Drumgold v. Callahan, et al.
Client:
Hugh Curran
Brighton, Massachusetts
Mary Jo Harris
Boston, MA
Case Summary:
On August 19, 1988, a gang shooting in Roxbury, Massachusetts led to the death of twelve-year-old Darlene Tiffany Moore, who was caught in the crossfire while sitting on a mailbox at the site of the shooting. Shawn Drumgold was convicted of first-degree murder in October 1989.
In 2003, several prosecution witnesses recanted statements and testimony used in the conviction of Drumgold, prompting prosecutors reopen the case. Drumgold subsequently brought suit against retired detectives Timothy Callahan and Richard Walsh, as well as the Boston Police Department, for civil rights violations stemming from his alleged wrongful imprisonment. On April 9, 2008, jurors cleared the retired detectives on ten of the eleven counts.
The Challenge:
The challenge facing the defense team was to bring to life a series of events which took place twenty-years prior. Further complicating this process was that the neighborhood in which the shooting took place was largely redeveloped and therefore could not serve as a reference to the jury. In addition, the claims in the case required the defense to read into evidence large portions of the original trial transcript, as well as large amounts of poor-quality audio interviews. Traditional methods of presenting this evidence would not only be confusing, but deadly boring to a jury facing a six week trial.
The WIN Solution:
- Recreating Roxbury MA, circa. 1988: The guilty verdict in Drumgold's 1989 trial depended in part upon witness testimony recounting his movements on the day of the shooting, as well as placing him at the scene of the shooting. The spatial and temporal consistencies amongst the witnesses bolstered their credibility during the original trial. We realized that having the jury see the events surrounding the shooting of Tiffany Moore from the perspective of the original witness tesitmony would be critical to establishing the defense's story. How does one go about creating a city block that does not exist? We first procured maps and plans of the city block, which gave us information such as building footprints and building heights. Next, we used police and news photographs and video from 1988 to see exactly how the neighborhood looked in the past. Using a 3D modeling program, we created a fair and accurate representation of the neighborhood in which the shooting occurred.
- Satellite: Access to Key Geographic Locations and Evidence: For a tool to be useful in trial, it must be both powerful and flexible. Our Satellite tool is both, which is why it was the perfect tool to provide context to our 3D recreation of Roxbury. The presentation starts with a location familiar to jurors (in this case Boston) and transitions in steps to Roxbury, giving context to a potentially unfamiliar location. From there, we highlighted the relationship between several neighborhoods. At the site of the shooting, we provided access to the 3D recreation of the neighborhood by layering the arrows representing views of the model onto a detailed street map of the scene. Key buildings were colorized the same way on both the 2D map and the 3D recreation, allowing the lawyers to easily reference those buildings. We also provided access to several sets of important photographs by layering the photographs location onto the scene. Finally, we included a cross-fade to the actuals plans used to create the map for instantaneous authentication.
- Echo: At issue in the case were many audio and video interviews, some of which were of poor quality. We digitized and formatted the audio/video, and then synchronized the digital audio with digital transcripts. The sychronized audio/video allowed the jury to listen and read along, maximizing their understanding of the content and minimizing boredom.
WIN Studio Tools Used:
