Flint dad exonerated in daughter’s death sues hospital and police

• Michael Griffin was exonerated in 2023 after serving practically 14 years in jail for the loss of life of his toddler daughter.
• Griffin has filed a wrongful prosecution lawsuit, alleging police, medical doctors, and forensic officers conspired to border him.
• He maintains his daughter’s loss of life was a tragic accident after she fell from a child swing and died from a failed surgical procedure.
• Griffin’s conviction was vacated after his new authorized group argued his unique court-appointed legal professional was ineffective.

Behind jail partitions, they known as him “Child Killer.”

It was a torturous nickname for Michael Griffin, who was serving a life sentence for the loss of life of his toddler daughter — a criminal offense he adamantly denies. He stated she fell from a child swing inside their Flint dwelling and died the following day from a failed surgical procedure. However the police, he stated, had been hell-bent on blaming him for her loss of life, accusing him of abusing her, and attempting to bully a confession out of him.

“‘Inform us what you probably did or the medical doctors will not assist your daughter,'” Griffin recalled the police telling him throughout a three-hour-long interrogation as his daughter clung to life. He described it as a futile back-and-forth:

“I am telling you the reality.”

“No, you are not.”

“She fell out of her swing.”

“No, she did not.”

“They stored telling me I used to be mendacity,” recalled Griffin, who at 19 would get charged, convicted at trial and despatched to jail, the place the “Child Killer” taunts would tear his guts out for years, triggering fights with those that dared utter it.

“I needed to preserve telling myself, ‘I did not do it,’ Even when the reality by no means got here out,” Griffin stated in a current, unique interview with the Free Press.

However the reality did ultimately come out, Griffin stated. In 2023 he was exonerated with the assistance of the Michigan Innocence Clinic and legal professional Mike Morse. Two years into his freedom, he’s now suing to carry these accountable for, as he places it, framing him for a criminal offense that he by no means dedicated, and robbing him of 14 years of his life.

‘I stored telling myself — I do know they did me mistaken’

In a wrongful prosecution lawsuit unfolding in U.S. District Court docket, Griffin alleges that his daughter’s loss of life was attributable to a failed surgical process, and that police, medical doctors and forensic officers conspired to remodel a “tragic family accident right into a fabricated murder.” Particularly, the go well with alleges, investigators and medical personnel constructed a false narrative of kid abuse, coerced a confession by worry and deceit, then falsified police and medical reviews and altered post-mortem findings to match their story.

“After I was locked up, I stored telling myself, ‘I do know they did me mistaken,’ ” Griffin stated. “However I didn’t suppose it might be confirmed.”

Griffin’s lawsuit is towards the town of Flint, Genesee County, two Flint law enforcement officials, three medical doctors, three officers with the health worker’s workplace and the Hurley Medical Middle the place his daughter was taken for remedy. By means of a number of legal professionals and company officers, all declined remark for this text.

Among the many lawsuit’s allegations:

• There was no bodily proof of blunt pressure trauma, but the police and medical doctors pushed this idea, and a health worker listed it as reason for loss of life on the post-mortem report, which additionally famous the existence of a previous head harm, a bruise on the child’s face and the prevalence of an unsuccessful craniotomy. But, “with none proof” that the accidents had been attributable to the dad versus the failed craniotomy, the health worker decided that reason for loss of life was “Blunt Power Damage of the Head” and the way of loss of life was “murder.”
• In the midst of Griffin’s trial, the post-mortem report was modified after a health care provider testified that no proof existed to assist a discovering of “Blunt Power Trauma.” A health worker then despatched the prosecution an “up to date” post-mortem report, altering the reason for loss of life to “Abusive Head Damage.” A health care provider testified that this phrase is used when there is no such thing as a solution to decide how accidents happen, and “admitted” that it was used “to mirror that the medical doctors didn’t know what occurred to Naviah.”
• A health care provider had found a previous head harm within the child, but the jury was by no means knowledgeable about how the child’s fall might have reinjured that earlier harm. Because it turned out, a CT scan confirmed a brand new mind bleed had developed, which triggered the necessity for the surgical procedure that in the end failed.
• The police report said that Griffin’s interrogation was videotaped. The prosecutor additionally stated the identical at trial, but the videotape has by no means been produced. Griffin’s legal professionals filed a Freedom of Data Act request for it, however the metropolis of Flint stated the video does not exist.
• Griffin was arrested and not using a warrant.
• A health worker testified that she carried out an post-mortem on the kid at 9 a.m., however the child was nonetheless in surgical procedure at the moment, and was not pronounced useless till 1:10 p.m.
• An investigator with the health worker’s workplace lied in his written report — and later to jurors — when he claimed that the mother informed him that she believed her daughter had been abused by the daddy. The mother testified that this by no means occurred.

