The Robert Woodward Shooting
Evidence of a Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice
Version 1:
released November 26, 2003
Introduction
On December 2, 2001, Robert Woodward died after being shot 7 times by
police in a Brattleboro, Vermont church.
Beginning that day, the Vermont State Police investigators conducted
recorded interviews with each of the 18 eyewitnesses, who were asked
where they were looking at the moment of the first shot, and whether
they saw any threatening movements made toward the police officers.
To a person, they did not.
In addition, eyewitnesses volunteered that they had seen Woodward
shot after he had fallen to the floor, and that he had been denied
desperately needed medical care. Each time incriminating evidence was
volunteered, the interviewer quickly changed the subject, and it was
never pursued again.
The three officers present at the shooting were allowed to fill out
their reports in the same room, unsupervised, and the two shooters
and admitted to discussing the incident prior to their interviews by
investigators the next day. The third officer's interview contains
an exchange that corroborates eyewitness accounts that the victim
was shot from above.
While securing the crime scene, officials apparently refrained from
gathering crucial physical evidence or performing basic forensic analysis
procedures, including those which could either prove or refute the
eyewitness claims.
On December 20, officials staged an incident reenactment with the three
officers present at the shooting. Reenactments were performed with
only 3 of the 18 church eyewitnesses.
Months later, officials re-interviewed the eyewitnesses, but chose not
to record their words. Recollections from the officials conducting
these interviews, rather than quotes from the eyewitnesses themselves,
formed the basis for the eventual exoneration.
Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell closed the matter with his
April 2, 2002 Woodward Shooting Report, which justified the shooting
as self-defense. It praised the investigation as "competent" and
"diligent," while carefully hiding the evidence that the victim was
shot after falling and then denied medical care.
Vermont Governor Howard Dean, facing an outcry from citizens, the ACLU,
and Vermont legislators, refused calls for an independent investigation,
saying that he was "comfortable" with Sorrell's report.
Dean maintained this position despite admitting to having read the
evidence of down shooting and denial of first aid.
Dean appointed Sorrell to the post of Attorney General.
The two are longtime friends and political allies.
This document presents evidence that William Sorrell led a conspiracy
to obstruct justice by engaging in a pattern of activity to conceal
three types of evidence:
Evidence that Robert Woodward was shot from above after he had
fallen to the floor.
Evidence that Woodward was denied necessary and available medical care.
Evidence of a fraudulent investigation.
This document concludes with the assertion that Governor Dean is an
accomplice to the conspiracy.
Detailed Analysis
For this discussion, evidence is abbreviated as follows:
DSE: Down Shooting Evidence (firing downward into a fallen person).
FADE: First Aid Denial Evidence (denying a person necessary and
available medical care).
Table of Contents
DSE (Down Shooting Evidence)
A. Officials possessed DSE.
1. Eyewitness interviews indicate down shooting.
2. Bullet wounds indicate down shooting.
3. Timeline indicates down shooting.
4. Lines of fire indicate down shooting.
B. Officials avoided collecting DSE.
1. Events after the first shot were not explored.
2. Reenactment data was not evaluated.
3. Forensic artifacts were not collected.
4. Standard forensic analysis procedures were avoided.
C. Attorney General Sorrell is concealing DSE.
1. Sorrell is concealing eyewitness DSE.
2. Sorrell is concealing forensic DSE.
3. Sorrell is concealing the nature of the official investigation.
FADE (First Aid Denial Evidence)
A. Officials possessed FADE.
1. Dr. Woodring's December 2nd interview recounts her
repeated requests that Woodward's handcuffs be removed.
2. Evidence indicates bleeding could not be controlled
until handcuffs were removed.
3. Officials' statements establish handcuffing lasted at
least 10 minutes.
4. Long and inexplicable delays occurred in transporting
Woodward to the hospital.
B. Officials avoided collecting FADE.
1. Eyewitnesses were not questioned about FADE.
2. EMT reports containing no details of patient care were
accepted as adequate.
C. Attorney General Sorrell is concealing FADE.
1. Sorrell's report nowhere mentions FADE.
2. Sorrell hides FADE in findings of fact with misleading language.
3. Sorrell substitutes alleged confession for any information about
medical care.
Conclusion
A. Governor Dean possessed DSE and FADE
B. Governor Dean and Attorney General Sorrell
Conspired to Obstruct Justice
DSE (Evidence of Down Shooting)
A. Officials possessed DSE.
1. Eyewitness interviews indicate down shooting.
EMT Brian Patno's September 16th interview contained this exchange:
Mary Hunt's December 2nd interview contained this exchange:
Janis Chaillou's December 2nd written statement included a clearly
labeled chronology with the following sequence:
Her December 2nd interview includes the following passage:
Jane Worley in her December 2nd interview said:
Dr. Woodring in her December 2nd interview said:
J.B.C. Thomas' December 2nd written statement stated:
2. Bullet wounds indicate down shooting.
Woodward received 7 bullets: One to his left arm, four to his right
arm, and one each to his abdomen and back. Eyewitness and EMT
statements indicate that the entry wounds in his abdomen and back were
both on his right side.
