Truth Revealed
Cassi took it upon herself to try and get the autopsy report. She contacted the medical examiner’s office and requested the results be sent to her at the prison. To her shock, she actually received them.
“I got the autopsy report the last week of July. I didn’t read it at first; I let my case manager read it. She was only a couple pages in and she said, ‘I’m here to tell you that 99.99 percent, you didn’t do anything to your daughter. I started crying. I felt light after that. That’s all I needed to hear. Everyone had been calling me crazy, and so it felt relieving to hear that. But it was something I knew in my heart the entire time.”
StarLight’s autopsy results proved what Cassi had said the entire time to be true. The report read that StarLight was “a normally-developed, well-nourished, and well-hydrated female infant…” About Cassi’s apartment, the report noted that photographs “reveal a well-kept home with ample age-appropriate toys and supplies.” The medical examiner found “no evidence of foul play or recent significant trauma” and ruled the cause of death as “unexplained sudden death.” There was no evidence of external injuries as police claimed during Cassi’s interrogation.
“I start thinking, what can I do? I shouldn’t even be here. I got a hold of my attorney right away. He said he couldn’t help me, but he wished me the best of luck.”
Cassi was stuck. She had already taken a plea deal. She could not simply undo that agreement with the State, despite the autopsy demonstrating StarLight had died not from abuse or neglect, but from sudden, unexplained infant death.
The Great North Innocence Project Meets Cassi
Coincidentally, a team from the Great North Innocence Project had plans to visit the women’s prison that summer to present about GNIP’s pro bono services. Attorney Jim Mayer, Director of Communications and Outreach Hayley Poxleitner, and Board Member Adam Martin brought applications and details about services. Importantly, Adam also brought with him his own story of incarceration and addiction recovery, and shared more about his reentry organization, F5. It was the first time the team had been able to present at the prison in several years because of COVID restrictions.
“I wasn’t really in the mood to be there that day. I was mad because I wasn’t allowed to be out of my room at the prison, and I felt like I was being punished when I shouldn’t even be in prison. But I came to the presentation and I listened to your [GNIP client’s] story about getting accused of something he didn’t do, and Adam’s story. I thought, ‘If Adam made it out, then I think I can.’”
Cassi’s case manager approached the GNIP team and encouraged them to listen to Cassi’s story. After the presentation, Cassi told Jim about what had happened to her and about the new information she received from the autopsy. He agreed to take a closer look at her case once he returned to Minneapolis.
“After that talk, I felt some hope.”
Actually Innocent
Shortly thereafter, Cassi received a call from Jim at the Dickinson Jail. She had been moved to the jail to attend a treatment program as part of the conditions of her release. Jim told Cassi that he had looked further into her case, and he felt there was merit to her innocence claim. He was going to take the case to GNIP’s Litigation Committee and seek approval to formally represent Cassi in her post-conviction claim. After the call, Cassi had mixed emotions.
“I felt relieved, but I also didn’t know what to expect. I was still mad at the world. I had been thrown in prison. It was like, a big weight off my shoulders but I also thought, ‘here we go again for another battle in the courts.’”
Cassi had already attempted to file a post-conviction petition on her own behalf. Fortunately, Jim and GNIP became involved quickly after she filed and started strengthening her petition. Jim, the GNIP legal team, and local pro bono counsel Ryan Sandberg told Cassi that they were filing for post-conviction relief based on the grounds that, 1) the autopsy results were new evidence demonstrating her innocence, 2) her defense counsel had been ineffective, and 3) the state had withheld evidence from the defense.
What Jim and the team had learned through investigation was that members of law enforcement and the state’s attorney were present during StarLight’s autopsy. The medical examiner verbally explained her assessment of StarLight’s body and told the officials present that there was no evidence that StarLight had been abused or neglected and that she concluded StarLight had died from a sudden, unexplained infant death. Although the official report would not be released until sometime after, this indicated that law enforcement and the prosecutor knew that Cassi had not caused her daughter’s death long before Cassi received the autopsy results. Officials knew of the medical examiner’s conclusions and still proceeded with offering Cassi a plea deal without telling her defense counsel about the medical examiner’s verbal assessment. This was a Brady violation, according to GNIP’s legal team. To put it simply, the state and law enforcement knew that their charges against Cassi had been based on false assumptions, but they let her go to prison anyway.
A hearing was set for January 2023. This was the first time Cassi was allowed to testify about her experience in Court.
“I was really anxious. It was the first time I was able to say something about anything. I wasn’t on the stand for long, but it felt like a long time. I felt this feeling that comes up when I talk about StarLight or being wrongfully convicted. I feel heavy…a whole ugly feeling comes across my body. I felt that while I was testifying.”
Cassi knew this might be her one and only opportunity to speak up for herself.
GNIP Legal Director Jim Mayer with Cassi after her court hearing
“I thought, they’re actually giving me a chance to speak about it when all this time I’ve been told to be quiet. It felt like a lot of pressure.”
