I've never been in trouble in my life.
I didn't even have a parking ticket, you know what I mean.
I was brought up like cops are the good guys.
I didn't know what was going to happen, but I do know that everything was stacked against me.
Everything like everything.
This isn't supposed to happen this way.
I'm innocent.
I know I'm innocent. I know I had nothing to do with this. How is this possible? I grew up trusting the systems. I grew up believing that every human being should do the right thing. And that's why, even though I knew I was dealing with corerough people, I wasn't going to break anyone to get me out of prison because I wouldn't live with the fact that I break my way out of my wife's death. I'm not innocent, too proven guilty. I'm guilty until I prove my innocence.
And that's absolutely what happened to me.
Our system.
Since I've been out ten years, it has come a little ways, but it's still broken.
I totally lost trusting humanity after what's happened to me.
This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction with Jason Foum. That's me. I'm your host, and today I have an absolutely unbelievable story and an incredible person to share that story with you. Susan King is here. Susan, Welcome to wrongful conviction.
Thank you, good to be here.
And like I always say, I'm glad you're here, but I'm sorry you're here. So thank you, Susan. Ever since I read your story, which must be a year and a half ago, I was transfixed because even having been in this movement for twenty five years now and having recorded seventy episodes of the podcast, your story sticks out in many ways. It's so absolutely insane that I find myself telling the story to other people and going that can't be true. But I know it is you and
you actually had to live it well. She served six years behind the bars after a Kentucky State Police investigator said she killed a man. Then in twenty twelve, someone else confessed to the crime, and now two years later, the case against Susan Jean King is finally dismissed.
King spent years in prison for what they call raisen misconduct by Kentucky State Police. It comes after King served six and a half years in prison for the nineteen ninety eight death of Kyle Demi Breeden of Shelbyville. The Kentucky Innocence Project told the court. When the Kentucky State Police case went cold after a few years, Trooper Todd Harwood picked it up. Eighteen days later, he said he
broke the case, naming King as the killer. He said King threw Breden's body into the Kentucky River after a domestics fut The only problem King has one leg and weighed less than one hundred pounds at the time.
So let's go back to the beginning. You grew up in Were you born in Kentucky?
Yes? Uh huh was back in nineteen sixty. That was a long time ago.
We're almost the same age. What what part of Kentucky were you born in?
I was born in Shelbyville, that's all half an hour from Louisville.
And how was your childhood?
Oh, I was raised a little country girl. So I've spent my time fishing and playing with chaos all that.
So it sounds like this hearing the Tony your voice, you had you had a happy childhood. Yeah, and then ultimately you where did you grow up. Where did did you go to? Where did you where you go to school? Where'd you end up living? Before all this insanity came to pass, Well.
Before all this, I had my own beauty shop. I was a tusantologist. I had my own home and a house and six and high bakers with a barn and all my animals and my dogs and horse and everything. Was enjoying life. And and suddenly one day Todd Harwood appeared and ruined it all.
Oh, he certainly did. And the way that he did it is beyond I think people are going to be Anyone who's listing now, fasten your seatbelt, because when you hear the level of evil, of pure evil, that this individual was capable of, it is absolutely shocking, even even to people that are loyal listeners of the podcast. You're going to be here in for a crazy ride. So, but Susan, you had you had a tragedy upon a tragedy because back in nineteen ninety three your life took a terrible turn.
Yeah, that's not accident, and that and that's.
And that turns out to be an important part of the story.
And how you're wrong when you only have one leg, I mean you can't go around listing people two hundred pounds and stuff like they say, right.
And we're going to get to that because that's one of the things about the story that is just I mean, even if you had two legs, the story never would have made any sense. But that particular aspect of it makes it go from the ridiculous to the surrepossible, to the impossible right to the surreal impossible, whatever word you want to whatever or you want to describe. So fast forward to nineteen ninety eight, right, and you had been in a relationship, if I'm not mistaken, right, with a
guy named Kyle Breeden. And this was was this an on again, off again type of thing?
Well, yeah, sort of, yes, on and off. He lived a little rougher life and I can handle that's putting it nicely.
And one day he disappeared, right, yes, and just so it was gone. And then ten days later we know now his body was found by a fisherman in the Kentucky River, right, And he had been shot in the head twice, but twenty two caliber bullets which did not exit the skull, which is important because they were able to be found. That's very important, right, So that there were non exiting bullets, and his legs were bound with guitar amplifier cord, so he was This is obviously a
brutal crime. He was shot twice in the head, bound with guitar a fire cord, like I said, and then lifted up. The killer parked on the Gratz bridge and then hoisted him. And he wasn't a small guy, right, No, he wasn't. About two hundred pounds. So the killer hoisted him over the railing and threw him down or dropped him down into the Kentucky River where he was found. Oh wow, so it was two hundred pounds plus the concrete blocks. Okay, wow, this guy went to some trouble
to do it. So we're going to get all of that. But what has absolutely transfixed me about this case is the idea and we know we'll get you know, I'm gonna jump ahead and we'll come back, but the idea that anybody on a grand jury or anywhere else in the system could have been made to believe that a woman who barely weighed one hundred pounds, which is you could have which was this horrible detective's theory, right, that you would have shot him in the head in your kitchen,
dragged him out down the driveway. Do you have a gravel driveway to read that somewhere?
