Wyoming Court Papers.pdf - KELOLAND.com

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:.' - } Case 1:12-cv-00210-SWS Document 1 Filed 09/17/12 Page 2 of 22 COMPLAINT Plaintiff Troy Dean Willoughby (hereinafter "Plaintiff' or "Mr. Willoughby''), by and through his undersigned counsel, alleges as follows: Introduction "Society wins not only when the guilty are convicted but when criminal trials are fair; our system of the administration of justice suffers when any accused is treated unfairly." -Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87 (1963). "In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperilled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government be<strong>com</strong>es a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to be<strong>com</strong>e a law unto himself; it invites anarchy." -Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 485 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting). Members of the Sublette County Sheriffs Office and an Investigator working for the Sublette County Attorney's Office knowingly and willfully conspired and agreed to withhold, secret and hide exculpatory evidence in a criminal case against Mr. Willoughby in which he was tried and convicted for murder. The members of the conspiracy believed that if they disclosed the exculpatory evidence, as they knew was Constitutionally required, the government could not Page 2 of 22
Case 1:12-cv-00210-SWS Document 1 Filed 09/17/12 Page 3 of 22 obtain a conviction against Mr. Willoughby. The government agents' plot to keep exculpatory evidence from both Mr. Willoughby and the prosecutors working on the case was documented by a surreptitious recording made during the pendency of the conspiracy and coverup by a fellow law enforcement officer. In December, 2008, Deputy Lance Gehlhausen, after being moved into the Detectives' unit of the Sublette County Sheriff's Department, was tasked with recovering files concerning Mr. Willoughby from Archives. Deputy Gehlhausen, along with the so called "Leadership Team" investigating the murder of Lisa Ehlers, found exculpatory evidence in one of the files. Deputy Gehlhausen was then instructed by Defendants to leave the file so they could "look into it." However, when Deputy Gehlhausen questioned the Defendants about the file months later, they either intimated they had no knowledge of the file's existence or denied knowing its whereabouts. At this point Deputy Gehlhausen, concerned with the Defendants' behavior, decided to further investigate the nature and whereabouts of the missing file. Over the course ofhis investigation, Deputy Gehlhausen recorded multiple conversations with Defendants. During the conversations, Defendants made explicit statements as to the exculpatory nature of the evidence, including that if they turned the evidence over, Mr. Willoughby would "fucking walk." Deputy Gehlhausen's pleas to Defendants to tum the file over fell on deaf ears. Were it not for the brave actions of Deputy Gehlhausen, Mr. Willoughby would still be in prison today- serving a life sentence. Mr. Willoughby was tried for, and convicted of, murder without the disclosure of the Page 3 of 22
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Wyoming Court Papers.pdf - KELOLAND.com

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