KALAMAZOO COUNTY, Mich. — A man who was wrongfully imprisoned for a Kalamazoo County cold case for 21 years has filed a $100 million lawsuit against two detectives for withholding evidence. 71-year-old Jeff Titus was released from prison in February 2023.
“Being in prison … it was hell,” Titus recalled his time behind bars.
Titus was convicted of the double murder of hunters James Bennet and Doug Este in the Fulton State Game Area, which occurred on Nov. 17, 1990. At the time, Titus lived in a house adjacent to the state park. He later told police that he found a shotgun of one of the deceased hunters in the game area a couple of days after the murder.
Witnesses who heard gunshots from the state park later told police that a man ran his car into a ditch at the intersection of Y Avenue and 46th Street. The man was reported as appearing very nervous. He also did not want anyone to call the police for assistance.
At the time of the murder, Titus had a verified alibi of hunting with one of his friends 27 miles away from the murder site. He also passed a polygraph. The original Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office homicide detectives, Bruce Wiersma and Roy Ballet, ruled Titus out as a suspect.
In 1993, Detective Wiersma learned about Thomas Dillon, a serial killer in Ohio who had been arrested and charged in the death of five hunters and fisherman in Ohio during the 1990 timeframe. He was also suspected of killing Bennet and Este.
Two of the witnesses who interacted with the man stuck in the ditch then accompanied Wiersma to Ohio to view a lineup, which included Dillon. Both witnesses identified Dillon as the man they saw in the ditch. However, Wiersma ruled Dillon out as a suspect, when he miscalculated the time and distance to travel from Dillon’s location in Ohio to the Fulton State Game Area.
In 2001, the Kalamazoo County Cold Case Unit began to look into the murders. The unit was led by Detective Michael Werkema. One member of the unit was Mike Brown. While looking into the case, Werkema and Brown focused on Titus as the only suspect.
Titus was arrested on Dec. 12, 2001. Despite no physical evidence or eyewitnesses that tied him to the crime, he was convicted based on witness accounts of Titus being aggressive toward hunters on his property.
However, Werkema and Brown did not disclose evidence on Dillon to the prosecutor. The two conspired to withhold the evidence, including the identification by the two witnesses.
The evidence on Dillon was later discovered in the police file by Michigan Innocence Clinic’s Director David Moran, after getting a tip from a documentary filmmaker. In 2022 and 2023, the Michigan AG’s Office CIU reviewed the evidence that was not presented to the prosecutor. It was concluded that withholding the Dillon evidence from Titus’ defense team violated Titus’ constitutional right to due process and a fair trial. The CIU and Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Gettings agreed to vacate Titus’ conviction on Feb. 22, 2023. Criminal charged were dropped on June 1, 2023.
“It's like I've been reborn, and I'm starting life all over again and everything is all new,” Titus said.
The state of Michigan has agreed to pay Titus over $1 million for the wrongful convictions, which he says he’s been using to donate school supplies and create scholarships.
"I am going to do a scholarship to the University of Michigan, two of them right now. Those will be for students that go in to be attorneys that will work in the Innocence Clinic Innocence Project for at least four years; I will pay their full college tuition and books," he said.
Titus is now suing Werkema and Brown for intentionally hiding the evidence on Dillon.
The city of Kalamazoo said they’re aware of the lawsuit and are reviewing it. The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office told FOX 17 that they have no comment at this time.
