DENVER (CN) - An Oklahoma City detective who no longer remembers working on a case 50 years ago asked the 10th Circuit to shield him and the city from a civil suit filed by a man wrongfully imprisoned for 48 years and exonerated in 2023.
When Carolyn Sue Rogers was murdered at the liquor store where she worked in Edmond, Oklahoma on Dec. 30, 1974, Oklahoma City Police Department Detective Claude Shobert helped investigate by conducting lineups of potential perpetrators.
Glynn Simmons was included in one such lineup in February 1975, after he was arrested as a suspect in different robbery. Even though Simmons moved to Oklahoma in January, and had been living in Harvey, Louisiana, when Rogers was murdered, prosecutors claimed a survivor of the liquor store attack identified him as one of the attackers.
Shobert's defense attorneys, however, downplayed his involvement in Simmons' conviction.
"Detective Shobert never talked to prosecutors and was not asked to testify at trial," argued attorney Stacey Felkner Wednesday.
After 48 years in prison, Simmons' conviction was overturned in 2023 after it came to light the state failed to disclose a key report to his defense which revealed the witness hadn't identified him after all.
Simmons sued Shobert along with the cities of Edmond and Oklahoma City on Jan. 26, 2024, claiming violations of his Fourth and Fourteenth rights.
Although Simmons claims Shobert ran the lineups and fabricated the report that drove his conviction, Shobert has no memory of working on the Rogers murder investigation today - leading the lower court to conclude that just about all of the facts in the case are disputed.
In a succinct opinion, Donald Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Bernard Jones denied summary judgment to Shobert and Oklahoma City in March, 2025. Shobert and Oklahoma City appealed.
Facing a short order, U.S. Circuit Judge Joel M. Carson cautioned Felkner against bringing in additional information.
"Generally we don't talk about facts that aren't in the district court's order," the Donald Trump appointee said.
Given the brevity of the lower court's order, Felker urged the appellate panel to undertake a full "cumbersome review" of the record.
"All the facts are in the record, even if they're not in the district's order," said Felkner who practices with Collins Zorn in Oklahoma City.
In his reply brief, Simmons argued the appellate court should decline to review the case at all. During argument, his attorney Elizabeth Wang urged the panel to take a "charitable" reading of the district's order and affirm, or else to undertake an expedited review, given her client's declining health and lengthy prison sentence.
"Glynn Simmons spent over 40 years in prison for a crime of which he was absolutely innocent," said Wang who practices with Loevy & Loevy in Boulder, Colorado.
Facing civil suit, the city of Edmond settled with Simmons, agreeing to pay $7.5 million. The state also paid Simmons $175,000 in December 2023.
The 1975 jury not only convicted Simmons and co-defendant Don Roberts for Rogers' murder, but also sentenced them both to death. Simmons and Roberts were spared execution only because the state's death penalty law failed to meet standards set by the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Gregg v. Georgia, causing their sentences to be commuted to life.
Roberts, who maintains his innocence, was paroled in 2008. His conviction remains on the books.
Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Timothy Tymkovich, appointed by George W. Bush, and Trump-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Alison Eid rounded out the panel. The court did not indicate when or how it would decide the case.
Source: Courthouse News Service