Yes?
Right, So we are to believe that you one hundred pound woman, if you even weighed that much with one leg, somehow or other, were able to shoot this guy twice, drag him through the kitchen, down the gravel driveway, hoist him into the car, drive to the bridge, tie blocks to him, bind him.
Not to interrupted. But I didn't even have a car.
Oh my god, oh my god. I need a minute. I can't even process.
I don't know what to think.
Nothing.
I didn't have a car or a tractor.
Yeah, the tractor, okay, so wow? And then uh yeah, so you drove the invisible car, the imaginary car to the Gratz bridge and then hoisted this uh after winding him with the ample part cord and tying concrete blocks to him, you managed to hoist this entire crazy like, I mean, this, this person, with all these contraptions, there's two hundred and something pound object which is now a dead body up over a railing. How high was the railing, by the way, I don't know.
I had stayed away from that area for obvious reasons, and I really don't know how how that regularly, Well.
It doesn't much matter because none of it makes any sense. So the whole thing is obviously just beyond ridiculous, is disgusting.
It's well, you think that you can trust the cops, and that's that's the wrong. You can't trust one anymore. You know, there are some good coops. I'll go a couple of good tops, but boy, I'll tell you what, that one really makes the whole department look bad.
I'm glad you said that, Susan, because I say that on the show often that I'm a person who does believe in a system of laws, and I believe that there are a lot of good cops, and there are a lot of good prosecutors, but there's a lot of bad ones too, and the bad ones do a terrible amount of damage. And in your case, it couldn't be more pronounced because of the way in which this was done.
You know, in this case, going back to the time in nineteen ninety eight, they originally tried to attain a search warrant and to search your premises and stuff like that, but they were unable to because there was no evidence that you. It was what was painfully obviously everyone concerned that you could not have done this. So they everyone actually took a common sensical approach and said, okay, well let's keep looking for who did. And the trail went cold.
Right, Well, they definitely didn't. They didn't start any further than just me. I don't think they didn't try very hard anyway. Now, the first good despective when they started with Pile's body was first found. They were pretty decent cops. They did their job. They were very thorough. They scared me death, so they did their job right. They decided that I didn't have anything to do with it. In my interview I did on the uh the IV channel investigation Discovery Town.
No, I didn't even know about it. I'm going to watch it for sure.
Yeah, they did a show on it, and they did a real good job. And you know, I'm on TV right now. You are that show. You know, it's on channel fifty right now.
That's amazing channel.
Right now we speak, you're all.
Over the place. You're on TV, in the radio. Yeah, I'm excited to see that. So you were saying that the initial investigation, you thought they they were tell me about that they came to see you, they intimidated you a little bit, or how did that work?
They greed me real good. That put me through a launch. So that's what I say. They did their job.
But they came to the correct conclusion at first, and they you know, who are somebody came to the right answer and said, you know, we're not going to grant a search work. We're not going to indict her. We're going to have to keep looking because she ate the one that's right. And you went on with years.
Went by with it being a code case for years.
Right, and that's where stuff really gets crazy. Right. So now enters the villain in this story, and villain is too kind of a word actually, because we have to clean it up. Uh yeah, And you're allowed to curse on this show if you want to. There's no problem at all with that, and I wouldn't blame.
It's hard to discuss this without it.
You can do as you see fit. So along comes this sack of ship named Todd Harwood, and he's a real short guy, A real short guy, was okay. So he comes into town and he's a state he's a state police officer. He's he's new on the job right just rolled into town, decided this this might be good for his seems to me, I don't know this, but it seems to me he might have thought this might be good for his career.
If he is after a they had received a grant for a co cases and that's what he's addicted. Was what he wanted to be and that's what he got.
And was this sort of a high profile case in the area.
Oh very much so. I've been on the page the type of many many times.
Right, So his thing was, Okay, I'm going to go make my name. I'm speculating, but I'm gonna say he was thinking it wouldn't be a bad idea for him in his career if he could go and solve this case. So when did you first find out that this guy was around and that he was had had you and the crosshairs? How did that come to be? Because we're talking seven years later, you had probably had moved on and you know, trying to make the best out of
your life. It's facing the difficulties that you're already faced and having lost you know this. I mean, obviously this must have been pretty traumatic too to lose somebody that you'd had in a relationship with in such a violent manner. But how did you come to find out that this guy was coming after you?
