be able to complete the exoneration,

28:44

have her cut off that tether that she'd been

28:46

wearing for seven years and be

28:48

free, it was one of the great

28:50

moments at the clinic.

29:00

Larinda is no longer in touch with Ronnie

29:02

and Cody, and you know, I.

29:05

Do forgive them. They didn't ask me to adopt them.

29:07

I did use drugs. You

29:10

know, I forgive them, but I can't. I just

29:12

can't forget with the wrecked mine and my

29:14

parents' life.

29:16

In July of twenty seventeen, Loreinda

29:18

filed a lawsuit against Calhoun County

29:21

seeking damages for her wrongful conviction.

29:24

The suit was settled in twenty eighteen, which

29:26

allowed Lorenda to put her life back together and

29:29

finally make a new start.

29:32

I work hard, I rest hard, and I play

29:34

hard. I have a dog that I've

29:36

had for almost fourteen years. We're

29:38

little old ladies together. I

29:43

love to work on my home, in my yard.

29:46

I have a garden. I have the best

29:48

neighbors. I have a

29:51

great boyfriend. I you know,

29:53

I dance, a

29:55

shop, I cooked,

29:57

I cleaned, I want,

30:00

I played tennis, and I'm sixty

30:02

three, but in my heart I'm

30:05

ten. In my heart, I am

30:07

ten, and I'm so grateful

30:09

to Almighty God for giving

30:11

me the strength to get through it, giving

30:13

me loving parents and you know

30:16

you have em and my prison boss and

30:18

just different people that that

30:20

helped to make a difference. So in

30:22

the end, God showed me that I had

30:24

more strength than I ever knew, and

30:28

I did persevere. I

30:30

did meddle through it, and I met

30:32

incredible people because of it.

30:42

If you'd like to help support the important work

30:44

the Michigan Innocence Clinic is doing, please

30:47

check out their link in our episode description and

30:49

thank you,

31:02

thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie

31:04

Freeling. Please support your local innocence

31:07

organizations and go to the links in the episode

31:09

description to see how you can help. I'd

31:12

like to thank our executive producers Jason

31:14

Flam, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wortis,

31:16

as well as senior producer Annie Chelsea,

31:18

producer Kathleen Fink, story

31:21

editor Hannah Beal, and researcher

31:23

Shelby Sorels. Mixing and

31:25

sound design are by Jackie Pauley, with

31:27

additional production by Jeff Cleiburn

31:29

and Connor Hall. The music is

31:32

by three time OSCAR nominated composer

31:34

Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow

31:36

us on all social media platforms

31:38

at Lava for Good and at Wrongful

31:40

Conviction. You can also follow me on

31:43

all platforms at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful

31:45

Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a production

31:48

of Lava for Good Podcasts in association

31:50

with Signal Company Number one