Federal lawsuit stemming from murder case amended

FAYETTEVILLE -- Lawyers for a man who faced a capital murder charge before prosecutors dropped the case have amended a federal lawsuit claiming Fayetteville police botched the investigation and misled prosecutors and judges.

Washington County prosecutors cited insufficient evidence July 1, 2015, when they dropped all charges against Rico Tavarous Cohn. Cohn, who spent three years in jail awaiting trial, was accused of killing 21-year-old Bethany "Nina" Ingram.

Legal Lingo

Malicious Prosecution

Damages to person, property, or reputation shown to have resulted from a previous civil or criminal proceeding, which was commenced or continued without probable cause, but with malice, and which has been dismissed in favor of the victim of the malicious prosecution. To win a suit for malicious prosecution, the plaintiff must prove four elements: that the original case was terminated in favor of the plaintiff, that the defendant played an active role in the original case, that the defendant did not have probable cause or reasonable grounds to support the original case, and that the defendant initiated or continued the initial case with an improper purpose.

Source: Staff report

Ingram's brother found her body April 22, 2006, on her bed in her Sycamore Street apartment, 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 amendments late Monday, said the case was botched almost from the beginning. The result has been an injustice to Ingram, her family and Cohn, he said.

Pirani said Tuesday he amended the lawsuit by narrowing it to the issues of malicious prosecution and civil conspiracy, by restructuring the complaint, by dismissing several defendants in their official capacities, and by dropping several "John Doe" defendants.

The amendments took the filing from 271 pages to 83 pages.

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 court 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.

Cohn has maintained his innocence, and Pirani said the lawsuit amounts to the trial his client didn't get in order to clear his name.

The lawsuit now names Fayetteville; Greg Tabor, police chief; Scott Carlton, a detective; John Brooks, a former civilian crime scene investigator with the department; Kermit Channel II, executive director of the Arkansas State Crime Lab; and, Lisa Channel, Phillip Rains and Melissa Myhand, all three analysts with the crime lab.

Defendants earlier filed answers denying any allegations of wrongdoing and asking the case be dismissed.

Dropped from the lawsuit were 20 "John Doe" defendants, who are identified as past and present employees of the city, the Police Department, the crime lab or Washington County.

photo

Rico Cohn

NW News on 01/23/2019

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