Well, at first I didn't know he was really coming and asked you means like he did. I just thought he needed some information, you know, because I had understood that he was investigating the cold case. And you know, I'm glad that they were, and I was willing to
help him anyway I could. But he turned on me like a snake and started riding and oh he scared me so bad and so many times, yelling and screaming and riding me around in his car like a crazy person, going real fast and slamming on the brakes, and he scared me death that day. I thought he was going to kill me.
Wow, I didn't even know that part of the story. This gets crazier and crazieri.
He is. It's not right at all. And he was wet and profusely and pacing back and forth and talking real fast, and he wasn't normal at all. I don't know what was making him act that way, but nothing.
Was well we can't know that and I never will, but the fact is that he was. He's obviously off his rocker. But whatever the reasons were for that, again, we don't know. One of the million crazy aspects of this thing is how he was able to convince the grand jury to indict you in the first place, and how he was even able to get a search warrant. And then the sheer volume of lies that he told
is staggering lies that were demonstrably provably false. Right, I mean, he lied about literally everything, but.
He didn't even tell the grand jury. I head on one leg he left that poor day out.
Yeah, and I think when I died.
They would ever does a search warrant if he had top Well, of.
Course not, because nobody's that dumb, right, nobody could believe. And this is why I've told you your story many many times. It actually took me a while to find you, but I've told your story so many times ever since I first read about it in the Marshall Project actually, which is a wonderful newsletter that I read that focuses on all the most important stories in criminal justice, and you get it emailed to you for free every day
if you want it. It's called the Marshall Projects. Ever since I read that, I was I have to I have to interview Susan. I have to get inside of this and try to understand it, because it just doesn't make any damn sense. So somehow or other, he manages to convince the you know, the powers that be to
grant a search. Warrant comes and searches your house, finds out there's a couple of old bullet holes in the in the floor something like that, right, But none of that shouldn't have mattered because it didn't match the bullets that they recovered from the dead body. But that didn't throw them off. And you know, and then it and then he and what happens from your perspective, what happened? When did you get the call? How did you find
out that you were actually being indicted? And then how did you find this horrible lawyer that you ended up with? And I need to know everything.
Well, I didn't know he was coming to arrist me. He threatened to several times. At that point, I didn't not to believe anything he said. He said. He I'm like, sure, I got the electric chair? Now, what's that's what say it? I knew did this guy just lying? He's crazy?
So he's threatening you with the electric chair? He told the.
Great electric chair years.
I mean, among the other lies that he told, he said there were four bullet holes in the kitchen floor and drag marks on the linoleum. None of that was true. He told the grand jury that ballistics analysis showed the two bullets recovered from the floor Saint came from the same weapon that fired the bullets that killed breeding. That wasn't true, it right. And he said that blood found on the floor was from Breeden, where the DNA analysis proved that in fact it could. They had no idea
who it was from. But he lied about all.
That animal vegetablear mare and mineral. It's what they told me. Animal vegetablear mineral. That wasn't sure which.
And not only that, but the ballistics analysis actually showed the opposite of what he claimed, right, that the bullets did not match, and that the police knew that the water damage to the floor in your kitchen caused the markings that Hardwood said were drag marks. So Hardwood I.
Had thrief of all that. People that did all that retire to my house after a flood, and I mean, you cothing now this happened in Misking Flower.
That though, and we're not done with the lies because you also claimed that you had used cleaning fluid to clean up the UH to clean up the evidence, when the investigation showed that there was there was no cleaning
fluid or cleaning chemicals of any kind. And in fact, at some point, what I do know is that the grand jury investigations, any investigation, two different jurors asked him how you had been able to shoot breeding and move his body despite only having one leg and weighing, as we said, ninety seven pounds, and he just didn't answer those questions. So had he of course that would be the end of that. So okay, So now you end up having your home taken over various times for these
searches to take place. When did you get a lawyer out?
I always them, you know, I always let them in and try to answer all their questions and help them in and to.
Like a citizen would, because you wanted to have this crime sol Nobody wants to have a killer around their neighborhood. And also any any person who's got any sort of conscience would want to help. Anybody would want to help the police. But I think it's important for people to know and listen to you. Hopefully they'll they'll they'll understand what I try to drive home all the time, which is that if you're if they're telling you you're a suspect, you need to get a lawyer and then stop talking
and don't talk. Don't speak outside the presence of your lawyer because they'll trick you into all sorts of stuff. But in your case, your lawyer didn't help at all. And let's talk about that. How did you find this lawyer? Who was it in the phone?
