Man who spent 27 years in prison sues police who framed him for a murder
Frederick H. Lowe
Elwood Jones, who spent 27 years in prison and was sentenced to death for a murder he didn’t commit, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit July 24 against the city of Blue Ash, Ohio, and several former police officers.
He charged in the lawsuit that police framed him for a 1994 murder by fabricating and planting evidence, suppressing thousands of pages of exculpatory material, and ignoring other suspects.
The 15-count federal lawsuit claims that a unique pendant belonging to 87-year-old victim Rhoda Nathan was “planted” inside a toolbox in Jones’s car trunk during a solo police search after initial thorough vehicle searches turned up nothing.
The prosecution’s case at trial included testimony from Blue Ash police officer Michael Bray, who testified that he found a gold pendant missing from Ms. Nathan’s body in a toolbox in Mr. Jones’ car after other officers had already searched the vehicle.
In 2023, Judge Cross ruled that Officer Bray’s testimony would be excluded from any retrial because Mr. Jones’ attorneys did not have an adequate opportunity to cross examine him in 1996. Bray has since died.
The victim, Rhoda Nathan, was beaten to death in September 1994 at a Blue Ash Embassy Suites Hotel where Jones worked. Based on physical evidence tying him to the murder, Jones was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996. Police arrested him because he was arrogant and he wore cologne.
In 2022, a judge threw out Jones’s conviction after finding that crucial evidence had been withheld from his defense. Jones, now 57, was released January 14.
The Hamilton County prosecutor formally dismissed all charges against Jones with prejudice, meaning he cannot be retried. Jones previously filed a separate wrongful imprisonment lawsuit against the state of Ohio. Blue Ash is a suburb of Cincinnati.