#247 Jason Flom with Ken Wyniemko

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2022

⏱️ 44 minutes

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Summary

When 43 year old bowling alley manager Ken Wyniemko ejected an off duty cop from his establishment for drunk and disorderly conduct, he didn't think it would lead to a wrongful conviction. On April 30th, 1994, a woman was blindfolded and raped by a masked man in her home in Clinton Township, Michigan. The composite sketch was deemed only 60% accurate, but nonetheless, was made available to the media. When Ken's disgruntled ex girlfriend reported that the sketch resembled him, investigators used this opportunity to exact revenge for the bowling alley manager's slight against their brother in blue. They manipulated the line up to produce an identification from the victim who had never clearly seen her attacker's face. With the help of incentivized jailhouse snitch testimony, the jury ignored the biological evidence that excluded Ken, sending him to serve 40-60 years. DNA evidence eventually led to his exoneration in 2003, and now, Ken devotes his time to lobbying for criminal justice reform legislation - some of which led to finding the actual rapist in his case. To learn more and get involved, visit: http://www.deliberateinjusticethebook.com/ https://lavaforgood.com/with-jason-flom/ Wrongful Conviction s a production of Lava fo Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

Transcript

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0:00.0	On April 30th, 1994, a man in a nylon stocky mass broke into a 28-year-old woman's home
0:09.3	in Michigan while she slept.
0:11.4	He blindfolded and raped her over the course of several hours before leaving.
0:15.7	Since the victim was blindfolded and had only caught a few glimpse of her attacker, the
0:19.6	composite sketch she'd created with investigators was deemed only 60 percent accurate.
0:24.4	When the sketch hit the media, a bowling alley manager named Ken Wenemko was named by
0:29.1	a disgruntled ex as a potential culprit.
0:32.3	Ken had recently ejected an off-duty cop from his bowling alley for being drunken disorderly,
0:37.4	which was not taken kindly by the officer's friends on the force.
0:41.3	With this grudge looming, and despite Ken not matching the physical description, detectives
0:46.2	acted on this dubious tip and manipulated a line up to produce his identification.
0:50.9	DNA testing was available, but not done.
0:54.2	Yet, even the serology testing of the biological evidence from the attack was, again, not
0:59.0	a match for Ken.
1:00.6	However, while Ken awaited trial in jail, the assistant prosecutor offered his celimated
1:05.6	deal to join the lead detective in giving false testimony that Ken had confessed to the
1:10.7	rape.
1:11.7	His hastily appointed defense attorney did not have time to repair.
1:14.8	Now, between the false testimony, the shaky composite sketch and the bogus line up, the
1:19.4	jury ignored the ex-gulpatory serology and sent Ken away to prison for four to sixty
1:24.9	years.
1:25.9	With the help of the cooleanessence project in Michigan, Ken was finally able to obtain
	...

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