Her name is red Becca Morrell?
And where did where did she come from? She is?
Uh, he was a court appointed attorney from Shepherdsville, Kentucky. I've never heard of her besolo, but that's who they appointed from my lawyers, and they may as well and have appointed my dog to be the lawyer. Wow, it would have been better.
Wow.
She she told she came to jail a couple of times to talk to me, and she said, frankly, I don't believe he either. So I was danged.
I mean, it's unimaginable. She that's got to be a violation of of all sorts of I think, yeah, I mean it's I mean, it's I was gonna say I've never heard of anything like this.
She stood down to the judge and told the judge, Hey, you need to get her somebody else. She didn't do that.
No, she she worked.
With She worked with the prosecutor, and she worked with the officers. Uh.
And that, yeah, she literally sold you down the river. And and and it's similar to if anyone saw making a murderer, which a lot of people did that are listeners. They've seen a similar situation in the case of Brendan Dacy, where his one of his team was literally just a just an extension of the the prosecutors and the police. Is so disgusting and sad to watch. And your situation is really not much different. So now here you are, you're in jail, everything's closing in on you. You're facing
all this different hardship in every way. I mean, I read what you said about your dog as well, and it broke my heart on top of everything else. I mean, I don't know if you even want to go back there, but if you want to tell the story you can.
Well it's really sad. I had a dog named Cecyk, big Australian Shepherd lad and aix and he's just a big speckled pup. And then I had a little copper spaniel puppy to His name was Charlie. And anybody knows me knows where the animal lover I am. And I had ducks and chickens and beese and a horse and all that. And when I went to jail, I didn't have anybody to come take care of them for me. It's kind of a lot to ask anybody care of
all that. And the home was found for my horse, and the home was found for my copper spaniel, but nobody come and get my dog. Sees the cue. And she stayed there on that porch for like three months while I was in jail. She didn't know whether Mama was and why Mama left or anything. She ate at the next door neighbor's house, but she'd been doing that for years anyway, so she was getting fed. The rest of the time. She was like on a porch for
me to come home. And ended up a friend of mine went and daught her and kept her fruit as long as she could and then had to have her put down. And she's a very sad situation. Todd Harwood, he didn't just hurt me. He hurt so many other people too. He hurt not only my animals, but he hurt cops. He hurt good cops. I mean he's really anything he has anything to do with the spirit career.
Yeah, I mean, he's just it's just a shame because, like I said, I grew up like you and like I think anyone else pretty much, you know, thinking. I mean, I thought about wanting to become a cop. You know, like it's you. You look up when you're a child to people in uniform, and you want to be able to believe that they're there to do good and too and to help you. And that's that's where you thought you were supposed to help a cop.
And a cop ask you a questions, you sposed to answered dracefully and and help them. I know that's how I give information. I'm sure that I was telling the trees and he just didn't care. He was determined he was going to put me away whether I did it or not. And he did, and he got his promotion and he got his pay raise.
Yeah, that's a that's another it's another horrible aspect of the story. He ends up getting promoted to lieutenant or something like that, and you know, it's it's just I don't understand how people sleep at night. I really don't. But yeah, great, that's really great. Like I said, I don't know how. And there's and there's a special no idea, there's a special place in hell for people like that.
But that's so so back to the story. So there you are in jail, going through this literal nightmare that is unimaginable to anybody, including me, even you know, even being so steeped in the knowledge of these things, I don't think anybody could imagine what you went through that they've been there. And uh, and now you have this lawyer who's working against you. You had no chance, I mean,
so you had no help. And so at some point your only option you had these uh, these people telling you were facing a death penalty or life in prison or whatever it was going to be. And at some point you made a decision that's like, it's almost like Sophie's choice, right, you had to You decided to take an Alphred plead And can you explain how that came down? And what does that mean?
Well, an Alford play means that you are the main you know, remain confident that I didn't do it, and I'm gonna admit to that because I didn't do it. That the alpha plea means that there's evidence that you think might lead a jury to think and you're guilty. And my lawyer told me nothing. She told me nothing about the Alpha play. I learned about the alf polea from the girls in the sale with me, So you had and thank Dennis, I took the Alfred play.
Yeah, thank goodness for that, because otherwise you would have ended up going to trial and get been most likely getting convicted in spite of the fact that there was an overwhelming evidence. If you're in this is if no one was going to present it, you would have had a really tough road to go because you know, you would hope that a jury even still would take one look at you and go, wait a minute, this is impossible. But if I don't think anyone would want to take
their chances in the situation that you were in. And now the story gets go ahead, Go no, I was gonna say, and then the story is about to get even weirder. But tell us what you were about to tell us.
