Mistaken identity: Innocent man spends 2 months in jail

An innocent man spent weeks in jail after the Modesto victim of an attempted robbery id'd him. But the victim was wrong.

By EMILIE RAGUSO
eraguso@modbee.com

last updated: November 13, 2007 05:05:57 PM

Richard Houston Jr. left his house in northwest Modesto one cool August night heading for a party. By morning, he had been arrested on suspicion of armed robbery after a victim said he was "100 percent sure" Houston was his assailant. The victim was wrong. Houston spent nearly two months in jail.

The Stanislaus County district attorney's office dropped the charges against Houston a day after Deputy District Attorney Nate Baker watched a surveillance tape from a store where the victim saw the gunman before the crime. Houston, Baker determined, could not have been the robber. No one else has been arrested.

"I felt reborn when I walked through the gate," said Houston, 20, about his release from the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center. Houston splits his time between Modesto, where his stepmother lives, and his father's home in Stockton. "I spent 55 days in jail. That time's double when you're in there for nothing."

Law enforcement officers stress that most arrests are good. Houston's arrest, however, illustrates the risks of eyewitness identification.

Mistaken eyewitness identifications contributed to more than 75 percent of the 208 wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence in the United States since 1989, according to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic at the Cardozo School of Law in New York City. Eight of the nine California exonerations relied on eyewitness identification.

Psychologists who study memory say it isn't as reliable as most people, including police and prosecutors, assume.

"We put more faith in eyewitness identifications than we should," said Daniel Reisberg, a professor of cognitive psychology, perception and memory at Reed College in Portland, Ore. He testifies in court as an expert in these areas. "Juries put a lot of faith in eyewitness identifications. They're the second most powerful form of evidence, with first place going to a confession. They're next in line as the best way to persuade a jury."

'Empty your pockets'

Sometime before 2 a.m. on Aug. 15, a 45-year-old man left his home near Cheyenne Way and Prescott Road in Modesto to buy cigarettes at Stop N Save Liquors. The man's name has been withheld at his request. About 2:20 a.m., while walking home from the market at 1701 Standiford Ave., he heard noises in the bushes. Two people stepped onto the sidewalk.

"Empty your pockets," said one, wearing a hat, a white mask, a white shirt and dark pants. The other was wearing dark clothing and a dark mask. Both were black, the victim said, in their 20s and about 6 feet tall. He recognized the gunman as someone he'd seen at Stop N Save.

"I start screaming, 'Help!' I see a gun pointing at me," the victim said. "I don't know if these people will shoot or not. All these things are going through my mind fast."

He ran south on Carver and flagged down a police officer. Nearby, at 2:22 a.m., Modesto police Sgt. Ed Steele heard a broadcast about the robbery attempt, according to his police report. Steele drove north on Prescott from Standiford to look for suspects. Houston had watched TV for most of the day at his stepmother's house Aug. 14, a Tuesday. About 1 a.m. Wednesday, his best friend, Angel Mota, called to see whether Houston wanted to hang out. About 2 a.m., Houston left his stepmother's home, near Standiford and Prescott, to walk to Mota's, just north of Pelandale Avenue off Prescott. As he walked, Houston talked on his cell phone to a friend who told him about a party off Tully Road.

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