Cassi waited 12 days for the judge’s decision. At this point, she had been moved to a halfway house. That’s where she was when she got the call from Jim about the results of the hearing. He told Cassi that the judge had agreed with their argument, and that her post-conviction petition was granted.
The judge granted Cassi’s post-conviction relief on the basis that she received ineffective assistance of counsel. In his decision, the judge wrote, “the Court finds in advising Ms. Black Elk that they could just ‘deal with it later,’ after they received the Autopsy report, Attorney Loraas’ conduct fell below the minimum standard required of a defense attorney.”
The judge did not rule on the other two claims. However, he did write, “the Court would note its concerns of the allegation that the State knew of the likely results of the autopsy report prior to the plea agreement, yet did not relay that information to Attorney Loraas so Ms. Black Elk could have been appropriately informed before making her decision whether or not to enter into said plea agreement.”
Cassi’s relief was tempered by the fact that the State was still considering recharging her. She wasn’t out of the woods yet.
Despite the uncertainty around what the State would decide to do, Cassi was released from custody on an unsecured bond. She was able to reunite with her children, Leyza and Emmy, at a mall nearby. The reunification was both happy and challenging.
“We got to visit for a couple hours at the mall. Leyza was all over me. But Emmy was really distant, and acted like she didn’t know me. I look at pictures of when I first got out and I can just see how stressed I was.”
The state did in fact pursue new charges against Cassi. The state argued that even though the autopsy demonstrated that Cassi was not responsible for StarLight’s death, she should still be charged with child neglect because she had been under the influence of alcohol while having small children at home.
Cassi with her legal team including pro bono attorney Mark Bradford, GNIP Attorney Anna McGinn, and GNIP Legal Director Jim Mayer at the North Dakota Supreme Court
The GNIP legal team, which now also included pro bono attorney Mark Bradford, went back to work defending Cassi against these new charges and appealed to the North Dakota Supreme Court. Cassi’s legal team filed a motion seeking an order from the Court requiring the State to explain what specifically Cassi did or did not do that constituted felony child neglect. The Court granted the motion. Unable to articulate a reason for why Cassi should be charged with child neglect despite the autopsy showing no evidence that she harmed StarLight, the State dropped the charges against Cassi “in the name of justice.” Cassi was exonerated.
The day that Cassi learned she was exonerated on the basis of actual innocence should have been a joyful day. Unfortunately, Cassi was facing another loss in her life. Her younger sister (and best friend) Teri had passed away just one day earlier, and Cassi was en route to her hometown for Teri’s funeral when she got the call from Jim and GNIP attorney, Anna McGinn.
“Jim said, ‘They dropped all charges against you!’ I sat quietly on the phone. I remember looking over at my auntie and telling her they dropped the charges and she was happy for me. Meanwhile, I’m still sitting there sad. But I did cry happy tears, I know that much.”
The news didn’t really sink in until later, after Teri’s funeral, and after Cassi got back home and didn’t have to check in with her pretrial officer anymore. Her happiness with finally being free and declared officially innocent was mixed with her grief from losing her sister and her continual battle to clear her name among her community and loved ones.
“I made a post on Facebook that said I was exonerated. Everyone was happy. Everyone said that ‘your sister wouldn’t have wanted you to have to keep fighting this.’ Teri and my mom were the only ones who believed in my innocence from the day I was charged. Everyone else questioned it. They just kind of wrote me off.”
North Dakota doesn’t have a compensation statute for people who have been wrongfully convicted. In other words, Cassi has not and will not ever receive monetary compensation for the time she spent wrongfully convicted or what she went through. Cassi has never received an apology for her ordeal.
“I’m waiting for the day someone apologizes to me. It would be cool if the state’s attorney was like, ‘I’m sorry.’ But, I’ll never see that. I get no compensation. I can’t sue. I would settle for an apology. But, none of it is ever going to bring StarLight back.”
Cassi with her DeLeyza (left) and Emmy on the day they came home to their mother
The financial and emotional devastation of incarceration, particularly wrongful incarceration, impacted Cassi immediately. While in prison, Cassi had few financial resources. She was paid $1.55 per hour to sit at a table and check out games to other inmates. She had little savings to fall back on when she was released.
Her landlord had held her apartment for her. The same apartment where her daughter lived and died and where her nightmare began. But, she didn’t have another place to go. A GoFundMe set up by GNIP raised enough funds to cover her rent temporarily.
“I went back to a trashed apartment. It was really lonely, even after I got it all fixed up for my kids. I switched rooms with them. I didn’t want to sleep in that room [where StarLight died].”
Cassi did her best to reconnect with her girls and ease the transition out of foster care. The family attended two types of therapies together. One, with her younger daughter, was called Parent Child Interaction Therapy and focused on helping Cassi and her daughter re-build their bond. With her older daughter Cassi attended a trauma-informed therapy that focused on coping with grief.
“We worked extra hard to transition both girls without disrupting their lives drastically again.”
The girls slowly transitioned out of their foster home back to life with their mom. In March 2023, they started spending overnights together. By May, they were back to being with their mom fulltime, and Cassi finally regained full custody in August 2023.