Anyway, Sometimes I forget what I'm talking about.
The middle thing, Okay, So so we'll come back to it. But okay, so now, okay, yeah, we'll cut that out. Okay, So now something really crazy happens, which is where well yeah, but let me let me start here. Let me just introduce this by saying, so, now we're going to fast forward about four years to May twenty twelve, and what happened in May twenty twelve, You're not even ready for them,
whoever is listening. So in May twenty twelve, a Louisville Metro Police narcotics detective named Baron Morgan was interrogating a serial killer named Richard Durrell Junior about an attempted murder charge. He had fired a shotgun into the home of a confidential police informant, which is really something that's right out of a movie. And Darrell offered to provide information on unsolved crimes in return for leniency for his brother, who
was facing federal drug charges drug charges in Arkansas. And I'll just continue for a minute. And in later in interrogation, Jarrell confessed to murdering Breeden as well as committing two other murders. Jarrell said he killed Breeden on the day Jarrell turned twenty one October twenty six, nineteen ninety eight, the same day that Breden disappeared. He also told the police that Breden had solen twenty dollars from him the
day before and used it to buy crack cocaine. Darrell said, and I'm reading this part, that he went to Breden's trailer and found him smoking cocaine, which was consistent with autopsy findings that Breeden had cocaine in his blood. So on the day Breeden disappeared, Darrell said, he picked up Breeden under the guys are driving to his father's Jaderell's father's home to celebrate Jarell's birthday. And it goes on
and on. But he knew everything there was to know about where the body was, how it got there, what he had done during the day. He knew the amount of money he had taken out of the bank. He knew every possible detail. He couldn't have if he had produced a videotape of himself doing this, it wouldn't have been any more solid than what he provided to this detective. And this detective, you know.
He even told the detectives where he had thrown some of the murder weapons, some of the guns and they went to the price that he tells him about, and they got divers and went in and they found him.
Ok, donkey, there you go. What do you know? So this guy, he gave them an actual map and a thing and all the information that they needed was right there. So this detective Baron Morgan and you talk about how they're good cops out there, and I talk about how they're good cops. And this guy's I mean, from everything we know about him, is a damn good cop. And he did what he should have done, which is that
he called Harwood and he said something. We don't know exactly what that conversation sounded like, but we know he called him and said, hey, buddy, I think he got the wrong answer, the wrong outcome, because Susan King had nothing to do with this, because I got your guy right here, right.
That's right.
And at that point one would think that this Harwood guy would go, ah, shit, the jagg is up. Well, all right, I gotta admit it, but I already got my promotion and I'll probably be all right. But that's not what he did. In fact, he decided that he would interview Jirell himself, and he recorded Darrell saying, oh, this is this is where it gets really weird. Right, So he interviewed Darrell, after which Darrell changed his story and recanted his confession, which it was too late to
recant because he knew all the details. It would have been impossible for him to know. And mysteriously, Harwood said, the tape of this, because he did tape record this interview, disappeared. He said, the tape disappeared mysteriously amazing. Yeah, I mean I just got to take a second to process that.
You know, it's kind of like it just disappears.
It's kind of like magic. Yeah. So but meanwhile, there were tape recordings of the detailed description of a confession and everything else, right, so that that must have helped. And so what happens now you're not even aware of this at the time you're in prison.
Yeah, that one day they called my name over the intercom and I thought, well, now what was I that, you know? And they called me down there and it was the Instance Project projects that the Answer Project, and they told me about the confession. And I told you, how about making somebody's day?
You want to hear about that? Well, what was your reaction when they told you that.
Oh, I just dropped the head down and cried. I said, I remember I raised my head at that's a couple of minutes. That's the Maybe now they're believe in me.
And who who from the Innocence Project, the Kentucky this Is Project came And I know people had a lot of different innocence projects, but I want to meet and shake the hands of people that did this for you and send them a check.
And the Smith is one of them, Linda Smith one her and then she had a couple of law students with her that day. Well, they were with her through the whole my whole thing. They were right there with me. So you got wonderful thing.
So I'm picturing you now in that little room in the prison with your head down crying, and then you lift your head back up. And now now what happens.
Well, I figured I'd be going home three things, but they they the confessionant nothing, They wouldn't. They didn't let me out early at all. They made me do my whole sentence and then asked that I had to go back through the court system to prove that I was innocent, which I did, but they knew that I was in I did almost a year prison after the confession, and after that confession, they should have let me out.
