November 13 --At
a 40-minute long press conference today, convicted killer Donald Bohana, his
lawyer and daughter laid out the reasons why Donald’s conviction in the killing
of Tito Jackson’s ex-wife, Dee Dee Jackson, should be set aside and Don should
be released immediately. He contends she died accidentally -- she drowned. Bohana declared his Innocence and is appealing to
California’s Governor for his immediate release. He is 81 and has served 19 years of a
15-to-life sentence.
To see the video of the press conference, click here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ahronygrahamzucker/posts/?ref=page_internal
“The
horror of an injustice needs to be corrected,” said Bohana.
Almost
19 years ago, November 23, 1998, Bohana as sentenced to 15 years to life in
prison for the second-degree murder of his girlfriend, Delores (Dee Dee)
Jackson. Now the 81-year-old Bohana, convicted of killing the former
sister-in-law of legendary entertainer Michael Jackson, is demanding his
freedom and claiming innocence.
“Bohana
should be released immediately,” said Bruce Zucker, an attorney with Ahrony,
Graham & Zucker LLP, a post-conviction law firm, who has taken up Bohana’s
case pro bono. Bohana had spent over $800 thousand to defend himself in
hopes to clear his name in the murder of Tito Jackson’s ex-wife.
“This
aging man with a severe heart condition no longer belongs behind bars and poses
no threat to the public,” said Zucker. “He’s been eligible for parole for a
decade but since a stipulation for getting out is that Bohana must confess to a
crime he didn’t commit, he remains locked up.”
Bohana
has been denied parole four times.
The
facts of the case, according to Zucker, are the following: “Bohana was a
reputable businessman and pillar of the community, with no record of serious or
violent criminal behavior. He had no motive, and by all accounts, was in a
happy relationship with Jackson. She accidentally drowned with a blood-alcohol
level that was three times over the legal limit for intoxication for driving.
This exorbitant consumption of alcohol can lead to impaired thought processes
and can eventually lead to bad decisions.
“The
state initially ruled the death an accident but only charged him two and a half
years later because the rich and powerful Jackson family pushed for a trial.
The prosecutor used controversial testimony from a part-time coroner who was
discredited by the very same DA’s office on another high-profile case earlier.
One of the deputy district attorneys on the case, who later became a judge, had
to step down from the bench on the heels of being placed on paid administrative
leave. She apparently was involved in a bribery scandal, and acted with
questionable motives here. In short, a miscarriage of justice needs to be
overturned.”
Bohana says the following factors should
be given strong consideration:
·
In
the initial investigation of the drowning scene, no crime was showed to have
been committed, thus potential evidence was not properly handled or preserved.
·
New
evidence regarding the Los Angeles coroner.
·
There
was a conflict of interest with the Los Angeles District Attorney Officer,
which may have risen to the level of prosecutorial misconduct.
·
Bohana
believes his attorney provided him ineffective counsel. In fact, during the habeas
corpus hearing when Judge Tarle asked Braun if he was just retained
by Michael Jackson, Braun stated he was, posing what appears to be a conflict
of interest.
“We
are asking the parole board to see that there’s clear evidence of innocence
here,” said Zucker. “We also are asking Jackie Lacey, the current District
Attorney, to independently review the case, and we submitted a commutation
petition to the Governor.”
Bohana
has already served several more years than the minimum sentence imposed in this
case. “Some members of the Jackson family have indicated they wouldn’t be
opposed to him getting out now,” said Donna Bohana, Don’s daughter.
David
M. Posey, MD, performed a forensic autopsy on the body of Jackson on September
2, 1994. An autopsy report was issued sometime around September 10, 1994 with
the cause of death as “undetermined accidental drowning.”
Posey,
who later resigned his position with the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office,
lasted just 29 working days.
In
fact, expert witness Dr. Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner for
the city of New York and worked on numerous high-profile cases including the
O.J. Simpson murder trial, concluded that Jackson died from an accidental
drowning. For reasons unknown, he was
never called to testify in Bohana’s case.
Bohana
passed a polygraph examination in October 1997, scoring a 99.99 NDI (no
deception indicated). He sought legal defense by his high school and college
friend, Johnny Cochran, but couldn’t get his representation due to Cochran’s
retainer agreement with the entire Jackson family.
Bohana
was a well-respected businessman who opened the first sit-down restaurant in
Watts (Denny’s) since the riots of 1965.
Bohana’s
case is starting to get some attention. ABC TV’s 20/20 did a big story this
past month: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/tito-jackson-sons-describe-day-wife-mothers-murder/story?id=49777444.
Dr.
Posey told 20/20 that he changed his opinion from undetermined to homicide two
years later, in part, because he was told by Deputy District Attorney Lori
Jones that she had an aquatics expert to negate Bohana’s claims of a rescue and
thus point to a homicide conclusion. But Posey admitted on the stand that he
had never spoken to that expert nor read his report before changing that
opinion. That aquatics expert later said that he was only given one scenario to
analyze and that was that Jackson was conscious in the water and fighting off a
rescue. However, Bohana has always claimed that she was unconscious underwater.
Please
note, the Bohana family retained the services of the PR firm that I work for to
get the word out about his case.
Bohana
had been dating Jackson for just a few months when she drowned at his home pool
in the exclusive neighborhood of Ladera Heights in Los Angeles. She died on the
night of August 26, 1994.