“There have been determined measures taken right here to make sure that Michael can be blamed for the loss of life of his daughter,” stated legal professional Adam Akeel, who’s representing Griffin within the lawsuit. He famous the prosecution “confirmed a shaken-baby video to the jury” when there was no proof supporting this idea.

“It’s them pushing this false narrative to pin it on the dad,” Akeel stated, “after they all admit that that they had no info to assist that it was attributable to him.”

How Griffin went from grieving mum or dad to homicide suspect in 24 hours

In accordance with court docket data, trial testimony, interviews with legal professionals and Griffin, these are the occasions that unfolded within the fall of 2009, when Griffin’s daughter wound up within the Emergency Room at Hurley Medical Middle in Flint with a bruise beneath her eye:

On Sept. 30, 2009, Griffin was dwelling together with his daughter whereas the child’s mother walked to a nook market to purchase snacks at about 5 p.m. Each dad and mom had been simply 19, dwelling in a two-story residence in Flint with child Naviah, whose dad had positioned her in a motorized toddler swing upstairs whereas her mother went out. He secured her with the connected tray that latched throughout her lap. He didn’t use the seat belt. He then went downstairs and performed video video games, when ultimately, he heard a loud thump. He stated he thought it could be the neighbors.

However when he went upstairs, he stated he discovered the child face down on the hardwood ground.

“I panicked and picked her up,” Griffin recalled. “I bear in mind this clear as day — as quickly as I picked her up, her head went limp on my shoulder. She wasn’t crying.”

Griffin stated he set her on the mattress when he heard a knock on the door. It was Naviah’s mother. He ran downstairs with the child and opened the door. Earlier than he might say what had occurred, the mother grabbed the child, who had stopped respiration, ran out the entrance door and yelled for assist. An residence safety guard carried out CPR on the child and resuscitated her earlier than the ambulance arrived and transported her to Hurley Medical Middle.

When she obtained to the hospital, she had a bruise beneath her proper eye and no different exterior accidents. However the dad and mom would study in a single day that her mind had swollen, and that she would wish surgical procedure. A CT scan had revealed a “tiny” and “skinny” bleed on the left aspect of Naviah’s mind, and a cystic hygroma — or benign tumor — was found on the suitable aspect of her mind. This meant {that a} prior harm had occurred and healed, however was “dangerously vulnerable to reinjury,” the lawsuit states.

After discovering the existence of the cystic hygroma, hospital officers contacted Little one Protecting Companies and the Flint police, who would interrogate each dad and mom on the police station. Mother went first, telling police that she and Griffin had a superb relationship, that he treats her and the child effectively and had by no means abused both of them; and that she had no motive to consider that he would hurt their baby.

Mother additionally knowledgeable the officers that Naviah had a bent to kick up the latched tray and pull herself up and out of her swing, and that she had beforehand achieved so on a number of events.

The police, although, allegedly criticized the mother for trusting the dad, telling her the medical doctors didn’t consider Griffin’s story concerning the swing fall, and neither did they.

Fifteen years later, Naviah’s mother — who stated she initially “did not wish to consider” that Griffin might have harm their baby — says after years of researching the case and rethinking the small print, the medical testimony and Griffin’s story, she does not consider Griffin is telling the reality. And although she testified for the prosecution at his trial — at occasions offering favorable testimony for the dad — she stated she believes Griffin did one thing that induced her baby’s loss of life, and is hiding one thing.

