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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Conspiracy and Fraud |
Sentence: |
"1 day & $6,000 restitution" |
Years Imprisoned: |
0.001 |
Year Crime: |
2007 |
Year Convicted: |
2010 |
Year Cleared: |
2016 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
New York - Federal Case |
County or Region of Crime: |
Onondaga |
City of Crime: |
Syracuse |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated |
Summary of Case: |
"Elisa Dunn and Nicole Copeland were codefendants wrongly convicted of federal criminal charges of conspiracy and laboratory fraud by falsely certified buildings as free of asbestos in Syracuse, New York from 1999 to 2007. Dunn and Copeland were indicted in 2009, and were convicted after a jury trial in 2010 in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of New York. On May 28, 2014 the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit reversed the convictions of Dunn, Copeland, and their employer Certified Environmental Services, Inc. on five grounds: First, the trial judge erred by denying admittance of evidence proving the defendants acted in good faith -- negating the essential element of criminal intent; Second, the court also ruled the due process rights of the defendant were violated by the prosecution bolstering the credibility of the testimony of a number of witnesses by emphasizing the "cooperation agreements" they signed required that they give truthful testimony; Third, the prosecutions violated its obligation under Brady to provide handwritten interview notes by a government witness, EPA Agent Michael Dwyer, that were favorable to the defense; Fourth, during the rebuttal summation the prosecutor violated the due process rights of the defendants by personally vouching for the credibility of witnesses in an effort to rehabilitate those witnesses and bolster the believability of their testimony; and Fifth, the cumulative effect of the errors by the trial judge and the prosecution. Their case remanded back to the district court. The appeals court affirmed the convictions of two other individuals who were defendants in the case, but their cases were remanded for resentencing. CES pled guilty on May 5, 2015 to the reduced misdemeanor charge of negligently releasing asbestos into the ambient air, thereby placing other persons in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. CES was sentenced in September 2015 to five years probation, and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine and pay $409,000 restitution. Almost two years after their convictions were overturned, a motion by the U.S. Attorney's Office to dismiss the charges against Dunn and Copeland was granted on May 10, 2016." |
Conviction Caused By: |
Prosecutor misconduct and errors by the trial judge. |
Innocence Proved By: |
"On May 28, 2014 the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit reversed the convictions of Dunn, Copeland, and Certified Environmental Services, Inc. on five grounds: First, the trial judge erred by denying admittance of evidence proving the defendants acted in good faith -- negating the essential element of criminal intent; Second, the court also ruled the due process rights of the defendant were violated by the prosecution bolstering the credibility of the testimony of a number of witnesses by emphasizing the "cooperation agreements" they signed required that they give truthful testimony; Third, the prosecutions violated its obligation under Brady to provide handwritten interview notes by a government witness, EPA Agent Michael Dwyer, that were favorable to the defense; Fourth, during the rebuttal summation the prosecutor violated the due process rights of the defendants by personally vouching for the credibility of witnesses in an effort to rehabilitate those witnesses and bolster the believability of their testimony; and Fifth, the cumulative effect of the errors by the trial judge and the prosecution. Their case remanded back to the district court. Almost two years later a prosecution motion to dismiss the charges against Dunn and Copeland was granted on May 10, 2016. A year earlier, CES had pled guilty on May 5, 2015 to the reduced misdemeanor charge of negligently releasing asbestos into the ambient air, thereby placing other persons in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. CES was sentenced in September 2015 to five years probation, and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine and pay $409,000 restitution." |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
40 |
Age When Released: |
40 |
Sex: |
Female |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"US v. Certified Environmental Services, Inc., 753 F. 3d 72 (2nd Cir 2014) (Reversed convictions and ordered a new trial)" |
Information Location 1: |
"https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17250222313026811723&q=CERTIFIED+ENVIRONMENTAL+SERVICES,+INC.&hl=en&as_sdt=6,48" |
Information Source 2: |
"Certified Environmental Services, Inc. Pleads Guilty To Negligent Endangerment, Press Release, U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of New York, May 8, 2016" |
Information Location 2: |
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/certified-environmental-services-inc-pleads-guilty-negligent-endangerment |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org