More than $1 million in compensation was supposed to help two brothers rebuild their lives. Instead, the money made them a target.
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The state of North Carolina paid $750,000 to Henry McCollum in 2015 to compensate him for the 30 years that he, an innocent man, spent on death row.
Seven months later, he was broke. Mr. McCollum, who is intellectually disabled, then began borrowing money at 38 percent interest. He kept his financial plight hidden from friends and supporters from his death row years.
But last fall, he briefly and wearily opened up when he was handed documents showing he owed $130,000 on $65,000 in recent loans.
“Sometimes I feel like I shouldn’t be out here,” he said.
Mr. McCollum and his half brother, Leon Brown, who is also intellectually disabled, were demonized and convicted in one of the state’s most notorious rape and murder cases. Their decades in prison and their disabilities would have made for a difficult return to society under the best circumstances.
What happened to them after their release proved even more problematic. As exonerees, they emerged with big dollar signs on their backs. Most states compensate the wrongfully imprisoned in amounts that can reach millions of dollars, and exonerees can also win settlements from police agencies — awards that can attract predators.
Mr. McCollum, 54, and Mr. Brown, 50, proved virtually helpless as hundreds of thousands of dollars of state compensation were siphoned off by their supposed protectors: a sister back home; a lawyer from Orlando, Fla.; a self-proclaimed advocate from Atlanta, and her so-called business partner, a college instructor from Brooklyn, according to documents and interviews by The Marshall Project.
By the time a federal judge intervened in the spring of 2017, no trust had been set up for the brothers and money intended for their care had been spent on predatory loans, exorbitant legal fees, multiple cars, women’s jewelry and children’s toys.
Jeffrey Deskovic, an exoneree who established a foundation to help the wrongfully convicted, said he had advised about 60 other exonerees on how to manage compensation and the unwanted attention it brings. The experiences of Mr. McCollum and Mr. Brown are extreme, he said, but the underlying dynamics are common.
“All were hit up for money by family and friends or were targets of scammers,” Mr. Deskovic said.
The brothers’ tragic story began decades earlier. Schools had identified Henry McCollum and Leon Brown as mentally challenged: Mr. McCollum read at a second-grade level when he dropped out of high school; his younger brother could barely read or write.
In 1983, the body of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie was found in a soybean field in Red Springs. The killer had jammed her underwear down her throat with a stick.
A schoolgirl’s rumor prompted detectives to interrogate the brothers, then 19 and 15, who confessed to the crime.
Both soon recanted, saying they were coerced, but to no avail. They became two more convictions for District Attorney Joe Freeman Britt, listed as the deadliest prosecutor in the Guinness Book of World Records.
A jury sentenced both to be executed, and Mr. Brown, at 16, became the youngest person on death row. After the State Supreme Court ordered separate retrials, Mr. McCollum returned to death row and Mr. Brown was sentenced to life in prison with the label of child rapist.
Then, in 2014, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission announced that new DNA testing of a cigarette butt found at the crime scene matched the DNA of Roscoe Artis, who had lived next door.
While the brothers were in jail awaiting trial, Mr. Artis raped and strangled an 18-year-old woman one mile from where Sabrina Buie was killed. Mr. Britt tried and convicted Mr. Artis for that crime before he put Mr. McCollum and Mr. Brown on trial. Police investigated Mr. Artis as a suspect in Sabrina’s murder, but never told defense lawyers.
In September 2014, a judge declared Mr. McCollum and Mr. Brown innocent, sending a packed courtroom into pandemonium.
The brothers knew the wrongs done to convict them. It’s less clear they understand the wrongs they have suffered since their exonerations.
Drafting a Deal
Nobody was more elated by the exonerations than Ken Rose, Mr. McCollum’s lawyer. Mr. Rose had been visiting his client on death row for 20 years: “Every time I saw him, he’d say, ‘I don’t belong here, I’m innocent, when can I go home?’”
Before the brothers could qualify for the maximum $750,000 in state reparations, Mr. Rose needed to obtain an official pardon from the governor.
In the meantime, the brothers went home to the care of Geraldine Brown, Mr. Brown’s sister and Mr. McCollum’s half sister. In the 30 years the men were in prison, Ms. Brown had visited Mr. Brown once; she never went to see Mr. McCollum.
She had no job or car, and relied on funds raised by Mr. Rose’s nonprofit law center for rent and utilities. Sometimes social workers took the men shopping. They said they learned that if they entrusted the sister with cash, the bills went unpaid.
Months passed with no pardon and no compensation. A cousin mentioned the brothers’ plight to Kimberly Weekes, an Atlanta woman who said she was an advocate who worked on voter registration, food drives and recycling campaigns.
After speaking with Ms. Brown, Ms. Weekes contacted an instructor at Metropolitan College in New York whom she said was her business partner. Ms. Weekes and the partner, Deborah Pointer, then drafted a contract for “advocacy and civil rights.” The brothers would owe Pointer & Weekes Inc. a cut of any reparation: 10 percent of loans, 5 percent of state compensation and 1 percent of lawsuit settlements.
Ms. Brown signed and Ms. Weekes began searching for a lawyer to take over the case.
Mr. Rose soon received a fax from Ms. Brown saying that he should step aside and that Ms. Weekes represented the family “in all or any of the Civil/Litigation.”
Mr. Rose viewed the fax as nonsense. But he didn’t view the women as cranks: “I think they were very serious in taking whatever they could from my clients.”
