"The Confessions", a documentary by Frontline, tells the true story of the Norfolk Four. In July 1997 in the naval station in Norfolk Virginia, four U.S Navy sailors were accused of the brutal rape and murder of Michelle Moore-Bosko, the wife of another sailor, William Bosko. After long hours of interrogation, all four men accused of the crime confessed, and based on these confessions, a jury found them guilty. This documentary investigates the truth of their confessions.
U.S. Navy sailor William Bosko came home to find his wife, Michelle Moore Bosko, dead. He ran to his neighbor, Daniel Williams, for help and Dan called 911. When police arrived, they found there was no evidence of forced entry, the apartment was clean except for the bedroom where Michelle lay dead, she was brutally raped and murdered, and they believed the crime was committed by a single assailant. When police talked with another neighbor and Michelle's friend, Tamika Taylor, she said to look into the neighbor who called 911, Dan Williams, because he seemed interested in Michelle. Police then believed Dan was responsible for the crime. He went down to the police station for questioning, and was questioned by a Detective Ford, who was known for getting confessions. Dan agreed to a polygraph test, and Ford came back with his results saying he failed and he was a liar and needed to start telling the truth. The actual truth is Dan was telling the truth, and he did in fact pass the polygraph test. Detective Ford lied to him so he would confess. After eleven hours of intense interrogation, Dan confessed. He confessed to a crime he didn't commit. When being questioned more, the facts Dan gave were inconsistent with the crime scene evidence. The police didn't take that into account, and Dan was charged with rape and murder in less than 24 hours of the body being found. He never asked for a lawyer, because he believed his innocence could defend itself. The case was then closed.
Four months later Dan's DNA results came in. They did not match the DNA found at the crime scene. These results were kept a secret, and the search went on for Dan's accomplice. Police looked into an old roommate of Dan's, Joe Dick Jr, who is socially awkward. While interrogating Joe, Ford calls him a liar and says he failed his polygraph test. Joe's results were never released. After many hours Joe told Ford what he wanted to hear. He, like Dan, confessed to the crime. He agreed to give DNA samples because he knew they wouldn't match because he was innocent. Joe's DNA didn't match, but the charges against him weren't dropped. Instead, they looked for another accomplice. Joe's lawyer believed he was guilty because he confessed, and said he could get the death penalty. He urged Joe's parents to talk to Joe and tell him to cooperate and tell the truth, and give the names of the other people involved. The "truth" that Joe was telling was all lies he made up. He was just telling Ford and the police what they wanted to hear. He named Eric Wilson as another person involved. Eric's DNA didn't match that at the crime scene either, but he wasn't released like the others. Joe began to believe the lies he was telling, and he began to think he actually was responsible for the crime. He named George Clark as another man involved, and gave a description. However, police couldn't find a George Clark, they found Derek Tice instead, who match the description Joe made. Just like the others, Ford interrogated Derek for long hours and said he failed his polygraph test and called him a liar. Derek's test results were never released. He stopped talking and asked for a lawyer, but he never got one. Ford continued to interrogate him, and after eleven hours he signed a confession. Derek told Frontline that he had two choices: tell Ford what he wanted to hear and live, or continue to tell the truth and die from the death penalty. All of the men said they were emotionally and physically drained, and they only confessed because of Ford's interrogation tactics and the threats of the death penalty. When the men were being interrogated, the police didn't start recording the interrogation until they got the confession they wanted to hear. Therefore, no one knows what happened in the interrogation room except for the people who were there.
Ford then wanted Derek to identify other men who were involved. Derek said the first two names that came into his head: Jeffery Ferris and Rick Pauley. The men were then arrested. Their DNA didn't match either, and police told Derek to identify the DNA match. Since he didn't know who it was, he had to guess. Ford became interested in a man named John Dancer. Derek said John wasn't there, but he gave into Ford and told him what he wanted to hear. He told Ford that John was there, however, John had an alibi. That didn't matter though, because police didn't let John go. There were now seven men, and the police cared very much about preserving the confessions that they already had. When Derek Tice took back his plea deal, Jeffery Ferris, Rick Pauley and John Dancer were released because there wasn't enough evidence against them. As a result, Derek now faced the death penalty.
