Richard Tuite v. Michael Martel

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

On January 20, 1998, Stephanie Crowe, aged twelve, was stabbed nine times

by µnife in her own bed in her own bedroom. She had been on the phone about

p.m. and died before midnight. Her body was discovered by her grandmother

about 6 a.m., the next day.

Within two weeµs of her death, the Escondido police had identified three

teenage boys as suspects, had interrogated them, and had obtained confessions. On

May 22, 1998, these suspects were indicted for Stephanie's murder. The district

attorney of San Diego County prepared the case for trial, calling on an F.B.I.

expert, Mary Ellen O'Toole, for help in developing the case. But in February

1999, the state Attorney General dismissed the indictments without prejudice. This

court recently reversed the dismissal of a y 1983 lawsuit brought by the former

suspects against the investigating police officers, so that case is going forward. See

Crowe v. County of San Diego, 608 F.3d 406 (9th Cir. 2010).

Here, however, we consider only the record as it developed in Tuite's

criminal trial. That record shows that the day after Stephanie's death, the police

picµed up Tuite, an itinerant…