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{Editor's note: Pam Eller's story has been ready for a long time, but as the coordinator for JD stories, Pam graciously let other stories take priority before hers. Very few of our JD Team members came to us through a personal injustice, but hers typifies the frustration that eventually leads to motivation to help others.}
Vincent Padgett -- ONE MOTHER'S STORY
By Pamela Ann Eller
Our fight for Justice has been a long and hard journey. We awakened to the truth of how things really are and learned, too late, what we should have done at the time of investigation and trial.
Today, September 28, 2000, I decided to write about my struggle to free my son, Vincent Padgett, who was wrongly convicted, for Justice: Denied magazine. I made my decision today because I have been fighting the District Attorney of Lane County, Oregon for a year and a half now. Today, I received the response to my complaint to the Oregon State Bar. You see Ms. Caren Tracy, the Assistant District Attorney, and District Attorney F. Douglas Harcleroad hired counsel to respond to my evidence against them of misconduct and fraudulent activities. I was crying and feeling so helpless because my son's own lawyer had joined in the cover up, but before I get to that, let me tell you what happened.
On September 4, 1998, early in the morning, Rob Jones attempted to murder Mrs. Goggin, the wife of coworker, Bob Goggin. Both men were coworkers of my son, Vincent Padgett. My son was one week away from discharging parole, after 3 years of a spotless record and glowing community references. He had a job and a future fiancée waiting for that day, in California.
Vincent had been living with my husband and me for 1 ½ years; he has always lived with someone as he suffers from depression and anxiety attacks if alone for any great length of time.
On the morning of September 7th 1998, police in bulletproof vests surrounded our home and led Vince by the arm out into a field. I was out walking the dog and when I approached my home, I saw one car in the driveway, another on the front lawn, another in the driveway of the house next door and one in back of our home. There were about seven officers there and three were standing by Vincent, two in the house searching his room, and two out back, standing by their car watching. There were two parole officers as well. All these officers had on jackets with big yellow letters saying, Police and Parole Officer. Vince was shaking so hard that it was as if he had no coat on a cold and windy winter day. My dog was growling every time one of these cops made a move and I was afraid she would try to bite one of them. Cops were tossing Vincent's bedroom. They told him that since he was on parole, did he know they could search his room? Vincent only nodded. He was too scared to do anything else. They were doing that when I got back from my walk and all I could think of was, Oh, Vinny, why did you let them go into your room. I already knew the answer. He was experiencing mind-numbing fear.
When the cops were finished they wanted Vince to go back to the Springfield Police Dept. with them and Ron, my husband, and I said we would go with him. Detective Umenhofer told us he would take Vince and Ron and I could follow in our car. When we got to the police station we rang the bell and were told it would be a few minutes wait. A detective finally came to let us in and told us they had been moving Mr. Jones to an interrogation room and they didn't want him to see us or know we were there. Vincent answered more of their questions and the detective would go out of the room and then come back. It was a long day and when we got home we fell into bed. Detective Umenhofer wrote in his report that he and the other detectives left that day and left us all at home. They suspected that Vincent was involved in an attempted murder, as he had a prior for soliciting murder and was mentioned by Mr. Jones as a friend who could vouch for him. You can imagine how it looked.
The police searched our home and downloaded email correspondence from Vince's computer that he had written to his fiancée. My son's parole was extended a week so they could determine if he was involved in any way. Vince spent four hours taking polygraph tests. What they learned from my son, from the physical evidence, and from all the witnesses was this: On the morning of September 4th, my son got home from work. He logged onto the Internet and sent his fiancée email, as he did every morning and night. He received a page, and a phone call revealed that Mr. Jones was stranded and needed a ride.
Mr. Jones had attacked Bobby Goggin and stolen her car to make the getaway while neighbors were dialing 911. He ditched the car on a mountain road and waited on a nearby highway for Vince. When my son picked him up, his hand was bleeding -- the victim had bitten him in the struggle for her life. Mr. Jones screamed at Vince to go, to drive, and tried to get him to agree that he was with him at home. Basically, he needed an alibi. My son didn't give him one.
