A federal lawsuit filed in April claims a Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office deputy withheld audio evidence of a shooting for two years while a man sat in jail facing murder charges.
The lawsuit says Deputy Duryl Cook found audio of the shooting on a gaming system used by his nephew. His nephew lived close to the scene and was playing an online basketball game when the shooting occurred. Another person in that same match uploaded video of it to TikTok.
"The audio recording captured multiple gunshots from the shooting incident with sound quality superior to other audio recordings that were collected as evidence in the case," the complaint reads in part.
On July 23, 2023, deputies were called to Concord Place Apartments in Oshtemo Township on reports of a shooting. According to court documents, they found 21-year-old Davion Johnson suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the parking lot. Several rifle rounds, the casing of a 9 mm round and a handgun were found near Johnson. A document filed with the court said a rifle was found by investigators around a quarter of a mile from the scene several days later.
Antwon Rolland, 21, was initially charged with open murder and felony firearm in the shooting.
The lawsuit said Cook did not share information about the recording with anyone for around two years. It wasn't until a conversation with a detective sergeant during a shift patrol briefing that Cook mentioned it. He then shared the audio, which was later analyzed.
"This sequence of fire was material and exculpatory evidence supporting Plaintiff's potential claim of self-defense, as it indicated that the victim Davion Johnson may have fired first," the suit claims.
The lawsuit says the suppressed evidence directly contradicted the prosecution's theory of the case and undermined the basis for the murder charges against Rolland.
Attorney Michael Jones with Marko Law is representing Rolland in the lawsuit. He said this kind of information should have been shared with the defense team from the start.
"The fact is, in a criminal case like that, the prosecution is required to give the defense attorney everything that they have," Jones said. "And this is a critical piece of information. He doesn't tell anybody at the Criminal Investigation Division. He tells no investigators. He tells no prosecutors and he maintains this without disposing it for two years."
Jones said the lawsuit seeks to learn what county employees knew and when.
"How does this happen? Is it because of the systemic failures of not training your employees? Are policies not clear?" Jones said. "So we're hoping to find out and this is the part about bringing the lawsuit. Has this happened before? You know? This may have happened to somebody and nobody has ever brought it forward to sort of shine the light on these issues."
Jones said the lawsuit is about what they see as accountability.
"We need the county, we need this deputy, everybody to be on notice that this is not how you properly handle an investigation," Jones said. "It needs to send a message that if you have this evidence, that everything needs to be disclosed."
Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Getting confirmed the deputy did not put the recording into evidence. No one from his office was told about it until the trial's midpoint. One that happened, Getting said, his team immediately informed the defense and the court and shared the file.
"Based on our review of the previously undisclosed evidence, the review of the recording by firearm experts at the KCSO, the circumstances of its seizure, and the failure to timely provide the evidence, the OPA determined that we were not able to sustain our burden of proving the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, more specifically, that we were not able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in self-defense," Getting wrote. "As a result, the OPA agreed to move to dismiss the charge of Murder and the defendant pled no contest to the count two charge of Felony Firearm."
Court records show Rolland was sentenced to two years behind bars with credit of 814 days already served.
In an email, the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's office said it could not provide comment on a potential civil lawsuit while it's active.
"It is our standard practice to refrain from discussing ongoing or pending litigation to ensure the integrity of the process," the email read.
Jones said the lawsuit seeks to learn what county employees knew and when.
Federal court records show that the lawsuit has yet to be served. Once it is, the county will have 30 days to respond.
Cook claimed he did not see the information as significant because it was only audio.
"Cook's deliberate failure to disclose this exculpatory evidence for over two years, combined with his conflict of interest, demonstrates either intentional suppression or reckless disregard for Plaintiff's constitutional rights," the lawsuit read.