Mother: ‘One thing occurred at that home … that he’s not taking accountability for’

For 36-year-old Alecia Patton, Naviah’s mom, the ache, disappointment and trauma of shedding a baby has by no means gone away. Although grateful for the expertise to turn into a mother once more — she now has a 10-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter — she nonetheless grieves Naviah on a regular basis, she stated. And the reminiscence of what occurred that tragic day nonetheless haunts her, partially, as a result of she believes Griffin is hiding one thing.

“One thing occurred on the home that induced her to go to the hospital that he’s not taking accountability for,” Patton stated in a current interview with the Free Press.

That hospital go to was particularly traumatic for Patton, who additionally misplaced her father that day. He had come to the hospital to be along with her after studying about Naviah, when he died all of a sudden of a well being concern inside his automotive within the car parking zone, simply 10 minutes after Naviah died.

“He didn’t need her to be alone — that’s what I inform myself to maintain going,” Patton stated.

With back-to-back tragedies to cope with, Patton would get hit with one other main occasion in only a matter of days. Her child’s father can be charged with homicide.

“I didn’t wish to consider it,” stated Patton, who recalled going by a mixture of feelings: Anger. Confusion. Unhappiness. However as time handed, she stated, and she or he had an opportunity to analysis the case and course of the medical info, she got here to a conclusion:

“I used to be confronted with actuality — that he’s the explanation behind her being deceased,” stated Patton, who lower off all ties with Griffin shortly after her daughter’s loss of life.

Patton stated she didn’t consider Griffin’s “she fell out of the swing” rationalization: “It simply didn’t make sense. It by no means did make sense.”

Patton, who’s now a licensed nursing assistant, stated she additionally doesn’t consider that her daughter died from a failed surgical procedure, sustaining that it was Griffin who induced her daughter to be within the hospital within the first place.

“If, no matter occurred on the home hadn’t occurred, then the medical doctors wouldn’t have needed to attempt to get the fluid off her mind,” Patton stated. “I requested them to do what they may do to attempt to save her, and so they did one of the best they may do.”

‘I wish to know the reality … She did not deserve what occurred to her’

It’s been greater than 10 years since Patton has spoken to Griffin. Their final dialog was a jail telephone name.

“I requested him to inform me the reality of what occurred,” recalled Patton, who stated Griffin informed her that if she got here in particular person to see him in jail, “he would inform me what occurred.”

However that jail go to by no means occurred. Patton stated her utility to go to him was denied, and she or he didn’t pursue the matter additional.

Nonetheless, she stated, she has by no means stopped questioning what occurred.

“I wish to know the reality,” she stated. “One thing occurred. … I’m the mom. And I don’t know what occurred to my first-born baby. It’s not truthful. She didn’t deserve what occurred to her.”

When Griffin was exonerated, Patton stated she was blindsided.

“I went right into a darkish gap. … I wasn’t anticipating it,” Patton stated, later including: “Everyone is saying he deserves a second probability. I really feel like, ‘go away effectively sufficient alone.’ “

As for second probabilities, Patton stated: “I’m not God. I can’t say what no person deserves. … However I’d be extra comfy if he had been in jail. Justice was served earlier than he obtained out.”

As for Griffin’s lawsuit, she stated: “He’s going for cash, and all I would like is the reality.”

Dad says police bullied him with threats to get a false confession

Griffin maintains he has been truthful from the beginning, and that he was railroaded by police after they first took him in for questioning whereas his daughter fought for her life. In accordance with Griffin, trial transcripts, and court docket data, this is what occurred:

At first of the interrogation, the officers closed the door, based on official reviews. Then they reportedly informed Griffin that each they and the medical doctors believed he had deliberately abused his daughter and induced her accidents, both with blunt pressure or shaking her. Griffin protested, however the officers would not let up, allegedly telling him that except he confessed to harming her, the medical doctors would not be capable to deal with her, that they’d terminate his parental rights, and that she might die.