They obviously should have let you out, but they didn't. They kept you in there. Anyway, I'm not really sure I even understand how that happen happened. But but and then the day you walked out, you still walked out under this cloud of having a conviction for it was a manslaughter murder, Yeah, murder. Still come out as a convicted murderer. But you have the Kentucky Inness's Project on
your side. And then things started to change, but they took its still a couple of twists and turns that are really worth looking at because after the Inns Project, lawyers presented the evidence that during the grand jury investigation, which we know now, two different grand jurors had asked Hardwood how you know how he could have how this could have happened with a one legged woman, And we know that he evaded all the questions and all this
other stuff. Right, But in twenty twelve, in October, the motion to vacate the guilty plea was denied by Circuit Court Judge Charles Hickman, and he said, and this is worth quoting He said that while Jarrell had presented knowledge of quote a startling level of details about Breeden's murder, the law barred him from granting emotion for a new trial because King you Susan had pled guilty, which is really like some double Jeopardy wackiness there too, right, So
it's almost like he's saying, Okay, it doesn't matter that you're innocent, because we tricked you into pleading guilty. Yeah, which is a wacky I don't think. I'm sure I'm scratching my head. I'm sure a lot of other people are too.
But you know, I always had faith even though the cops was doing me wrong and I was getting fined. Always damn deeps in my heart, I thought, well, the judge is not going to do this to me. The judge is going to see fear. All is well, he didn't even look at me much less see through you anything. And wow, court appointed lawyer with Becca Morell and the prosecutor and officer a Hardwood, We're all standing there with their arms around each other, pat and each other's back
and laughing. And you know that wasn't funny.
No, I mean, you're you're an incredibly strong woman, I mean, how you can even get out of bed in the morning and you know, put a smile on your face like time to time is good to hear you laughing. I mean, it's just you got all my respect. That's all I can say about that. And it's awesome that
you're here, and then I really appreciate it. So now things take finally a better turn in twenty fourteen because in July twenty fourteen, the Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of Appeals reverse the decision of the judge who wouldn't look at you, Judge Hickman, and they vacated your guilty plea in order to do trial because they said that based on the evidence of actual innocence, you were entitled to
a new trial. Now that would seem like a third grader would be able to figure that out, But okay, they figured it out, and then on October seventh, only a few months later, they dismissed all the charges. And now we come to another phase of this, right, because there's two more things that really need everyone's attention. Right,
because in twenty fifteen. A year later, October twenty fifteen, you filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Harwood and other police officers, which would seem like a no brainer. But it was dismissed in twenty sixteen, and I can't even imagine, I mean, because there's never been to my knowledge, they may have been, but I don't know about it a clearer cut case of official misconduct. And that's really
a nice way of saying it. I mean, it's just the most like you said, it's the most magically terrible uh frame job that that anyone like literally sus if somebody put your story. You realize this, if someone put your story in a Hollywood script, nobody would believe it. Like people would be like, no, go back and rewrite that. I could picture somebody said, re write that. No one's gonna lie it. Don't believe this is ridiculous, but it's true.
So I've got an excellent attorney right now. It's like I have an excellent team of attorneys. I've got the bitch from Kentucky.
Who do you? Who do you have let's give him a shout out.
Oh well, I have Thomas Clay and David Ward uh huh. And then there's some of their associates and I don't know what their names.
They're not excellent, excellent, excellent.
My life's going to be I'll be treated fairly.
Well. And and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. We ought to this point because in March twenty seventeen, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the lawsuit, which is interesting too because that's a very conservative court. But even they were able to say, hey, you know what, this is just not okay. And meanwhile, there's another aspect to this too. And I'm going to be following your case and rooting you right across the finish line, and I'll be here to help you any way that I can.
And I hope that we'll get a chance to meet and develop a friendship as I have with so many other extraordinary people Axannais over the years. But there's also another aspect to this, which is another really sinister thing that I want to share with the audience, which goes back to the police officer was at Morgan, right, who actually tried to do the right thing, and and what happened with him was that he was demoted. Right, So
this story is actually the one. Oh really, I didn't know that, so tell me rich Rich Pearson.
He was demoted as well, and he was an excellent cop. He was a good person. He's a Christian, Nanti and Shank.
So detective Baron Morgan who came forward. Uh he didn't didn't have to, I guess right. He could have just gone on with his life. But he came forward and you know, did did what any good officer of law would do and shared the information that he had discovered of who actually killed reading and uh and he was assigned to I think it was the night that the graveyard shift desk duty, right And and why why did they do that, Susan?
Well, because he told the trees and it was gonna make them all look like they were wrong, because they were wrong.
And what about the other guy that you were just talking about who also was demoted. What was his involvement because he hasn't come up in the store yet.
He was I believe, if I'm correct, he was Baron Morgan's balls. I think.
So he stood by him, right, uh huh.
And he talked with the Innocence Project too himself.
Oh okay, so they actually that's to the top.
I was telling you that there is in this.
World, right, So they weren't willing to to tow the line and just you know, hide and obscure the truth and do everything else that they would.
