Bradyna Henson Testimonial
On May 3, 2017, I called Brad MacFee and asked him to go and see my fiancé, Tavon, who at the time was incarcerated at MTC awaiting trial on a 1st degree murder charge. Needles to say, the fact that he had been arrested and charged with the worst possible crime brought a tremendous amount of stress on to the family, so I contacted Brad and began to hope for the best.
Within a few days Brad went out to see Tavon and, as he said he would, did a thorough review of the case considering the information he had available to him at the time, which was basically the police report and what Tavon told him. He said he would call me after he had seen Tavon to discuss the case and what it would take to get him involved. We had that discussion and agreed upon a fee for his services which, under the circumstances and in light of the fact that Tavon, if he lost would definitely be going to prison for life, was more than reasonable.
Brad began working on the case right away, obtaining the necessary documents, photos and records from the state and thoroughly reviewing everything. According to the information provided by the state, there were 2 people that claimed to be eyewitnesses in the case and that said that they knew Tavon, knew the victims, were present at the time of the shooting and saw Tavon do it. With that, Brad zeroed in on finding and digging into the credibility of the witnesses.
In the weeks leading up to the trial, it became clear that the first individual had disappeared and the state conceded that they had no idea where or how to locate him. That left one remaining eyewitness. Brad found him and interviewed him, and listened as the witness claimed that he had been told by the police what to say and what photo to pick out. The witness also told Brad that much of the information that the police claimed that he had provided to them, they had really written down and said that he said. Because the police can’t be trusted and because the 2 police officers involved with the case were also involved in some controversy (one was the detective that was shot and killed in November, 2017, and the other was his partner that was with him at the time he was shot), Brad felt that he would be able to use all of this information to beat the case.
On the morning trial was to begin, Brad’s assistant met with the “eyewitness” and watched him sign an affidavit attesting to all of the information he had related to Brad the day before. Brad immediately provided that affidavit to the state. Of course, this created a major problem for the state in terms of the credibility of their star witness. While the state apparently intended to proceed to try and convict Tavon despite this information, there is no question that it took a great deal of wind out of their sails.
On the second day of the trial, after the jury had been selected and opening statements were to begin, the state abruptly dropped the case. There are a couple possible reasons for this. First, the witness hadn’t shown up. That shouldn’t have mattered though because according to his family, the police knew where he lived and he hadn’t been hiding from them. The second reason is that the state had lost confidence in its ability to obtain a conviction in light of the newly discovered issue with their witness, and because of the obvious problems with the police. With that, it was likely that the police, despite having a body attachment to bring the witness in, hadn’t really looked too hard for him.
In Baltimore, where the murder rate is at an all-time high, the state simply does not drop murder cases. The political pressure to gain convictions in these cases is just too high. The truth is that they would rather put on a bad case and lose before dismissing a case. Despite this fact, the rare decision to drop this case was made. When I asked Brad why, he told me that cases are won or lost well before the trial ever happens. The difference between winning and losing is getting out of the office and onto the street and being willing, as a lawyer, to get your hands dirty and sit in the homes of witnesses and families and to go to crime scenes and do the work necessary to know the case better than the prosecutor. That is what happened in this case, and I believe that that is why Tavon was, not only not convicted of murder, but didn’t even have to worry about it because there was no trial.
The decision to hire a lawyer and which one to hire is a serious one, maybe the most serious one you will ever make? If you are in trouble, but fortunate enough to be able to hire a private attorney, you should strongly consider talking to Brad before making any decisions. He has been taking on and winning the toughest cases against the best prosecutors in the city for years, and he may be your best chance at getting home.