Former Durham officer claims city abandoned him, after defending him for years
A lawsuit filed by a former Durham officer says the city used him for years to fight a wrongful-conviction lawsuit, and left him with a $10 million judgment and legal fees.
The lawsuit is one of the latest twists in a notorious, 32-year-old double murder investigation led by former Durham police detective Darrell Dowdy, who rose from patrol officer to captain over 28 years working for the city.
“Rather than protect him, as it promised to do and is required to do, the City has abandoned and turned its back on its officer,” Dowdy’s lawsuit states.
City Attorney Kimberly Rehberg declined to comment, and referred a reporter to the city’s written lawsuit response, which denies many of Dowdy’s allegations.
In 2021 a federal jury found Dowdy violated Darryl Howard’s civil rights in the investigation that resulted in Howard being convicted of double murder and arson in 1995.
The jury awarded Howard $6 million after finding Dowdy fabricated evidence and performed an inadequate investigation that led to Howard being wrongly convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and one count of arson.
After the civil trial, city officials said they wouldn’t pay the judgment on Dowdy’s behalf or Howard’s attorneys’ fees, which had reached about $4 million with interest, according to interviews and court documents.
The move was a first for the city, Rehberg has said, as it was the first time that a jury has determined that an officer acted in bad faith. Critics of the decision, which includes Howard, say the city can’t spend millions on attorneys fees defending the officer and then abandon him after the judgment
“They go through that whole process. They pay all of that money. They enrich a bunch of lawyers, and then the moment they have to pay the actual victim of the city’s conduct here, they say we’re not going to back this,” Bradley Bannon said in an interview last year.
Howard has filed a brief supporting Dowdy’s claims and is seeking to intervene in the lawsuit.
North Carolina law prevents the city from backing Dowdy after the federal jury’s conclusion, Rehberg wrote in an email to The News & Observer last year.
State law authorizes cities to spend money to pay for a defense for city employees, Rehberg wrote in the email, but prohibits the city from paying judgment for employees who “acted or failed to act because of actual fraud, corruption or actual malice on his part.”
‘A lifetime of services’
Dowdy denies the accusations in Howard’s lawsuit. His civil suit says the city’s argument is unjustified, unlawful and cruel.
The city’s conduct has resulted in Dowdy suffering depression, anxiety, embarrassment and severe emotional distress as the judgment threatens to drive him into bankruptcy, his lawsuit states.
“Essentially forfeiting all he has worked for and accumulated in a lifetime of services as a police officer,” the lawsuit states.
City attorneys knew all the facts in Howard’s case after multiple court hearings and investigations, Dowdy argues in his lawsuit. Each step of the way, Dowdy was assured that the city “had his back” and would continue to cover his legal costs and a judgment, the lawsuit states.
“The City cannot now, simply because of an adverse verdict, change its tune to protect its pocket book,” the lawsuit states.
New information
In 1995, Howard was convicted of killing Doris Washington and her 13-year-old daughter Nishonda.
Howard was sentenced to 80 years in prison, but his sentence was cut short in 2016 when a Durham County judge vacated his convictions, citing police and prosecutorial misconduct. In April 2021, Gov. Roy Cooper issued a pardon of innocence for Howard.
Still, the city defended Dowdy and others in Howard’s civil rights lawsuit.
Howard’s federal lawsuit, initially filed in 2017, sought damages against the city of Durham, former and current officers, and a fire department employee involved in the investigation.
Over time, the city and all the other defendants were dismissed from the lawsuit except for Dowdy. However, a recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said the federal judge improperly dismissed two additional officers from the initial lawsuit. That means that Howard may now take those officers before another jury.
In Dowdy’s lawsuit, he demands that the city pay the judgment and Howard’s lawyers fees. He also asks for compensation for the stress caused by the city’s decision not to back him.
The investigation
Dowdy’s investigation started 30 years ago after firefighters found Doris Washington and her daughter dead in a public housing apartment set ablaze after midnight on Nov. 27, 1991.
They were naked, lying face down on a bed, strangled and beaten.
At the 1995 criminal trial, Dowdy testified he never suspected the murders involved sexual assaults despite the evidence that they could have been. He said he believed sperm found in Nishonda’s rape kit was from consensual sex she had with her boyfriend.
Howard argued the pair were raped and killed by a dangerous gang and that he was innocent since his DNA wasn’t detected in sperm found in the teen. Evidence uncovered by DNA testing after the conviction supported Howard’s theory.
Howard’s attorneys argued at the 2021 civil trial that Dowdy gave details of the killings to a woman, a key witness, who testified at the criminal trial she was with Howard the night of the killing. The woman recanted her testimony in August 2021, saying Dowdy told her what to say.
When Howard sought DNA testing on the sperm found in Nishonda, Dowdy knew that it would be favorable to Howard and took other steps to cover up the woman’s false statement, Howard’s attorneys argued.
Those steps included making up evidence about Nishonda having consensual sex before the killing, the attorneys said.
City attorneys said in court documents that Dowdy made some statements during the civil trial that they weren’t aware of.
Dowdy’s lawsuit also says the City Council denied Dowdy’s due process rights when it didn’t give him notice about the discussion to not cover the $6 million judgment or pay for Howard’s attorneys fees, which is about $4 million with interest.
The City Council made the decision during closed session meetings between December 2021 and February 2022, Rehberg wrote in email last year.
Key evidence lost
Dowdy’s lawsuit also says that the city lost a key recording and notes in the cases, allowing Howard’s attorneys to challenge his credibility that contributed to the federal verdict against him.
In addition to the lost evidence, many of the witnesses had died, making Dowdy’s testimony even more essential, the lawsuit states.
“Nevertheless, the City and its attorney, failed to make reasonable settlement offers, failed to negotiate in good faith and failed to take steps to minimize the award of attorney fees for Howard’s counsel by tendering reasonable settlement officers,” the lawsuit states.
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A $6 million settlement offer was approved by city officials, the lawsuit states, but that amount was never offered to Howard.
“Despite being repeatedly urged to do so by Dowdy’s counsel,” the lawsuit states.
City attorneys wrote in response that Howard never offered to settle for less than $19 million.
Virginia Bridges covers criminal justice in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News & Observer. Her work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The N&O maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published June 2, 2023 at 10:29 AM with the headline "Former Durham officer claims city abandoned him, after defending him for years."