Vince was cleared of any involvement and subpoenaed to a Grand Jury. He discharged his parole, moved to California and bought a home with his fiancée. Four months went by and Vince, my husband, and I were subpoenaed to the trial of State v. Goggin. Unknown to us, the trial had been postponed. Rob Jones had taken a deal (with an open sentence) in which he promised to bring "any others" involved in the crime to justice. Mr. Goggin was already in custody and had confessed, saying that Mr. Jones told him he had hired a "third guy" to do the crime, but that there was no third guy, that Mr. Jones was just setting it up to look that way. Mr. Jones had nowhere to turn for the "others" the ADA wanted. He had four months to review all the evidence and witness statements. Recorded phone calls revealed (after trial) that Mr. Jones was telling his wife to contact Vince -- that he "needed that witness." He got threatening when Vince would not help him, saying, "you tell that f****ing bitch to get down there, that his life isn't worth 50 bucks, it's that simple."
Mr. Jones told police that my son helped plan the crime. He said Vince waited down the street in his Mercedes, then followed Jones in the stolen car. So when my son arrived in Oregon for a non-existent trial for which he was subpoenaed, the lead investigator came to our door and told us they were cramming for the trial and wanted to get dinner and go over Vince's testimony for the next day. When they left, no one knew the horror that was about to begin.
The law is clear: A witness who comes into this state pursuant to a summons or subpoena is immune from arrest or service of process. The ADA circumvented this by claiming the subpoenas weren't technically valid: "the subpoenas in question are not signed by me, but are merely stamped with my signature." What she admitted to there is a felony -- "simulating legal process." You see, at this time, we were still under the erroneous belief that our judicial system was healthy and above dishonesty and deceit. Vincent left with the detectives believing he was a witness, not a suspect. They took Vincent straight to the Springfield Police Station. During that night he was interrogated for 8 hours, and denied a lawyer even though he repeatedly asked for one and the detectives came up with an unsigned, uncorroborated, confession, later proved as false. There were no audio or video recordings (so they say). Vince was terrified and when they finally let me talk to him he was incoherent. We repeatedly called the police department every hour but were not allowed to talk to Vincent. I can only describe what I heard, since I cannot feel what Vincent was feeling. I heard a terrified young man who kept telling me they were making things up and he did not give them a confession. Detective Meyers hit him in the stomach. Nobody knows what all happened, but Vince was housed in medical segregation. We just couldn't believe this was happening. It was as if a monster had taken over and we were being devoured piece by piece. My son lost weight so fast that it scared me. He was shaking so badly that he couldn't write, his speech was filled with anxiety and his fear was so great, that he lost his trust of everyone including his own attorney.
When my son's trial began, the ADA told the Court that the Goggin trial was postponed because my son came to Oregon and confessed. She didn't want the Court to know the true nature of their illegal design. She said this several times in Court, yet after trial while responding to my complaints to the Oregon State Bar, she started saying that she did not mean that and she merely "misspoke," that she was confused and meant to say "Mr. Jones." For 32 pages of trial court transcripts she meant to say a different name, time, place, and date; but it would still be untrue if amended. The detective lied about things also and when asked for the notes he took during the interrogation, he said that they were sent to the shredder. All this before trial. Each day we all got a little sicker. Vincent's defense attorney didn't put on a defense at all. The prosecution put on 6 days and the defense gave an hour. Our struggle has been a long one and a very hard journey. Vincent is serving a 20-year sentence for something he didn't do. Vincent had an alibi, he was seen at home and we have the emails he sent out, verified by computer forensic experts. The DDA struck his alibi from the record because no notice was given to rely on it, though the State developed it: (the law was enacted to prevent surprise) a nice technicality. Now, Mr. Clayton Lance, Vincent's so-called attorney, is helping the prosecutor's lawyers fight the allegations of deceit and lies I have made. He sent a sworn affidavit in support of them. He said my son's rights weren't violated so he didn't object to Ms. Tracy's "misspeaking," and he knew she wasn't trying to deceive anyone. The lawyers for the DA and Mr. Lance both contend that Ms. Tracy just "misspoke." Of course, the court did not know what she meant and those statements should have been objected to. By not objecting, the court was left with an erroneous belief that what the assistant District Attorney had done was within legal bounds. She did not misspeak as she claims. The transcripts speak for themselves.
While reviewing transcripts I found that Mr. Jones had changed his story from the original one he gave to police. For example, in September of 1998, forensics took my son's car and went through it. They found a couple of small drops of blood on the passenger side that were Mr. Jones'. During trial, when Mr. Jones was asked, "so when you got into Mr. Padgett's vehicle, it's your testimony that you had those bloody rubber gloves on?" Mr. Jones says "yes." He was asked, "you had those bloody rubber gloves on and you opened the passenger side door and got in Vincent's car and those gloves were covered with the victim's blood?" Mr. Jones said, "yes." No blood from the victim was found in or out of my son's car. The victim's blood was found all over her car that Mr. Jones stole.
