Traverse City Record-Eagle

Cheboygan County

May 23, 2008

Man found innocent, sues prosecutor

Detroit man sues after DNA proves his innocence

BY SHERI McWHIRTER

CHEBOYGAN -- A Detroit man spent more than 11 years in prison for a crime that DNA evidence proves he didn't commit, and now a local assistant prosecutor faces a multi-million dollar lawsuit for his role in the case.

Eric Kaiser, an assistant prosecutor in Cheboygan County, is named in a $75 million federal lawsuit for wrongful conviction, along with two cities, one county, several police officers and another prosecutor involved in a decade-old rape and kidnapping case from Macomb County.

The suit accuses Kaiser of deliberately concealing exculpatory information and misleading the judge at trial.

In 1998, Kaiser worked in Macomb County and argued the case against Nathaniel Maurice Hatchett, now 29, who was released from prison last month after lawyers from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School Innocence Project in Lansing proved he was not guilty through DNA test results.

"It's a fascinating case for us because it was a case with DNA testing done at the time of trial. It shows we need to be careful, even when there is DNA testing," said attorney Donna McKneelen, co-director of the project.

DNA tests on evidence done at the time did not match Hatchett or the victim's husband, although during the trial Kaiser said the DNA left on the victim could have belonged to the husband.

Judge George Steeh of Macomb County Circuit Court sentenced Hatchett to up to 50 years in prison following a three-day bench trial. Steeh now is a U.S. District Court judge in Detroit.

Kaiser declined to comment about the Hatchett case on the advice of his attorney, but said he eventually will talk about it.

"There's only one side that's being told," he said.

Cheboygan County Prosecutor Catherine Mickey Castagne anticipates making a public comment on the situation, but not until after reviewing the Hatchett case, including trial transcripts, she said.

Regardless of what's happened with Hatchett, Kaiser said the integrity of his cases in Cheboygan County and elsewhere is sound.

"I am confident in my cases. I can tell you I would never start a case or pursue a case if I had any question of the integrity of the police or prosecution, including myself," Kaiser said.

Kaiser prosecuted many local cases in recent years, including criminal sexual conducts, burglaries and a homicide by drug overdose.

He resigned from his job in Macomb County for personal reasons in 2004 and worked as an assistant prosecutor in Emmet County until 2006, when he moved to his Cheboygan County post, Kaiser said.

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