“How Are You?”

by Melissa Bailey
New Haven Independent
April 16, 2008 4:29 PM

Ex-Det. Clarence Willoughby didn’t answer that question Wednesday — or any others about allegedly coercing a confession from a 14 year-old — as New Haven’s police corruption woes continued to jeopardize criminal cases.

Willoughby was testifying, and pleading the fifth, in yet another murder case in State Superior Court.

Willoughby retired from the New Haven Police Department in February just before turning himself in on charges he forged signatures and stole thousands of dollars in police informant funds.

A pre-trial hearing Wednesday presented yet another occasion where Willoughby’s troubles are spilling over to state prosecutors, as his credibility is questioned in cases that rest on his work.

Willoughby’s criminal charges stemmed from four investigations, including three homicides. Attorney Diane Polan subpoenaed the former detective to testify in the case of one of those homicides, the shooting death of Herbert Fields. Her client, Kwame Wells-Jordan, was 14 years old at the time Fields was shot to death on Aug. 1, 2006 on West Ivy Street.

Wells-Jordan was arrested on Nov. 9, 2006 and subsequently made a confession to Willoughby and Detective Michael Quinn. He is facing three felony charges for conspiring and acting as an accessory in a first-degree robbery and assault. Wells-Jordan, who’s now 16, is being tried as an adult in New Haven Superior Court before Judge Bruce Thompson. He has pleaded not guilty to all three charges.

In a pre-trial hearing Wednesday before Judge Thompson, Polan brought Willoughby to the stand. Wearing a dark suit and shiny shoes, the looming man raised his right hand and took the oath. His deep voice rang out in the carpeted courtroom. The purpose of the hearing was for the judge to determine whether Willoughby should be allowed to plead the fifth instead of answering Polan’s questions during a trial.

“How are you?” Polan asked the witness.

“Don’t answer that!” called out attorney Norm Pattis from the back of the room. Pattis, who’s representing Willoughby, instructed his client to give only his name and address and to refuse further questions.

“This is absurd!” protested Polan.

Polan said she’d like to ask Willoughby about the facts surrounding Wells-Jordan’s interrogation — an interrogation she claims had a “coercive effect” on the suspect and led him to provide a false confession.

“This is a case where a 14-year-old has been falsely accused in the absence of any physical evidence,” she charged.

The state’s case rests on the testimony of Wells-Jordan and two young accomplices who were at the scene (one of whom, then-17-year-old Bobby Joe Johnson, pleaded guilty for the murder and is doing 38 years). Polan claims during the interrogation, cops told Wells-Jordan his fingerprints had been found on the victim’s car — a legal but “coercive” method, she argued. Wells-Jordan’s aunt, Julia Sykes, who gave consent for the young Wells-Jordan to be interviewed, has claimed she asked for a lawyer but was not awarded one, Polan said.

Suspecting the state would hang its case on Wells-Jordan’s testimony, Polan said she’d like to ask Willoughby for answers on how the interrogation was done, as well as whether he did due diligence in following up on an alibi Wells-Jordan supposedly provided.

Assistant State’s Attorney James Clark cut in to correct the record: The state wasn’t solely hanging its hat on the testimony of three three alleged accomplices; he said there were outside witnesses who saw a person of Wells-Johnson’s description get into a car.

Two young, black men of a general height and size? Polan scoffed. She estimated there are about 5,000 people matching that description.

Pattis (pictured) maintained his client had the right to plead the fifth to avoid self-incrimination. Since Willoughby is facing criminal charges for his conduct on the Fields case, he should be protected from having to testify about it, he argued.

Polan countered that the detective shouldn’t be absolved of testifying on the whole case just because he’s accused of stealing informant funds. She pleaded with Judge Thompson to protect her client’s right to a fair trial by allowing open examination of the way the teen was brought to confess.

She warned the judge of creating “two classes” of officers — those who routinely testify on how they investigated criminal cases, and others such as Willoughby.

“It’s like Alice and Wonderland,” Polan charged. “A police officer gets arrested and he’s no longer required to come into court.”

In a heavyweight bout between two well-known civil rights attorneys, Pattis accused Polan of “gamesmanship designed for the press.” Clark argued that instead of creating two classes of officers, the judge would be maintaining one class of defendants — those with the constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination.

Judge Thompson ended the hearing by siding with Pattis and Clark. He would allow Willoughby to plead the fifth. Pattis indicated he intended to file a motion to quash Polan’s subpoena so that Willoughby wouldn’t have to come to court during the trial, take the stand, and repeat the routine of pleading the fifth all over again.