Kevin Lackey

The Crime

In the early morning of  July 5, 1992, an 11-year-old girl was taken from her bedroom in Detroit to the back porch of the home where she was sexually assaulted. After the assault, the girl woke her mother and the police were called. The girl said her attacker was wearing yellow pants and black shoes. A screen on a window to a first-floor bedroom had been pried open.

The Investigation

At about 8 a.m., Officer William Penn arrived with his tracking dog, Midas. Instead of beginning the tracking of the attacker from the back porch of the house, Officer Penn began the tracking at the open gate at the rear of the backyard. The defense would later contend this path was a well-traveled path used by many people, including 18-year-old Kevin Lackey, who lived about four houses away from the girl’s home. 

At the time the dog began tracking, Mr. Lackey was on his porch. Mr. Lackey stopped Officer Penn and asked what was going on. Officer Penn told Mr. Lackey about the crime. At the time, Mr. Lackey was wearing Damage brand jeans, red with yellow leather patches on the thighs, with blue cuffs, a blue-teal T-shirt that matched the cuffs on the pants, and black Adidas gym shoes with three white stripes. 

After Officer Penn and Mr. Lackey had been talking for a few minutes, Midas alerted on Mr. Lackey as the girl’s attacker. Although Mr. Lackey’s clothes did not match the attacker’s clothes, he was taken into custody.

Mr. Lackey was a friend of the girl’s family. He had known the child for about eight years and had been at the house on numerous occasions. The girl said she did not know the identity of her assailant. Significantly, she did not identify Mr. Lackey in a police lineup and did not identify him by his voice.

The police arrested Mr. Lackey that day. He was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person under 13 years of age, second-degree criminal sexual conduct, and breaking and entering an occupied dwelling with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct. 

The Trial

In January 1993, Mr. Lackey went to trial in Detroit Recorder’s Court. The prosecution’s primary evidence was that the dog had led investigators from the girl’s house to Mr. Lackey’s house during a time period when the assailant’s scent would have been freshest. 

The prosecution presented evidence that a family dog, a Rottweiler which was known to be a vicious dog, was chained in the backyard. The girl’s mother did not wake up, even though to get to the girl’s bedroom, the attacker had to have walked through the living room, where the mother, who was a light sleeper, was asleep on the couch.  

According to the girl, the attacker took her to the back porch where he assaulted her. After the assault, he told her to close her eyes and count to 100. He then unlocked the back porch door and left through the back gate, again passing by the Rottweiler. She said the attacker returned moments later and told her not to tell anyone or he would kill her and her family. He said after she counted to 100, she could put her clothes back on and go back to bed.

The attacker left the back porch, ran past the Rottweiler a third time, through the open gate, and ran down the alley. 

The girl still did not incriminate Mr. Lackey. Her parents also testified and said that statements the girl made to them seemed to point the finger at Mr. Lackey. 

Mr. Lackey testified and denied any involvement in the girl’s assault.

On Jan. 26, 1993, a jury convicted Mr. Lackey of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a person under 13 years of age, one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, and one count of breaking and entering an occupied dwelling with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct. 

He was sentenced to 15 to 25 years in prison. 

The Exoneration

In 2011, the Innocence Project took on Mr. Lackey’s case. In late 2014, Mr. Lackey was released from prison on parole after serving more than 20 years of his sentence. 

The Innocence Project tried to track down a rape kit that was said to have been taken but had not been introduced at trial. The kit was never found. 

The Innocence Project then focused on the tracking dog and found several problems with the evidence. 

First, the handler started the tracking outside the house, as opposed to the porch. The handler was given a description of the attacker, which could have influenced his responses as the dog worked. In addition, the handler engaged with Mr. Lackey on his porch. This could have signaled to the dog that Mr. Lackey was a person of interest. Furthermore, the dog was at least seven years old, well past the tracking prime of two or three years. 

Officer Penn, the dog’s handler, had testified that the strength of the dog’s pull was an indication of a track’s freshness, an assertion that had no scientific validity. Separately, it was not surprising that Mr. Lackey’s scent was present; he frequently walked a path between the two houses, not just to visit the girl’s family, but also to visit a nearby relative. 

In early 2018, the Innocence Project presented these findings to the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. After further investigation, the office moved to dismiss the charges against Mr. Lackey on Jan. 10, 2019. 

Mr. Lackey filed a claim for compensation from the state of Michigan and in 2019, he was awarded $1,186,744. In August 2021, Mr. Lackey filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking damages from the city of Detroit.