Police Clear Detective Of Wrongdoing In Wrongful Murder Arrest
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Earlier this year CBS4 News investigated allegations that a Hollywood Police Detective failed to turn over important DNA evidence that would have exonerated a man arrested for murdering a Canadian tourist.
CBS4 has learned that the police department cleared the detective of any wrongdoing.
The attorneys for Twane Dobard filed a complaint that Detective Keith Wadsworth did not disclose for months DNA results that showed Dobard's DNA was not on the knife used to kill tourist Domenico Perruccio.
Perruccio was murdered in downtown Hollywood in January 2014.
"They were withholding information from us," said Dobard.
Dobard also told CBS4 that the delay in reporting the info left him with a murder charge hanging over his head and in prison for months.
"Every time I go into court I'm in shackles," Dobard said. "I'm labeled as a murderer."
But CBS4 obtained a copy of a police department memo that shows investigators say Wadsworth did not withhold evidence.
"Detective Wadsworth discussed the findings of each of the lab reports with (the prosecutor) within days of receiving them," the police memo says.
As CBS4 reported back in May, another person's DNA showed up on the knife but that person, Phillip Grant, has not been arrested or charged in the murder.
Prison records show Grant is in prison on unrelated charges.
Dobard was in jail for months after the results came in showing that his DNA was not on the knife.
But police say the fact that his DNA was not on the murder weapon was not enough to release him from jail.
"…the touch DNA identified on the murder weapon did not in itself preclude Mr. Dobard from being charged with the homicide due to the eyewitness testimony presented to Detective Wadsworth and later during the Grand Jury," the memo says.
However, prosecutors say the eyewitness later backtracked on her allegations against Dobard.
The memo also says that Dobard stayed in jail for months after the charges were dropped because he had violated his probation on previous charges.