Griffin informed the officers that a few weeks earlier, Naviah had fallen on the steel submit of the swing and there was a bruise and recommended that this might have occurred once more, data present. However the officers wouldn’t relent. They needed extra, telling him his daughter will die “as a result of he wasn’t man sufficient to inform the reality,” and that they suspected he misplaced his mood with the mother and took it out on the child.

Griffin continued to disclaim hurting his baby, however the intense questioning continued, based on reviews, with police telling him “they had been beginning to consider he was a monster,” that medical doctors will take away his daughter’s mind ought to she die and decide she might have been saved had her dad been truthful about hurting her.

After accusing Griffin of not wanting to assist his daughter, reviews present, they informed him he might go away — however threatened that he would probably not be capable to see Naviah once more for no less than 18 months, and that parental termination proceedings had been imminent.

Determined and afraid, Griffin caved.

“Given the coercive strain being positioned on (Griffin) … and in a determined try and fulfill the officers’ relentless calls for, (Griffin) said that he generally faucets Naviah on the again of the pinnacle, however he by no means does it laborious and he performs along with her that means,” the lawsuit states, including the dad additionally informed the officers that he “generally throws her up and down, but in addition simply to play along with her and that he has by no means and would by no means harm her.”

At 1:10 p.m., on Oct. 1, seven hours after his interrogation, his daughter was pronounced useless following an unsuccessful craniotomy.

5 days later, Griffin was arrested and charged with felony homicide and first-degree baby abuse. At trial, he took the stand in his personal protection and broke down crying after they confirmed him a photograph of his deceased daughter. However he was unable to persuade a jury that he was harmless.

Mother testifies at trial

Throughout trial, jurors additionally heard from Patton, whose testimony largely targeted on her relationship with Griffin, his parenting abilities, and the occasions that transpired after she got here dwelling and located her daughter limp in Griffin’s arms. She was by no means requested at trial whether or not she believed Griffin’s rationalization for the way their daughter obtained harm.

Throughout her testimony, Patton stated that she by no means had any considerations about Griffin appropriately caring for his or her daughter, that she by no means noticed him lose his persistence along with her, that he was her main caretaker whereas she attended a piece program, and that the 2 didn’t have disagreements about how he cared for her.

She additionally pushed again on the prosecution’s claims that she nodded her head sure when a health worker investigator requested her whether or not she believed Griffin had abused their daughter. She testified that she didn’t do not forget that.

“Did he love her?” the protection requested her on cross-examination.

“Sure,” she answered.

Patton additionally testified that the child as soon as rolled off the couch whereas within the dad’s care. She took the child to the hospital out of warning, she stated, however there have been no accidents. She additionally testified that he as soon as broke a window of their dwelling after arguing, however that the dispute was not concerning the child.

In accordance with Patton’s testimony, here’s what occurred on the tragic day in query, when she returned dwelling from a stroll to a nook retailer and located her daughter limp in her father’s arms:

“I grabbed her from him,” she informed the jury. “I assumed she was gone.”

She then ran out of the home, yelled for assist. An residence safety guard resuscitated her daughter then grabbed a telephone from the dad and known as 911. An ambulance arrived and drove the mother and child to the hospital. Dad was in a automotive behind them, together with his mother.

On the hospital, the mother testified, Griffin would inform her the child fell from the swing, and that he discovered her on the ground when he went upstairs to alter her diaper. She stated they waited for about two hours within the hospital ready room, however obtained no solutions concerning the situation of their baby. At that time, she stated, two law enforcement officials confirmed up and took her to the police station for questioning.

Patton didn’t testify concerning the interrogation, however stated she went again to the hospital after questioning, and ultimately discovered that her daughter would wish surgical procedure. 5 hours later, the medical doctors would give her the gut-wrenching information: her daughter did not make it.

In the meantime, the police would start constructing a case towards Griffin, utilizing the “illegally elicited” statements he made throughout his interrogation towards him, his lawsuit states. Those self same statements would later be used to influence a jury to convict him. The prosecution additionally used the statements to persuade the court docket of appeals to uphold his conviction.

