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Murder suspect sues cops

Colson claims police tricked him into confession

DETAILS

The defendants named in the lawsuit are:

• Catawba County Sheriff’s Office

• Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman

• Steve Turner, formerly of the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office, currently of the Secret Service

• Hickory

• Floyd W. Lucas Jr., former Hickory police chief

• Lt. Jeff Young of the Hickory Police Department

• Dan Carlsen, former Hickory police officer, now retired

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

March 3, 2004 — Betsy Dickens is found, beaten to death, north of Brookford off U.S. 70, SE.

March 25, 2004 — Beverly Linebarger is found severely beaten off South Center Street. She survives the attack.

April 9, 2004 — Cynthia Lail is found severely beaten in southwest Hickory. She’s alive.

April 2004 — A task force is created to find the person or people responsible for the attacks and murders. The task force includes the Hickory Police Department, Catawba County Sheriff’s Office, State Bureau of Investigation and Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Newton Police Department also assisted.

August 2004 — Lail dies of her injuries.

September 2004 — N.C. Gov. Mike Easley announces a $12,500 reward for the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the assaults and murders. Hickory Police Chief Floyd Lucas increases the reward to $15,000, stating the $2,500 is money from drug seizures. Reward posters are placed across the county.

March 2005 — The one-year anniversary of the first death arrives without an arrest. Investigators continue to receive tips on a monthly basis.

Nov. 16, 2005 — The SBI verbally notifies Hickory police that there was a match to a convicted offender to the North Carolina DNA database on the evidence the department submitted.

Jan. 12, 2006 — A written report of that match is sent to Hickory per the SBI crime lab policy.

March 23, 2006 — Investigators receive a key tip.

March 23, 2006 — At 6 p.m., Derek Morris Colson, 39, is arrested in Asheville. He’s charged by Hickory police with felony murder in the death of Lail and by Catawba County sheriff’s deputies with felony attempted murder in the assault of Linebarger. Charges are pending in Dickens’ death.

March 24, 2006 — Colson has his first appearance in court. Bond is denied. A probable cause hearing is set for April 12.

February 12, 2009 – Superior Court Judge Yvonne Mimms Evans suppresses three statements given by Colson to investigators when he was arrested and sets his bond at $80,000 secured.

February 18, 2009 – Colson makes bond and leaves jail to return to Asheville with his wife.

April 13, 2009 – Colson files a lawsuit against the law enforcement officers who interrogated and arrested him.

By Richard Gould | Hickory Daily Record

Published: May 20, 2009

HICKORY - A man arrested in March 2006 and charged with the murder of one woman and the attempted murder of another two years earlier has filed a lawsuit against the Catawba County Sheriff's Office and Hickory.

Derek Morris Colson is out of jail on bond and awaiting the District Attorney's appeal of Superior Court Judge Yvonne Evans' ruling that three key interviews Colson gave to investigators the day he was arrested are not admissible in court.

Attorneys Robert E. Campbell and Lisa Andrew Dubs filed the lawsuit for Colson on April 13 in Buncombe County. It states that investigators "maliciously created a case around Colson to divert attention from the speculation, information and allegations about a Hickory city police officer being the killer."

"The individual defendants acted individually and in concert and conspiracy with one another to achieve the common purpose of depriving the plaintiff of his constitutional rights," according to the lawsuit. "The defendants fabricated evidence in an effort to convict plaintiff for crimes which he did not commit" and "ignored exculpatory evidence, including evidence which indicated the guilt of other persons."

"We are going to defend against this lawsuit vigorously," said Deborah Bechtel, the attorney representing the sheriff's office. "The sheriff's office is run with an extremely high degree of professionalism."

Attorney Arnita Dula, who represents the city, agreed.

"At this point we're reviewing the complaint with outside counsel and we will vigorously defend against this lawsuit," she said. "I believe that our police officers involved in the investigation handled that matter appropriately."

The lawsuit alleges a Hickory police officer, who had been fired for misconduct involving a prostitute, was suspected of committing the murders. The lawsuit claims these allegations were never investigated although the investigation into the initial misconduct "revealed that he (the officer) had threatened to kill Betsy Dickens in 1999." The officer is not named in the document.

The lawsuit focuses on statements Colson, 42, made during interviews conducted March 23, 2006, the day he was arrested.

In the interview conducted by Hickory police officer Jeff Young and FBI agent David Miller, Colson was asked to help investigators solve the crimes, including his third-person accounts of what the killer may have done. Authorities considered this a confession and used it against Colson at trial. Details of the specific methods used in the killings were later proven inaccurate, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims the officers used the tactic to confuse Colson, who is mentally retarded and has the intellectual acuity of an 8-year-old. Investigators used his mental deficiencies to their advantage, according to the lawsuit.

After hearing pretrial arguments in the case, a judge suppressed the three interviews conducted by Hickory Police Department and sheriff's office investigators.

"The statements obtained from him (Colson) were not obtained voluntarily or with his full understanding of the consequences of his actions, " Evans said in her ruling on the motion.

She set Colson's bond at $80,000.

On Feb. 18, Colson made bond and returned to Asheville, where he is living with his wife, Logene Colson.

Colson has denied committing the crimes since his arrest and continues to do so.

"I just hate that they had me in there for so long," Colson said. "For a crime I did not do."

"They owe me a big apology," he said.

The District Attorney's office from the 25th District is appealing Evans' ruling.

Colson was in jail for nearly three years awaiting trial from his arrest in March 2006 to his release from jail when he posted bond in February.

According to the lawsuit, during that time he "suffered from a forced separation from his wife, suffered extreme emotional distress and mental anguish, loss of quality and enjoyment of life, loss of reputation and other losses to be proven at trial."