Woodward came to rest on his left side, exposing his right side to
gunfire, consistent with the location of his wounds.
Moreover, the presence of a bullet just under the skin on his left
side, observed by Dr. Woodring, suggests that Woodward was fired upon
as he lay against a firm surface, such as the rug on which he fell.
3. Timeline indicates down shooting.
In a May 30, 2002 interview on Vermont Public Radio, Sorrell stated
that there was a delay of two to three seconds between the first shot
and the final fusillade. According to Sorrell, Woodward began a charge
before the first shot was fired, and fell to the ground after the last,
covering a distance of between 12 to 14 feet.
Sorrell's statement reveals that, in order for Woodward to have been
upright and in motion during the final fusillade, Woodward's "charge"
would have had to average a rate of travel of less than 4 to 7 feet per
second, somewhat slower than a walk. Police and eyewitness accounts
indicating that Woodward moved more rapidly than this suggest that he
arrived at his final location on the floor before the final shots were
fired. Given the distance Woodward traveled, the delay between the
first and last shots indicates down shooting.
4. Lines of fire indicate down shooting.
According to the accounts of all three officers, during the shooting
Officer Holbrook was positioned at the front of the room, to the left
of the podium as viewed by those seated. Woodward was located 12 to 14
feet away, to the right of the podium. After the first two shots, as
Woodward traveled from right to left in front of Officer Holbrook, the
seated parishioners were directly in the line of fire from Holbrook to
Woodward. Holbrook did not have a clear line of fire at Woodward until
he fell, after which Holbrook would have been able to fire downward
into Woodward without risking bystanders.
A transcript of a tape recording made during Officer Davies' December
3rd, 2001 interview with State Police detectives points out this
observation while also dismissing and ignoring it.
B. Officials avoided collecting DSE.
1. Events after the first shot were not explored.
Questioning of eyewitnesses consistently focused on the positions of
actors immediately prior to and at the moment of the first shot. There
was no questioning on their positions during subsequent shots. Although
questions were asked about where Woodward fell, there were no questions
about the firing of shots at that time, other than the exceptions of
eyewitnesses Polly Wilson and Mary Hunt noted above.
Despite possessing DSE, officials chose not to pursue the subject, with
the exception of two elderly eyewitnesses, Polly Wilson and Mary Hunt.
When Mary Hunt responded affirmatively, the line of questioning was ended.
2. Reenactment data was not evaluated.
The publicly released evidence packet contains 3 police and 16
eyewitness drawings indicating the positions of the officers, Woodward,
and themselves. Apparently, no attempt was made to determine the
positions of the officers and Woodward based on the aggregate data, nor
was a composite drawing created showing the positions of everyone in
the room. Were such a composite drawing to be made, it would show that
parishioners were in the line of fire during the time that Holbrook
claims he fired at Woodward.
Sorrell's report indicated they received
"a near-to-scale depiction"
from NESPIN, but does not disclose why an accurate scale model was not
used instead. The results of the reenactments were recorded on these 2
by 3 inch, hand-drawn sketches. Officer Davies' interview indicates
that officials were aware of the difficulty they presented when
determining lines of fire.
3. Forensic artifacts were not collected.
Although eyewitness statements indicate that Woodward wore a shirt, and
that he fell on a carpet, there is no indication that these items were
taken into evidence. These artifacts may have provided decisive DSE in
the form of gunpowder residues or bullet impact damage.
4. Standard forensic analysis procedures were avoided.
There have been no public statements from officials on what if any
forensic analysis procedures were conducted, such as gunpowder residue,
bullet impact, or blood spatter analysis. Inquiries to Attorney General
Sorrell's office as to whether such procedures were conducted were not
answered.
C. Attorney General Sorrell is concealing DSE.
1. Sorrell is concealing eyewitness DSE.
In Sorrell's report, the DETAILED FINDINGS OF FACT section asserts:
Although this implies a finding that Woodward was upright when the last
shot was fired, it literally requires only that Woodward fell some
distance, perhaps 2 inches, after the last shot.
Sorrell's failure to find that Woodward was upright at the time of the
last shot suggests that Sorrell believes that down shooting occurred
and is avoiding legally binding statements to the contrary.
Sorrell's public statements when questioned about down shooting appear
to be carefully worded to avoid asserting that down shooting did not occur.