It wasn’t till the Michigan Innocence Clinic and distinguished plaintiff legal professional Mike Morse intervened that he was exonerated.

‘His court-appointed legal professional was a catastrophe’

In securing Griffin’s freedom, the Michigan Innocence Clinic and Morse argued that Griffin had an ineffective lawyer, noting the prosecution introduced in seven medical doctors to testify towards Griffin, whereas his public defender introduced in none.

“There are many causes of wrongful convictions, however most of those circumstances have one factor in widespread: Unhealthy or overworked legal professionals, or public defenders. And this is likely one of the primary causes Mr. Griffin was wrongfully convicted,” Morse stated throughout a 2023 information convention when Griffin was launched. “His court-appointed legal professional was a catastrophe. He known as no skilled witnesses, even if the state known as seven.”

In accordance with Griffin, it was Morse who in the end secured his launch by discovering and bringing in medical doctors who defined to the court docket how the child’s loss of life probably occurred. Morse, who had by no means earlier than dealt with a legal case and took this one professional bono, additionally argued that the scientific consensus round quick fall and different head accidents had developed since 2010, proof that was not available when Griffin was convicted.

Utilizing these arguments, Morse satisfied Genesee County Circuit Court docket Decide Elizabeth Kelly to vacate Griffin’s convictions in March 2023, launch him on bond, and order a brand new trial.

However there was no retrial. After reevaluating the case, the Genesee County Prosecutor’s Workplace opted to not retry it, dropped all fees and dismissed the case on Sept. 13, 2023.

When requested to clarify this determination, Assistant Prosecutor John Pothbury declined remark, citing pending litigation.

On its web site, the Mike Morse Legislation Agency recommended the prosecutor’s workplace, stating: “All through this whole course of, the Genesee County Prosecutor’s Workplace has been extraordinarily skilled and respectful to Mr. Griffin and his authorized counsel. It’s abundantly clear that Genesee County Prosecutor Mr. David Leyton and his employees care about doing their job the suitable means and solely prosecuting circumstances after they have a superb religion foundation for believing the out there proof will assist a conviction. “

A contemporary begin, a spouse, and a brand new child

Since his launch, Griffin, who now runs a cleansing enterprise, has embraced his freedom with new hope and function. He’s a father once more, and a husband. He married a lady he met years in the past whereas he was in jail. The 2 now have a 1-year-old boy named Nash.

“He seems to be identical to his sister,” stated Griffin, noting his son makes him smile once more.

And numerous the anger is gone.

“I ended up letting it go,” Griffin stated. ” I needed to let go of all of the feelings.”

Following his exoneration, Griffin acquired $435,000 from the state for the years he spent in jail. The payout was speculated to be $696,000, or $50,000 for yearly he was in jail. However he stated he did not get all the quantity as a result of authorities stated his daughter had been harm earlier than, and they also determined towards giving him the total quantity.

It did not make sense to Griffin, who has lengthy maintained he by no means harmed his daughter. However he stated he is shifting on from that, too, shifting his focus to his lawsuit, and dealing to carry all these accountable for the nightmare he was put by.

Dropping a baby was laborious sufficient, he stated. However then being blamed for her loss of life was one other matter.

“I want no person would ever undergo this,” stated Griffin, noting he could not watch child commercials for a very long time. “I handled numerous ache.”

And now he desires the civil justice system to carry the police, medical doctors, health workers and others chargeable for it.

“The entire time I used to be locked up I knew one thing loopy had occurred,” Griffin stated. “I simply stored saying, ‘I didn’t do it.’ I believed the hospitals did one thing, the cops lined stuff up.”

It took greater than a 12 months for Griffin to pursue a lawsuit. He stated he “had an epiphany.”

“I awakened my spouse … I stated, ‘If I’m sitting right here, who’s chargeable for killing my daughter?’ ” Griffin recalled, noting he has by no means acquired an apology for his ordeal. “Nothing was ever stated. Not an ‘I’m sorry.’ They locked me up for it and stated ‘I’ve achieved it.’ “

“However now that I am out,” he added, he is intent on answering this query: “Who did it?”

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com