- Almost True - Page 262

A (FRYE): I said cars; two cars were seen in front of the store at 7:58, I believe is what the Smiths say. That correlated with the time trial run that I conducted with Mr. Felton.

Q: Don't those statements say it was not Curtis Dunaway's car?

A: Didn't say it wasn't either.  If you will read the deposition we took by the Smiths, they are stating in there they did not pay that much attention to the vehicle, that most of their attention was directed from the dark store.

Seeing what we want to see, remembering what we want to remember, is a human failing.  That's why open-mindedness is crucial in an investigation.  Belief is the enemy of skepticism; when we start believing, we stop asking questions.  Belief (unlike faith) requires constant affirmation, and does not tolerate contradiction.

No doubt, Frye really was sure that Patricia Smith had left open the question of whether the dark car was the Dunaway Olds.  Moreover, Frye—who was not there at the time—was ready to substitute his own belief for the sworn, specific testimony of the Smiths.  He knew that the dark car was actually the Dunaway car.  It was true because it had to be true, regardless of what Patricia Smith or anyone else said.

But the Smiths were emphatic about what they had seen.  If their observations had supported the state's case, we can be sure that Frye and Eagan would have regarded them as highly credible witnesses, which indeed they were.  They maintained their stories during the questioning by Frye and Lawson Lamar, and their description of the smaller dark car went unchallenged at trial.  The only problem with their testimony was that it denied, rather than supported, the state's case.

This is not an isolated example.  We'll see in the next chapter that the state disregarded two reliable independent witnesses whose unassailable testimony convincingly discredited Edward Williams and the heart of the prosecution's case.

But let's return to the dark Mustang-like car.

In a legitimate investigation, Frye would have used motor vehicle records to compile a list of dark-colored Mustangs in the West Orange area.  He might have checked ownership records against a list of persons who Zeigler believed were involved in the loan-sharking operation.  This might have provided a lead: successful investigations have begun with much less.

In fact, how did the OCSO treat this question?

During Frye's first deposition, Terry Hadley asked him about the Christmas Eve incident when two black men in a dark Mustang drove into the Gulf station on the corner of Dillard and Route 50 and talked about a shooting at the furniture store before the police were on the scene.