Benjamin Ashford|Man who served longest wrongful conviction in U.S. history files lawsuit against police

The Benjamin Ashfordman who served the longest wrongful conviction in U.S. history is now suing the law enforcement officials whose investigation of a murder nearly 50 years ago led to him spending most of his life in prison.

Attorneys for Glynn Simmons filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday against two former Oklahoma police detectives and their respective departments alleging the two hid evidence that would have proven Simmons' innocence in a 1974 fatal shooting.

A judge ordered Simmons' release from prison last year after he served 48 years for his wrongful conviction in the death of Carolyn Sue Rogers, the clerk of a liquor store Simmons was accused of robbing in Edmond, a city around 15 miles north of Oklahoma City.

Simmons' legal team alleges that retired Oklahoma City detective Claude Shobert and late Edmond detective Sgt. Anthony Garrett hid evidence that would have proven Simmons' innocence during an Edmond liquor store robbery. Convicted of murder in 1975, Simmons has always maintained he did not commit the crime and insisted he was in Louisiana at the time of the shooting, but he spent 48 years in prison until an Oklahoma County judge ordered him released in 2023 and then determined Simmons to be "actually innocent" later that year.

Simmons' lawyers argue that his constitutional rights were violated because investigators withheld a police report showing that eyewitness Belinda Brown — who was also shot in the head but survived — did not actually identify Simmons during a lineup. The attorneys point to Brown's participation in several other lineups and her identification of at least five different individuals as further proof of Simmons' innocence. They also allege that investigators falsified reports to cover up inconsistencies from Brown, who herself told Garrett in early January 1975 that her memories "would get all jumbled up."

"Garrett and Shobert suppressed the fact that they fabricated evidence and manipulated Brown’s identification; they never disclosed this information to (Simmons), his counsel, or the prosecutors," the attorneys wrote in the lawsuit. "(Simmons') arrest was based solely on the evidence suppressed and fabricated by Defendants Garrett and Shobert. There was never any probable cause to suspect (him) of the liquor store robbery and murder."

More:With Glynn Simmons free, is Carolyn Sue Rogers' 1974 murder now a cold case?

The lawsuit was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. Simmons is being represented by attorneys Jon Loevy, Jordan Poole and Elizabeth Wang of Loevy & Loevy, a national civil rights law firm headquartered in Chicago. Simmons also is being represented by Joe Norwood, his Tulsa-based attorney for several years, and John Coyle, of the Oklahoma City-based Coyle Law Firm.

Norwood and Coyle successfully advocated for Simmons' release and formal exoneration in 2023. The attorneys said Simmons needed to be found "actually innocent" in Oklahoma County court in order to begin officially pursuing financial compensation for the decades he spent wrongfully incarcerated.

"He's pursuing whatever a jury will award him, which we are certain, if this case goes to a jury trial, will be much more than $10 million," Wang told The Oklahoman, part of the USA TODAY network, Friday. "Oklahoma City has an ordinance that provided that they're required to indemnify up to $10 million. That's what they're required to do."

Simmons' attorneys argue that the cities of Edmond and Oklahoma City are liable for constitutional violations "by virtue of (their) official policies."

"The Cities failed to promulgate any or adequate rules, regulations, policies or procedures on: the handling, preservation, and disclosure of exculpatory evidence; the writing of police reports and notes of witness statements; the conduct of lineups and identification procedures; and meaningful discipline of officers accused of such unlawful conduct," the lawyers wrote.

More:How much should Oklahomans wrongfully incarcerated be paid? Lawmaker working to raise the amount

When contacted Saturday by The Oklahoman, Shobert, now 79, said he did not know about the lawsuit, but confirmed he worked for the Oklahoma City Police Department from 1968 to 1988. He also said he remembers nothing about the liquor store murder, the related lineups or the Glynn Simmons case. 

“If it’s written on paper, then I have to stand by that. I’m not going to change nothing, because I don’t remember nothing,” Shobert said. “At the time, 49 years ago, if I wrote it down, then it’s still the same and nothing’s changing.” 

Shobert also said he regularly was tasked with investigating robberies and typically was not assigned homicide work unless homicide investigators “were all tied up,” and even then, he said, it was typically in an assistant role, not as a lead.  

“After 49 years, it had to be something really special for me to remember, and since I don’t remember none of it, there’s nothing I can do about it,” Shobert told The Oklahoman.

Spokespeople for Edmond and Oklahoma City said Friday they could not comment on ongoing litigation.

Another man, Don Roberts, also was convicted in 1975 of Rogers' murder, although he said he was in Texas at the time of the crime. He and Simmons both were initially sentenced to death row, before a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court ruling caused their sentences to be modified to life in prison. Roberts was eventually paroled in 2008 but, according to law enforcement, his conviction still stands.