Then the case took an interesting turn. A women gave police a letter that her daughter-in-law received from a man in jail. It was a love letter, but it was also a threatening letter. The letter was from a man named Omar Abdul Ballard, and he ended the letter saying he killed Michelle. Ballard was in jail for beating a women in the same apartment complex that Michelle lived in, and also for raping a fourteen year old girl. The crimes all happened within three weeks of each other. Ballard is from New Jersey, and met up in Norfolk with an old friend, Tamika Taylor. The same Tamika Taylor that told police to look into Dan Williams. Ballard's DNA was analyzed and was a match to the DNA at the crime scene. If the DNA was tested through a database from the beginning, the seven other men would have never been investigated. Ballard confessed to the crime, and said he acted alone. However, the other men weren't let go, they went to trial. In court, the prosecution said they believed it was a gang rape despite Ballard's confession of acting alone. The prosecution and the police couldn't admit they made a mistake, so they said it was a gang rape to cover up their mistakes. In court, Ballard pled the fifth. Eric said he confessed because of Ford's angry and aggressive interrogation, and because he was threatened with the death penalty. The jury found them guilty. They ignored the evidence of their innocence, and they couldn't get over their confessions, so they found them guilty. Eric was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, and Derek was sentenced to life. Dan and Joe took life without parole. They didn't go to trial. Dan didn't go because he was afraid of the death penalty, and Joe didn't go because he actually believed he committed the crime. No one wanted to believe Ballard's confession that he acted alone, and he got out of a life sentence by saying he acted with the other men. Thirteen years later, he wanted people to know the truth. In a phone interview with Frontline, Ballard said he committed the crime alone.
Dan, Joe, Eric and Derek became known as the Norfolk Four. On August 10, 2009, Dan, Joe and Derek were released from prison(Eric released before others), but they weren't exonerated. All of the men have to register each year as sex offenders. Eric is married now, and he said they have almost no friends. He can't get some jobs because of his past, and he can't live in some neighborhoods. Then in 2010, the Norfolk Four meet at appeals court. Derek won his appeal, and the other three cases are still pending. Detective Ford was charged with extortion, and in October 2010 he was found guilty on two out of the four charges. This case shows the flaws in the system, and raises deep concerns. These men's lives are forever changed for the worse because of the system.
This documentary by Frontline contains themes of politics and culture. When a crime like this is committed, the police want to find out right away who did it. However, that doesn't mean forcing false confessions out of people. Detective Ford should have known better than to bully a suspect into a confession. He should have put his reputation for getting confessions to the side and worked on getting the truth. It hurt his reputation more by creating a whole mess of the case than it would to have gotten the truth. The police and the prosecution were trying to cover themselves by saying it was a gang rape so their mistakes wouldn't be let out. Their job was to get justice for Michelle, and instead they made a huge mess of her case by playing politics. Culture is also a theme. No one wants to be wrong, and Detective Ford showed this. He wanted to preserve the confessions he already had instead of get the correct one. Rape and murder are such heinous crimes that police want to catch the people who commit them right away. However, that shouldn't cloud their judgment of what is right and wrong.
I found this video extremely interesting. It is common for people to be questioned about crimes they didn't commit, but seven different men should not be charged with the crime when there is no evidence against them. Detective Ford used tactics that were extreme, and someone should have stopped him. I was very surprised to see that no one intervened with his strategies, and no one stopped the manhunt for multiple accomplices. If this investigation was carried out with thought and patience, several men could have a normal life. I always had confidence in the system, but watching this makes me think farther into the problem that there apparently is. It saddened me to see how those four men's lives are changed for the worst forever.
Bibliography:
Bikel, Ofra, dir. "The Confessions." Frontline. PBS, 9 November 2010. Web. 27 March 2014.
thanks
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