NO EVIDENCE, NO JURY, NO JUSTICE
THE WRONGFUL CONVICTION OF JEREMY BARNEY
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
Item 1
Although Family _X_ alleged dozens of violent incidents in multiple rooms of their home — including battery, beatings with a baseball bat, rapes, sodomies, slashings with glass, stabbings with a knife — police recovered no evidence from the alleged crime scene: no blood, no semen, not so much as a single pubic hair.[2B]
Items 2-6
According to the State’s own forensic medical exams, the _X_ children displayed no injuries consistent with the family’s claims of violence. Notably:
- Angela still retained her hymen, proving she was not raped, and casting grave doubt on the rest of the family’s allegations.
- A small, healed scar at the base of Angela’s vagina was consistent with her description of her brother’s molestations, but was inconsistent with the violent sexual assaults alleged against Jeremy.
- According to CAIT’s interview with Angela, the child was stabbed repeatedly in the chest and hand. The State’s forensic medical exam refuted this, but CAIT social workers nonetheless noted a “mark” on one of Angela’s thumbnails.
- All three children evinced no recent or past broken bones, no lacerations, no bruises, not even a scrape.
Furthermore, Carson’s anal and rectal injuries were shown to have increased in number and severity after his last contact with Jeremy.
MORE EVIDENCE: WITHHELD, FABRICATED, AND DESTROYED
The prosecution not only withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense, but was party to both fabrication and destruction of evidence during the investigation of the case. As of 2017, State authorities continue to withhold exculpatory evidence (see below).
Items 7-77
During the investigation, police and social services interviewed over 70 other children who had contact with Jeremy via his mother’s daycare and foster care, none of whom made a single allegation against Jeremy Barney. [2B2] Although detectives’ notes confirm having conducted these interviews, all records of the content of the interviews were missing from the case files turned over to the defense.
Item 78
Although police booked into evidence several “blood-like droplets” collected from the _X_ family bathroom, evidence that Julie claimed was blood shed by Angela during one of her rapes,[2C] forensic test results are conspicuously absent from the case files. Until the State Police are able to provide test results saying otherwise, we are left to speculate that the test results were withheld from the defense because they did not inculpate Jeremy, but instead amounted to physical proof that Family _X_ was fabricating evidence.
Item 79
If the case files can be believed, detectives also never seized and examined Jeff’s knife, although the family alleged it was used to cut Angela’s hand, chest, and vagina.
Item 80
According to police reports, Julie admitted to detectives that she had destroyed crucial physical evidence — her own dildo — although she and Jeff claimed the dildo had been used to rape not only Angela but also the cat and dog. [2D]
NEW EVIDENCE, OLD TACTICS
Item 81
Although the defense was unaware during the investigation and prosecution of Jeremy’s case, Julie _X_ has a DCF-documented history of lodging false allegations against Megan Barney. [2E]
In January 2012, after repeated, unanswered phone calls, Megan contacted DCF via certified mail, requesting copies of all her records. DCF signed for the letter but failed to respond to the request, and has also failed to respond to all follow-up requests. DCF is legally required to provide such records within weeks.