Two officers for doing the right thing. They really treated him badly.
Right, and so yeah, what happened is that, you know, I'm actually going back to my research and it says here that in connection with your case, Harwood Superior Commissioner Rodney Brewer complained to the Louisville PD chief and longtime friend Steve Conrad, that Detective Morgan was meddling in a state police case. Police case, he was meddling in a case by identifying the actual killer. That's an interesting definition of meddling. And so Conrad then transferred Morgan to the
graveyard shift as a patrol officer. Now the happy ending to that part of the story, if there could be such a thing, is that more ensued under the you know, saying that the assignment change was punishment for bringing Gerald's confession to light. And he actually did finally receive a four hundred and fifty thousand dollars settlement. So good for him, you know what, I hope he uh, I hope he is enjoying the money and that he's living a happy life.
Whatever he's doing. I don't know if he's still on the force or not, but I wish him well. I wish there were more people like him out there, and I know there are.
Well, that's chief the police. What's his name again? The chief was Steve Conrad, Conrad, Steve Conrad. That's why I could out thank you his name or nothing. And I should have known, what's my own? Because he went out of his way and make sure nothing's covered up and the trucks didn't get out. It's just as guilty as the rest of them.
It's it's it's an unbelievable conspiracy. And it's made to me even another layer of evil, the idea that they would do this to you, you know, a woman of humble means, who already is facing an uphill battle due to your injury or your disability, and and that like the fact that they are totally fine with, you know,
perpetrating this horrendous injustice on you. Meanwhile, not, of course, we all know that when you convict the wrong person, which they knew they were doing, you ignore the right person, and this guy, you know, went out and killed other people. Had they done their job, I don't know if they would have caught him or not, but at least they would have had a chance, and maybe they could have saved some other people's lives who didn't need to die
in the first place. So yeah, as you said, there's a lot of victims in this story.
There are a lot of victims in this story. And there's a lot of villains in this story. Because what happened to make can happen to anybody.
And that's I want and I want everyone to know that. And I also want to give another shout out to the Kentucky Innis's Project, and I hope that people will will donate, uh and get involved and go to the Kentucky Innis's Project website and and help because the great work that they did in Susan's case, I'm sure there are many many other examples, and I want to get to know more about their work. So, so, Susan, for you,
now you have your lawsuit pending. The courts have said that you can only sue Hardwood, right, They're not even letting you sue anybody else. Is that's still the state of affairs that we're in.
It still is. I don't understand that, but that's where it is.
But at least you're suing him, and that'll feel good to uh to win that, and I know you will because now you have the dream team on your side, like you said, and you have overwhelming you have overwhelming evidence. So I'm very hazy.
You know what would make me happy?
Tell me.
I'd watch for as I would to be arrested and take him to the hospital and handcuffed to the bed with his feet in his arms and tortured all night while and thrown in county jail for nineteen months and then thrown in but stay prison for four more years, which would be a total of six and a half years. That's what I'd like to see happened to him. He needs to be done just the way he had me done, and nothing less.
It's going to make me happy, Yeah, I can't. I don't think anyone can fault you for feeling that way, and I'm certainly not going to.
So Christopher murder and you say you didn't do it, they're really hard on you. I mean, I had I wasn't a bad looking girl when I got locked up. I had pretty smile, all my pretty white teeth, and I was attably proud of him, and that Dennis and all that massa prison. They've ruined my teeth. I've got
five teeth left, and that's it. And that's just, you know, the teeth is just one thing, you know, stuff that happens to your body while you're in there, Stuff that happens to your mind, and your emotional steak while you're in there, and your mental steak. It's overwhelming to wake up every day and you're still there and you didn't do it, and nobody believes you. And that's a long Six and a half years is a long time.
It is a long time. And I have seen pictures of you and you were and you still are a beautiful woman. So they can't take that away from you. So the two last points I want to cover. One is what is your life like now? I know this thing is pending. How are you living? How are you getting by? What can people do to help? That's what I'd like to know, including me.
Well, you know, I don't like to complain much. I'm thankful that I'm alive, and then I'm thankful I have over in my head mind job living at one bed dream apartment in the housing projects. It's not in my house and barn and beauty shop and bake reagion, my yard and my animals and everything. It's nothing like that anymore. It's just me and my dog and two cats in a one daydream apartment and we're trying to live on forty five dollars worth a food stands a month.
Have you and we're going to help you, for sure, But have you set up any kind of a GoFundMe or any kind of as anybody help you with that, because we can do that as well and try to raise raise money.
I don't have the internet or a computer or one of those fancy telephones or anything like that, so I don't know anything about anything like that. And that's everything turned into while I was in prison and I got out, everything gowing to computers and the expensive phones and nobody I'll pump your gas anymore. Things really changed in that six and a half years.