Mr. Jones also told police that Vincent's alibi, that he was at home and could prove it with his emails, was a lie. He told the police that Vincent had used flash mail. For those of you not familiar with flash mail, I will explain how it works. You write out your email and then go into the flash mail file (this is an AOL feature) and it will ask you what time you want it sent out. You program in the time and then leave your computer on so that this function can operate. The computer must be left on. Vincent worked the 3:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. shift Monday through Thursday. Mr. Jones worked the 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. shift. On September 3, 1998, Vincent had a dentist appointment for a root canal at 1:00 p.m. and went straight to work after his appointment. Mr. Jones went to work at his usual time of 8:00 p.m. and was approached by Mr. Goggin. Mr. Jones said in court that he and Vincent did not know if they were going to kill this woman Friday or Saturday night and that Mr. Goggin told him, "it has to be tonight." "My wife is going to change the locks and you have no choice, but to do it tonight." With this statement, the flash mail theory does not hold water. They persisted in saying that Vince faked his email alibi, because this was the necessary element needed to establish proof that Vince was not at home, "but waiting down the street" on the night of the crime. When Computer Forensics Scientists established that Vince did not fake his email, as allegedly described to Detective Umenhofer in the "confession," and written in his report and that it is patently impossible for anyone to do that, Ms. Tracy attempted to suppress this false admission by the detective to the court and jury and succeeded in part by having the detective "line it out" of his report and testify to the amended portion. She gleefully admitted this when the defense wanted to bring in a forensics expert, saying he couldn't do that because she had the detective line it out and the defense could not cross-examine nor rebut something not brought out on direct questioning -- another technicality that made a false confession a confession. If Vincent was a part of this crime and he didn't know that the time and day would be changed, why would he set up flash mail when he didn't know that a crime was going to be committed and that he would need a supposed alibi? No power was available to the computer to leave it on for 16 hours uninterrupted, as we turn off all switches at night. I used the computer nightly as well, and to do so would destroy any such set-up. Also, consider this, when the detective came into our home to get a copy of those emails, he did not see the familiar phrase "flash mail" that we're advised would appear forever on, once it had been used just once, while retrieving those particular letters.
Mr. Jones asked Vincent to drop him off at his girlfriend's house because he wanted to see her before he took his family camping for the weekend. Vincent gave him a ride and dropped him off at a little market at 2:00 a.m. Vincent then came home and got on the computer to write to his girlfriend. Why didn't Vincent's attorney refute this flash mail theory? It was obvious that Vincent did not have forewarning to give himself an alibi. Detective Umenhofer is the one who actively pursued this flash mail theory and yet he told the jury that after you program the times the mail is to be sent, the computer is turned off and the company turns on the computer and sends the message. This is ridiculous. No one can turn on your computer. No one has that much control. The computer must be left on. Mr. Jones told the court that Vincent and he planned this crime while at work. He said they discussed it while working every night, but according to all the coworkers' statements, it was Rob and Bob who always had their heads together. Everyone said that Vincent just did his work and did not talk to Rob and he never talked to Bob.
Clearly his defense attorney was not interested in defending enthusiastically. Mr. Jones claimed he was going to give Vince $50,000.00, half of $100,000.00, to help plan the crime, and that Vincent wanted the money so he could start a home based business so he and his girlfriend could stay home and have a private relationship. Vince's fiancée had just finished 5 years of college and was starting her first year of teaching. Vince had work lined up. Yet it was Jones whose plan this was, as he told Mr. and Mrs. Boehm in a phone conversation that he had planned to use the $100,000.00 in insurance money to start a home business so he could stay home with his kids. We learned this from investigative reports after the trial (Vincent's lawyer suppressed them). Mr. Jones told the Court that he talked every night after work with Vince to plan this crime, yet Vince got off work at 2:00 a.m. and Mr. Jones at 6:00 a.m. Mr. Jones' testimony is full of obvious lies and I can't believe my son was even brought to trial. Mr. Jones' stories changed in many ways, too many to list. Mr. Jones has a history of blaming others for the crimes he commits.
