My name is Randy M. Mott and I represent Michael Chapel, convicted last year of the murder of Emogene Thompson in Gwinnett County. I was brought into the case through the Chapel family's contact with the National Police Defense Foundation.
The National Police Defense Foundation is a non-profit organization established to assist law enforcement officers wrongfully accused of misconduct. The Foundation has been involved in over thirty cases assisting law enforcement officers.
Our concern with this case began with the weaknesses of the evidence presented at trial and contained in the police files. We initially found it rather incredible that a dedicated police officer of eight years with dozens of citations and commendations would murder an innocent woman for $7000.
Our examination of the evidence, including all the police files that were turned over at that time of trial, reinforced our initial reaction to the case. Mike Chapel is innocent.
The identification testimony was very limited on its face. No one testified that they saw the crime. The witness who identified Chapel did so equivocally and only placed him in the area. Other witnesses made totally divergent observations, particularly as to the type and markings of the police car they described at the murder scene on April 15th, 1993. Most of this testimony described a patrol car that didn't fit Officer Chapel's car or set out time frames that did not fit his schedule that evening.
The truth is that it was impossible to see very much that night in the darkness and rain, traveling at 40-60 MPH down the Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. The police attempted to re-enact the murder to bolster the portions of the eye-witness testimony that they relied upon. That re-enactment was a disaster for their case - no one could see any thing but the most ambiguous objects that night. Even without the glare of a recent rainstorm and allowing for video quality, it is clear that very little could have been seen that night from the PIB.
Anyone who wants to test the veracity of the trial testimony need only go out to the PIB in Buford on dark night in the rain and drive by the Gwinnco Muffler Shop when the shop's lights are out.
The corner stone of the prosecution's case was an alleged meeting which they said was to take place between Officer Chapel and the victim the night of April 15, 1993. The meeting was to discuss the theft of money from Mrs. Thompson's trailer, a call that Officer Chapel had responded to earlier. Officer Chapel filled out a report of this incident and discussed it openly with several other officers. He did not turn in the report a fact the prosecution made to sound ominous - but (like all officers) he did not turn in reports in most of the calls he responded to. The woman who talked to Mrs. Thompson less than a hour and a half before her murder told the police that no meeting had been set up as of that time. Delores Burel told the police immediately after the murder: " And it just hit me, I had talked to her just an hour probably before she left and went to work, something like that cause she said... We talked for a long time, you know, and she said, 'Lord, I got to get in there and get ready to go to work.' You know, and I said, 'Yeah, in case that officer calls ya, you need to be able to leave early.' She said, 'Yeah.' And I said, 'Call me if he calls you before you leave."
Delores Burel never received any call that a meeting was to take place that night or any other time.
The police pushed the story that a meeting had been actually set up for that night although none of the initial statements by any of the three women involved in this issue contained any reference to there actually being a meeting scheduled. Mrs. Thompson apparently anticipated meeting with Officer Chapel about the money stolen from her trailer - noting that they both felt her son had taken it. But no meeting was ever scheduled or agreed to and none ever occurred.
You all may well know that the murder weapon was never recovered. You may be surprised to know that there is considerable doubt whether Mrs. Thompson actually had the alleged $7000 with her that night.
One of the major pieces of evidence at the trial was Officer Chapel's raincoat. The prosecution made much of tiny amounts of blood on the coat some of which were analyzed as human blood. They did no DNA analysis of the blood to match the victim's and their experts even testified that no effort was made to determine if the blood was even the same type as the victim.
Most disturbing of all, the police suppressed evidence that the raincoat had been examined for traces of gunpowder. Documents indicate that a test was performed and the results orally conveyed to the GCPD, who now deny this fact. When no evidence of gunpowder residue on the raincoat was discovered, when there was no indication that Officer Chapel had recently fired a gun while wearing the raincoat they withheld the report.
Finally, they went back six days after Officer Chapel's arrest and found traces of blood in his patrol car. Using the full DNA analysis employed by the FBI and all major private laboratories, there was no match to the victim. Using an experimental protocol devised by the State Crime Lab, their witness declared a match.
However, the blood was found on the upper side of an armrest in the front seat which Mike Chapel always kept in the upright position. It was found after the car was left out in the back of the police station for six days. After this testing the car was moved to a secure location the question is why was it left out for six days and who had access?
Our Defense Team is not however, simply going to re-argue the evidence presented at trial.
After reviewing all the work done to date, we are conducting an extensive investigation into the murder. Our investigation has already revealed new evidence that Officer Chapel is innocent -- testimony that the jury did not hear. We have provided assurances to witnesses that their statements will remain confidential until we file a supplemental motion of new trial.
We will not release new evidence piecemeal and want to explore every avenue before the hearing on a new trial. We are asking anyone with information on the murder of Emogene Thompson to contact our investigator, Boris Korczak at 703-503-3350, Fax: 703 503-5158, or e-mail: bkor@erols.com.
Finally, Officer Chapel has been imprisoned for over three years; his family has been financially destroyed as well. While he is eligible for court-appointed counsel for his appeal of the conviction, the motion for new trial and our investigation has to be paid for by private donations. We ask anyone that feels the flull story needs to be told to contact the National Police Defense Foundation at 800-556-0597 or to send their donations to the Michael Chapel Defense Fund, P.O. Box 565, Falls Church, VA 22040-0565.