The Burlington Free Press quotes him saying:
Sorrell's statements are literally consistent with a belief that
Woodward was shot while down.
Sorrell's report disposes of the most unequivocal eyewitness DSE taken
from Thomas' written statement by embedding it within a context that
has the effect of rendering it completely implausible. The sentence
appears immediately after the confused-sounding quote by Mary Hunt,
"so they wrestled him down and he was down on the floor when the shots
came" in the section DIFFERING EYEWITNESS RECOLLECTIONS.
The purpose of
this section appears to be to cast all but the statements of the four
featured eyewitness as unreliable. Thomas' statement is immediately
followed by a paragraph about differences in eyewitness accounts being
explainable due to different vantage points, implying Thomas did not
have a good vantage point. In fact, Thomas had an excellent vantage
point from his standing position on the elevated ramp in the right rear
of the room.
Sorrell's report makes no mention of Janis Chaillou's recollection of
shots after she saw Woodward on the floor, nor of Jane Worley's
statement about him turning over, nor of EMT Patno's observation that
Woodward had been shot where he lay.
Sorrell chose to re-type some of the eyewitness written statements.
Chaillou's was one such statement. The typed version is not only purged
of the chronology described above, it also rewords her last paragraph.
The effect of this unusual treatment is to remove the DSE.
Her original written statement reads:
Whereas Sorrell's typed version reads:
2. Sorrell is concealing forensic DSE.
Sorrell is extremely vague about the gunshot wounds. While the DETAILED
FINDINGS OF FACT make no mention whatsoever of the location of the
wounds, the SUMMARY FINDINGS provides these clues:
Sorrell makes no mention of exit wounds, which bullets remained in the
body, and which was the cause of death. More to the point, he fails to
disclose that the two entry wounds to the torso were both on the right
side, and does not mention the bullet Dr. Woodring observed under the
skin on Woodward's left side. This bullet is evidence that he was fired
upon as he lay against the rug.
Sorrell continues to suppress the autopsy and ballistics reports,
evidence decisive in whether or not down shooting occurred. Sorrell
remains silent on the whereabouts of Woodward's shirt and the rug
upon which he fell.
3. Sorrell is concealing the nature of the official investigation.
In the SCOPE OF INVESTIGATION section of his report, Sorrell states
that "The reenactments, done one individual at a time, were to identify
or clarify the location of key participants and eyewitnesses at the
critical moments during the shooting." without revealing that the
reenactments did not consider the critical moments between the first
and last shots.
Sorrell's report states that "Measurements were taken and the New
England State Police Information Network (NESPIN) prepared a
near-to-scale depiction." without revealing that the depiction used was
a sketch with highly distorted proportions.
Sorrell's report states that
"We gave particular weight to statements made just after the shooting,
certainly within 24 hours of its occurrence."
without revealing that the statements which form the basis
of his report were taken months after the shooting.
Sorrell's report states that
"There are approximately 35 audio-tapes of the interviews."
without revealing that the interviews forming the
basis of his report were neither recorded nor transcribed.
Sorrell's report states that
"Lab personnel collected evidence..."
without revealing that crucial forensic evidence was not collected,
such as Woodward's shirt and the carpet.
Sorrell's report states that
"Among those deserving of recognition and
thanks for their competent, diligent efforts and willing cooperation in
the conducting of this investigation are the Vermont State Police,
particularly Detective Sergeant Reg Trayah..."
without revealing that the investigation avoided collecting
unfavorable evidence.
FADE (Evidence of Denial of First Aid)
A. Officials possessed FADE.
1. Dr. Woodring's December 2nd interview recounts her repeated requests
that Woodward's handcuffs be removed.
2. Evidence indicates bleeding could not be controlled until handcuffs
were removed.
Woodward remained predominantly face down for the entire time he was
handcuffed. EMT statements indicate that the wound to his abdomen,
through which he was bleeding heavily, was not treated until after the
removal of the handcuffs. Thereafter firefighter Shawn Hammond recounted
"... we got most of the bleeding under control ..."
3. Officials' statements establish handcuffing lasted at least 10
minutes.
According to Chief Martin, shots were reported fired at 10:14. The
handcuffing occurred within a minute of the shots being fired.
We know from several accounts that as soon as the handcuffs were
removed, Woodward was rolled onto a backboard. Officer Frechette's
statement states:
Shawn Hammond's statement recounts his assembling the backboard and
setting up the re-breather before the discussion between EMT Patno and
an officer about removing the handcuffs. Even allowing only one minute
for those events, the removal of the handcuffs would have occurred no
earlier than 10:27, an elapsed time of 13 minutes.
4. Long and inexplicable delays occurred in transporting Woodward to
the hospital.