At trial, Vincent's defense attorney told us he was not going to continue this case and that Jennifer had to talk Vincent into making a stipulated facts plea because he would get life otherwise. He refused to continue and told us he was finished. He put on absolutely no defense. He decided all this an hour into his defense. If I had known better at that time, I would have instructed Mr. Lance to make that statement to the court so it would be on the record. If he refused to do that, I would have asked to address the court and I would have made sure that it was on the record. Hindsight is always there so we can learn a lesson and not repeat the same mistakes. Outside the courtroom, after Vincent did as he was pressured into doing, Detective Umenhofer, Ms. Tracy, and the victim and her family were standing just outside the door and they were laughing and having a good time. I was angry. I felt this was highly unprofessional, unfeeling and uncaring to the families of the defendant. It turns out that they were all laughing because Detective Umenhofer had just made the remark that the "defense attorneys had just made a fortune sitting in the courtroom for 6 days and never doing a thing." The prosecutor admitted this in her response to my complaint to the Oregon State Bar. Funny? I don't think so.
I was alone and desperate, and had no knowledge of the law, so I got on the computer to surf the web, looking for help. I found Justice: Denied, the Magazine for the Wrongly Convicted
Since I first started this story our complaint has been sent to the State Professional Responsibility Board, and it was dismissed again. They found that there were no ethical violations. Most certainly I will be pursuing accountability. The courts are closed to the average citizen and the DA decides who gets what information. They make the decisions and I have been turned down numerous times. We have been dismissed once again and now we must decide what to do and where to go.
We have recently obtained documents, which my son's attorney claimed never existed, from attorneys in Colorado. It turns out that a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, drafted for the victim by the DA, hinges upon my son's conviction. Records concerning a book and who purchased it were sent to my son's attorney before his trial. These records show that Robert Jones ordered and paid for by credit card, 8 months prior to the crime, a book he claims my son ordered 2-3 months before the crime when he was to have been helping plan it. Vincent's lawyer went so far as to generate a report that claimed that the company kept no such records. (My son's attorney has been running for District Attorney of Lane County.) We have records including certified documents that show he did in fact, receive them. Further, we now know the DA discussed a plan with Jones to initiate such a lawsuit through people who overheard him talking about it prior to the books' known existence by the police. (The first mention anywhere was at trial.)
I have written hundreds of letters to senators, congressmen and women, the Governor of Oregon, The Oregon Judicial Department and the Federal Judicial Department Most of this has been to no avail. The Oregon Justice Department lied to me when they told me that the District Attorney and the Deputy DAs are immune from prosecution for any wrongdoing and that my complaint to the Oregon State Bar couldn't be done. Complaining to the Bar didn't do me any good, but the lie from the Justice Department is still a lie. "They are attorneys and are held accountable for their unethical behavior just like any other lawyer." I have been told, yet they dismissed the complaint that Deputy District Attorney Tracy abused the subpoena process. She was allowed to get away with issuing a bogus subpoena to Vincent to a trial that didn't exist, so they could question him. She admits it in the letter to the Oregon State Bar. She was allowed to serve my husband and me with subpoenas to appear at the same trial and told us to remain available just to carry out her deceit and trickery. Evidence was withheld and reports were not written with all the data. We were, in fact, seized in our movements. I find that abuse of power frightening.
My son has filed an appeal. It is in the courts at this time. Vincent wrote a supplemental brief and I typed it and submitted it to the Appellate attorney. We found out at that time that supplemental briefs were only allowed to be 5 pages long and ours was 26 pages. The Appellate attorney said that ours was well done and he recommended to the court that it be accepted as is and it was. We are now waiting for the District Attorney's office to file their counter brief and I'm told they could take 6 to 8 months to do that. In the meantime Vincent and I have written a complaint and my sworn affidavit that I have sent to the District Attorney of Clackamas County and asked him to file it. I also sent a copy of those and letters and a legislative proposal to one of our Senators and have asked him to urge the DA of Clackamas County to file the complaint that I sent. I have heard back from a couple of the Senators that I wrote to, asking that they urge the DA to file the complaint and they are passing me off to another Senator. I don't know where it is going from here, but we will continue to pursue accountability.
Pamela Eller
P.O. BOX 69
Lorane, OR
JDcoordinate@aol.comVincent Padgett #11782000
SRCI
777 Stanton Blvd.
Ontario, OR 97914
© Justice Denied