So so Susan, what uh? I guess the only thing I want to know now really is what else? Whatever else you want to say? I mean, i'd like to say at this point in the show, First of all, thank you for being here. I mean, your your strength and your courage or just beyond the beyond and Uh, you know, we're gonna We're going to do everything we can to help you get back on your feet or get back to just say better, with whatever we can to help you get back some of what you've lost.
I get back to normal.
Yeah, we can't get you. We can't get you back your time, but.
I don't remember what normal was like.
Well, we'll see what we can figure out. And then on top of that, this is a part of the show where as we wrap up. I always say it's my favorite part of the show because it's part where I stopped talking and I just listen and and I ask you what what what? What are your final thoughts? Is there anything else that you want to share? And you can talk about it anything you want. Take the last few minutes and tell the audience there's probably one
hundred thousand people going to hear your voice. What what would you like them to know?
Well, there, don't make me nervous about It's okay to you said thousands of people. Ye. Now, you know, I'll laugh because I have to. I got to get through every day. And you know, I feel like with all that prison time I did and all how badly I was treated in there, and everything. It's it's it's hard to talk about. I try to forget it often, kaid. I wish there was a pill I could take that it would just make me forget about all that. But uh, I haven't forgot about it yet, but I'm working on it.
I finally quit having nightmares about it. My church helped me a lot to sad. When my Sunday school ladies pray for something, we get it done. And my church has stuck with me through it all, and I'm just so thankful to have that and this little community I'm living in, even though it's my favorite poorhouse, but there's some few decent people here and I've made a couple of friends or so, and life's starting to get better.
I don't think I'll never be the same. There's things that that good to me that I'll never get over. Us tutter, I forget what I'm doing, what I'm saying, because they had me on a lot of psycho drugs, I call them. There's a lot of coarsene and real, real strong steps to help me get through that. And they had me in the influence of that stuff so bad I didn't even know who I was half the time, and it took its toll on my brain to this day.
You know, I still I eat real fast while somebody's gonna take it away from me and watch over my shoulder. I'm scared to death hard it's gonna murder me. But I don't trust him at all. And he's just that evil that he would sit out here in my apartment complex and wait for me to pass in front of my window, that little red dot on the wall, that light that I'm going to sut out. Sometimes it just
scares me to death. And in the evenings wester it gets dark, I turned everything off in my living room the rest of my house, and I go back to my bedroom. I just feel like I feel like I'm an open target for some reason when I'm in my living room and I don't feel safe until I get back there in my bedroom. And that's not normal either. I shouldn't feel that way. And the things that it did to my looks was horrible. Prisons really hard on on your face and able A don't even take care
of that anymore. But all the time I miss with my family and my son and my father and my mom. I just missed so many years with them, and that can't be given back, that can't be replace There's just there ain't no getting that back. And I thought learned how to forgive hard Woods for doing this, but it ain't happened yet. But I'm not even asking God very hard to make me forgive him. It's it's not in my heart yet. It's going to have to happen or
I ain't getting into heaven. I can still go fishing, but he didn't mess that up.
Are you good at it?
Yes? I am, Yes, So I am.
There you go, there you go, and you still have a great laugh, and you have a great attitude.
And uh, you saw me fishing, you laugh too.
I guarantee you. I'm from Manhattan. We don't know about fishing here, so I don't know. I'm sure I wouldn't even know what the hell was going on. But that's besides the point. So, Susan, all I can say is, I'm almost never at a loss for words, but I'm basically at a loss for words right now. I don't know what to say except to I just thank yourself.
To say about business, well, I.
Can tell you what I'll say. All I can say is I'm gonna apologize to you for on behalf of America and the human race for what was done to you, because there's just no excuse for it. And UH, and we're going to do what we can to make it right.
And I want to thank one day that Apple really knows that's the hope.
As well. I want to thank you again for taking your time and sharing your thoughts with us. And you know, I want to wish you well and I want you to know that we'll be here to help you and support you and UH in any way we can and UH, and I just I wish you well and again thank you, thank you for being here. Well.
I hope with me having a stub with you today for people that are here and it maybe it will stop that somebody you it will.
You can be confident of that. And now I want to thank the audience as well. You've been listening to an extra special, extraordinary edition of Wrongful Conviction with today's guest Susan King. Don't forget to.
Give us a fantastic review wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps.
And I'm a proud donor to the Innocence Project and I really hope you'll join me in supporting this very important cause and helping to prevent future wrongful convictions. Go to Innocenceproject dot org to learn how to donate and get involved. I'd like to thank our production team, Connor Hall and Kevin Wartis. The music in the show is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number One.
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