Several eyewitness statements indicate that Woodward was taken out of
the church soon after he was rolled onto the backboard, suggesting that
he was in the ambulance by 10:30. Yet, according to Chief Martin, the
ambulance was not reported en route to the hospital until 10:37, and
according to officers Frichette and Gerard, who rode in the ambulance,
it did not depart until 10:41. This period of over 10 minutes is
difficult to account for given that IVs had already been set up even
before the removal of handcuffs. The same officers give 10:47 and 10:48
as the time of arrival at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, a travel time
that would have allowed them to traverse the 3 mile distance well under
the speed limit. The time of admission to the emergency room by hospital
spokesperson Barbara Gentry was 10:59, leaving another over 10 minute
period unaccounted for.
5. Dramatic inconsistencies exist in official times for medical care
events.
Times described in the previous section are dramatic in their
inconsistencies. The 10:37 versus 10:41 values collected for the time
of departure from the church, and the 10:47 versus 10:59 values
collected for the time of arrival at the hospital, raise serious
questions about the actual timeline, the cause of the apparent delay in
transport, and why the investigation did not produce an accurate
timeline.
B. Officials avoided collecting FADE.
1. Eyewitnesses were not questioned about FADE.
None of the eyewitnesses were questioned about the handcuffing and the
role it played in Woodward's medical care. Dr. Woodring's recounting
of these events was volunteered in response to a question about whether
she saw the first shot.
2. EMT reports containing no details of patient care were
accepted as adequate.
The official reports of the EMTs have very little detail about medical
care. Shawn Hammond, a firefighter, gives more detail about medical
care in his report than do any of the EMTs. The bulk of the EMT
statements are taken up by claims about Woodward's talk of
conspiracies and apologies to the "officer he assaulted".
C. Attorney General Sorrell is concealing FADE.
1. Sorrell is concealing FADE.
Sorrell's report makes no mention of the long period of handcuffing,
Police and EMT resistance to Dr. Woodring's presence, Dr. Woodring's
refused requests that the handcuffs be removed, Officer Davies'
explanation that Woodward was handcuffed because he had not been
searched, nor the large amount of blood Woodward lost while his
abdominal wound remained inaccessible.
2. Sorrell hides FADE in findings of fact with misleading language.
Sorrell's DETAILED FINDINGS OF FACT section states:
"Medical assistance was rendered promptly, first by those present, then
by Brattleboro Rescue," and
"The handcuffs were removed when requested by rescue personnel."
Sorrell falsely implies that medical assistance was not impeded, and
that there was no resistance by officials to the removal of the
handcuffs. In fact, medical assistance was not rendered promptly, as
police refusal to remove the handcuffs caused Woodward to bleed
uncontrollably for at least 10 minutes.
3. Sorrell substitutes alleged confession for any information about
medical care.
The section of the Report titled
"Post Shooting/Medical Assistance"
contains no information of a medical nature, instead reiterating
Woodward's alleged "assaulted" confession. While disclosing no
information about medical care, the police refusal to allow treatment
of Woodward's abdominal wound, or the long delays in transport to the
hospital, the report recounts the alleged "assaulted" confession
three different times, including in the DETAILED FINDINGS OF FACT.
Conclusion
A. Governor Dean possessed DSE and FADE
At a fundraising event, Governor Dean accepted and volunteered to read
the September 24th, 2002 "Justice For Woody Report" containing evidence
of down shooting and denial of first aid. In an
interview
published in
the Brattleboro Reformer, Dean indicated that he had read the report.
"I've read one of the analyses of the [Sorrell's] report and I thought
it was very good, it was by the friends of Woody."
Governor Dean has acknowledged possessing evidence that Woodward was
fired upon as he lay on the floor of the church, and that he was denied
necessary and available medical care.
B. Governor Dean and Attorney General Sorrell
Conspired to Obstruct Justice
The homicide investigation conducted by Vermont Attorney General
William Sorrell consistently avoided collecting, analyzing, or pursuing
the evidence that Woodward was shot after falling and then denied
medical care.
Sorrell characterized his investigation as "competent" and "diligent,"
while carefully hiding compelling evidence of police wrongdoing.
Governor Dean was the only official above the Vermont Attorney General
who was capable of initiating an independent, unbiased investigation.
Governor Dean stated that he was "comfortable with" Sorrell's
investigation, and refused repeated calls for an investigation
independent of Vermont law enforcement.
By refusing to pursue the evidence they possessed that Woodward was
shot while down and then denied first aid, and instead putting forth a
fraudulent homicide investigation, Governor Dean and William Sorrell
conspired to obstruct the lawful application of justice in the matter
of the police shooting of Robert Woodward.