Detroit police have failed to follow through on a promise to investigate a retired homicide detective accused of misconduct that led to false confessions and wrongful convictions, the latest frustration for exonerated men demanding accountability.
In September 2024, Deputy Chief Charles Fitzgerald told the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners that the department would investigate retired Detective Barbara Simon if allegations against her were brought forward.
Days later, Mark Craighead, who was exonerated after spending more than seven years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, filed a criminal complaint with DPD accusing Simon of perjury, assault, unlawful detention, falsifying confessions, and engaging in a pattern of misconduct.
But about 20 months later, Detroit police say there is still no open investigation into Simon.
“At this time there is no open investigation regarding retired Det. Barbara Simon,” DPD said in response to questions from Metro Times. “The Wayne County Conviction Integrity Unit is conducting investigations into cases for which she was involved and DPD is assisting them.”
DPD did not respond to follow-up questions.
For Craighead and other exonerees who have pushed for a full investigation into Simon, the response was another blow.
“They promised to do an investigation,” Craighead tells Metro Times. “They not only let me down, but they let down the families of people still in prison because of Barbara Simon.”
He adds, “I don’t understand why they don’t want to investigate. They’re trying to let this die.”
Simon was the subject of “The Closer,” a two-part Metro Times investigation that exposed her aggressive and illegal tactics that led to false confessions and wrongful imprisonment. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Simon was known as “the closer” because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements when other detectives couldn’t.
Her methods included confining young Black men to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant, making false promises, lying about nonexistent evidence, and pressuring suspects and witnesses into making false statements, according to court records, lawsuits, and exonerees,
At least eight Black men have been freed from prison because of Simon’s tactics. Lawyers and activists say more innocent people remain behind bars because of her actions. Metro Times found at least 30 incarcerated people who say Simon used coercion, threats, fabricated statements, or other abusive tactics to help secure murder convictions.
Simon has been sued numerous times, costing taxpayers more than $25 million in lawsuit settlements so far, with more pending.
Craighead’s complaint cited a February 2021 ruling by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Shannon Walker, who granted him a new trial and said Simon “has a history of falsifying confessions and lying under oath” and that Craighead’s case demonstrated “a common scheme of misconduct.”
“Not only has this Court already found statements obtained by Simon not to be credible, but so too has the Michigan Supreme Court,” Walker said at the time.
Walker also said evidence of Simon’s misconduct would allow a jury to evaluate whether to trust her testimony “in light of information demonstrating a character of truthfulness.”
The Michigan Court of Appeals agreed with Walker.
Craighead said those findings alone should have prompted a criminal investigation.
Instead, at a September 2024 Board of Police Commissioners meeting, Fitzgerald claimed the department was unaware of the allegations against Simon, despite years of lawsuits, court rulings and complaints from suspects and witnesses.
“I have not seen any of these complaints or allegations,” Fitzgerald told then-Commissioner Willie Burton.
Burton responded that the alleged crimes occurred while Simon was a DPD employee and asked whether the department would investigate.
“If those allegations are brought forward to us, yes, but they have not been,” Fitzgerald said.
His response prompted Craighead to file the complaint.
“I am respectfully requesting an investigation on whether Barbara Simon committed acts of perjury, assault, unlawful incarceration, schemes of misconduct, and falsifying confessions,” Craighead wrote in the complaint. “This unethical behavior undermines the justice system as innocent people are convicted and imprisoned based on fabricated or manipulated information.”
Craighead added that Simon’s alleged misconduct “violates legal and ethical standards and inflicts irreparable harm on the lives of those wrongfully accused.”
“It also erodes public trust in law enforcement and judicial processes,” he wrote. “There can never be justice without accountability.”
Craighead was assisted in filing the complaint by former Detroit Police Commissioner Reginald Crawford, a former Detroit officer and Wayne County sheriff’s deputy.
The complaint came amid a growing push by exonerees, families of incarcerated people, and advocates to scrutinize all of Simon’s cases.
On Aug. 28, 2024, exonerees and relatives of prisoners rallied outside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, calling for an independent investigation of cases handled by Simon.
After Craighead filed the complaint in September 2024, he and Lamarr Monson, who spent 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, held a news conference outside Detroit Public Safety Headquarters to demand that police investigate Simon.
“We missed out on so much time with our families, and she’s still walking the streets and collecting a pension,” Craighead said at the time. “She’s still free. We’re demanding accountability. We want her arrested.”
Monson blamed Simon for bungling the 1996 investigation that led to his wrongful conviction.
Crawford said those responsible for wrongful convictions must be held accountable.
“They need to say to the world and to the media, ‘These are the people responsible for the wrongful convictions. They will be held accountable,’” Crawford said.
Following Metro Times’s series on Simon and nearly a dozen protests calling for innocent men to be released, Worthy assembled a team to review the old cases. As a result, two men have been released from prison in a one-month period beginning in March.
First, George Calicut Jr., who spent nearly 30 years in prison after signing what his attorneys said was a false confession written by Simon, was released on March 3. DNA testing later excluded him from the crime scene.
On March 31, Roy Blackmon walked out of prison after nearly 28 years behind bars, becoming at least the sixth person freed because of misconduct tied to Simon. Blackmon was convicted in a 1998 Detroit shooting that killed one man and wounded two others, even though there was no physical evidence tying him to the crime. Witnesses later said police threatened and coerced them into implicating him.
Wayne County prosecutors agreed to vacate Blackmon’s conviction and dismiss the charges after a joint review by the Michigan Innocence Clinic and the Wayne County Conviction Integrity Unit found that the case rested on false witness testimony obtained through police threats and coercion.
But Craighead and other exonerees say that does not absolve DPD from investigating whether one of its former detectives committed crimes while working for the department.
Craighead says the lack of action shows why families of people still in prison continue to distrust the justice system.
“Barbara Simon should have been investigated a long time ago,” Craighead says. “They knew what she was doing.”
