Cold case arrest and release in Ingram murder case spawns lawsuit against Fayetteville police

File Photo/NWA Democrat-Gazette/ANDY SHUPE Rico Cohn (right) sits alongside his defense attorney Tony Pirani on Sept 24, 2013, during an appearance in court for capital murder charges.
File Photo/NWA Democrat-Gazette/ANDY SHUPE Rico Cohn (right) sits alongside his defense attorney Tony Pirani on Sept 24, 2013, during an appearance in court for capital murder charges.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Rico Tavarous Cohn, who spent three years in jail before prosecutors dropped the charges against him, has sued Fayetteville police alleging they botched the investigation and misled prosecutors and judges.

Washington County prosecutors cited insufficient evidence on July 1, 2015, when they dropped all charges against him. Cohn was accused of killing 21-year-old Bethany "Nina" Ingram.

Wrongful arrest

Physically detaining someone without proper legal authority. Wrongful arrest situations include an arrest by a police officer of the wrong person or without probable cause to believe a crime has been committed and/or without a warrant. Wrongful arrest can be the basis of a lawsuit for damages, including mental distress and embarrassment.

Source: uslegal.com

Ingram's brother found her body April 22, 2006, on her bed in her apartment on Sycamore Street, according to police records.

Autopsy results cited strangulation as the cause of death. The medical examiner said the attack was so sudden and violent Ingram had no time to fight. There were no signs of a sexual assault, and police said there was no sign of forced entry into the apartment.

Tony Pirani, a former deputy public defender who helped win Cohn's release and who filed the federal lawsuit late Monday, is convinced the case was botched almost from the beginning. The result has been an injustice to Ingram, her family and Cohn, he said. Pirani said Ingram's killer is walking free.

Fayetteville City Attorney Kit Williams said he hadn't seen the 271-page suit Tuesday, adding the city will defend the case as usual.

"This appears to be the world's longest and most repetitive civil rights complaint against the police and crime lab ever," Williams said in email.

The lawsuit alleges state and federal constitutional violations and seeks unspecified damages for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, outrage, false light, defamation, negligent hiring, supervision or retention and general negligence.

Police said they believed Ingram was killed because she rebuffed Cohn, who made inappropriate comments to her as she left her apartment five days before her death, according to records.

Randee Applewhite told police Cohn told her he killed Ingram. The case against Cohn was dropped after Applewhite died. The defense claimed Applewhite, the prosecution's key witness, recanted her story to police before her death.

Pirani said the lawsuit, which includes claims for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, amounts to the trial his client didn't get.

"We want the facts out. We want Rico's name cleared once and for all. We want Nina's family, particularly her mother, to know that Rico did not do this," Pirani said. "We believe she needs to know the truth because, if we're right, and we believe we are, that Rico did not do this, then that means her daughter's killer is still on the loose and nobody's looking for him. We also believe that Rico ought to be compensated for the three years of his life that were stripped away for no good reason."

Pirani said police opened the six-year-old cold case and within six days decided they had the guy who did it.

"This is the worst case of cognitive bias that I have ever seen on the part of law enforcement in general and, in particular, Det. Scott Carlton, who simply decided that he had his man and everything that happened from that point forward was designed to construct a case against Rico Cohn," Pirani said.

Pirani said there were several suspects and one name repeatedly came up in connection with the case over the years, but police weren't interested in pursuing that lead.

"Once charges were brought against Rico, the things that happened after that are very disturbing because there were so many improprieties and irregularities and improper inducements and misrepresentations to the prosecutor, to the public and to the courts that things were presented in a way we do not believe were factually accurate."

Pirani said police and crime lab employees had meetings about what evidence to test in order to have a successful prosecution, which he said should never happen with a crime lab that is supposed to be an independent tester of evidence.

Pirani said the three-year statute of limitations for filing the lawsuit was about to expire.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court and names Fayetteville; Greg Tabor, police chief; Carlton, a detective; John Brooks, a former civilian crime scene investigator with the department; Kermit Channell II, executive director of the Arkansas State Crime Lab; Lisa Channell, Phillip Rains, and Melissa Myhand, all three analysts with the crime lab; and 20 "John Doe" defendants, who are identified as past and present employees of the city, the Police Department, the crime lab or Washington County. The individual defendants are named in both their individual and official capacities.

NW News on 07/04/2018

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