Taking a Big Cut
On Feb. 27, Ms. Brown and her brothers finalized a contract with Patrick Megaro, a lawyer based in Orlando, Fla., to take over from Mr. Rose and other lawyers suing the police. Leon Brown signed with an “X.” The contract specified that the family owed Mr. Megaro 33 percent of awards, even if they fired him. Legal experts said the contingency clause probably violated state bar rules.
Ms. Weekes and Ms. Pointer secured money for the brothers — and for themselves — from a firm that lends to plaintiffs in anticipation of a settlement or jury award.
Mr. Megaro approved two $100,000 loans, one for each brother, with an annual interest rate of 41.6 percent and a $5,000 fee wrapped into the principal. The loan documents show that Mr. Megaro authorized the payment of $20,000 to Ms. Pointer and Ms. Weekes.
Mr. Megaro sent a letter to Mr. Rose and the legal team suing the police, demanding their files and stating that he alone represented the brothers. The coup stunned the lawyers, but they could see no way to challenge the contract.
After her $10,000 payout arrived, Ms. Weekes made one trip to North Carolina. She said she helped the family with shopping and found a nicer rental home. Ms. Pointer never met the brothers. She set up a Facebook page and a change.org petition, and had her students at Metropolitan College call the governor’s office to demand a pardon.
In June 2015, the governor pardoned the men. A publicist for Ms. Pointer and Ms. Weekes touted them as “the two female power execs” behind the men’s freedom.
In September 2015, an administrative law judge approved the $750,000 payouts to each brother. Mr. Brown did not attend the hearing. He had been admitted to a psychiatric facility, his seventh since his release.
Mr. Brown had had psychotic breaks in prison, which were now getting worse. His sister could not get him to take his antipsychotic medications. She said he had talked about being raped by inmates and tied to his bunk by guards. He worried that God wouldn’t forgive him. He rocked in place and refused to eat or drink for days.
The day before the administrative hearing, Mr. Megaro requested that Ms. Brown be named Leon Brown’s guardian, despite her inability to manage his mental illness or her own finances. Creditors have filed at least 16 liens against her; she has been evicted three times. Nevertheless, the guardianship was granted.
In October, North Carolina wrote Mr. Megaro a check for $1.5 million, half intended for each client, tax-free. Mr. Megaro took more than one-third of each brother’s compensation, according to Mr. Brown’s court files and Mr. McCollum. Payment on the high-interest loan took another $110,000. Each brother was left with less than half of his award.
Mr. Megaro declined to discuss his fees, the loans, the payments to the advocates or making Ms. Brown guardian.
In an April 2017 interview, he denied taking advantage of his clients.
“I like these guys,” Mr. Megaro said. “They are nice people, even if they are mentally disabled. It doesn’t matter.”
‘Frivolous Spending’
Mr. Rose, who worked pro bono on the pardons, had planned to protect the brothers’ money in trusts that guaranteed fixed payments for life, about $3,000 a month each, based on the $750,000 awards.
That has been the practice in North Carolina: Exonerees keep their entire compensation. Lawyers are typically paid by taking a cut of settlements with the police.
For his part, Mr. Megaro did not set up trusts, even after admitting in court that his clients needed protection from “fraudsters and frivolous spending.” After taking his cut, Mr. Megaro distributed the remainder to Mr. McCollum and began sending money to Ms. Brown, as Leon’s guardian.
Mr. McCollum was soon broke and borrowing with Mr. Megaro’s approval. He would not discuss where the money went.
His brother’s finances, supervised by the court, have more of a paper trail. Although guardians can legally spend money only on their wards, Ms. Brown bought women’s jewelry and shoes, diapers and toys.
Motor vehicle records show she also acquired a Dodge van, 2010 Mustang, 2004 BMW and 1995 Lexus.
The court ultimately stripped her of the guardianship and cut off access to her brother’s money. At a hearing, Ms. Brown admitted she had also asked Mr. McCollum for thousands of dollars and had taken out a $25,000 high-interest loan in Leon Brown’s name, also with Mr. Megaro’s approval.
The judge found her in contempt of court and ordered her jailed.
“Why you would take advantage of a poor soul like that, I do not know,” the judge said.
Ms. Brown replied: “I’m sorry you feel that way.”
She conceded in an interview that she should have never been made guardian. When it comes to lawyers, loans and contracts, Ms. Brown said: “I’m incompetent too. I’m not going to stand here and lie.”
Last spring, Mr. Megaro filed court papers saying he had reached a settlement with the Red Springs police. Each client would be awarded $500,000.
Judge Terrence Boyle of Federal District Court announced he would not approve any settlement before determining whether Mr. McCollum was competent to sign the contract with Mr. Megaro. Judge Boyle appointed a guardian to investigate.
The guardian discovered the predatory loans. He learned Mr. Megaro had not set up a trust or estimated his clients’ future medical needs. After Mr. Megaro’s fees and loan payments, Mr. McCollum would net $178,000 and Mr. Brown $308,000 from the police settlement.
At the next hearing, Mr. Megaro angered the judge by repeatedly refusing to reveal his fees for the earlier state compensation.
He insisted that Mr. McCollum was competent to hire his own lawyer.
Judge Boyle zeroed in on this claim when Mr. Rose took the stand: “Is it your impression that the same vulnerability that subjected him to a false confession and 31 years of death row imprisonment is now operating on his claims for recovery, that he’s subject to manipulation and control?”
Mr. Rose responded: “There’s no question in my mind, your honor, that’s true.”
At the next hearing, Judge Boyle declared that the brothers were incompetent and that their contracts with Mr. Megaro were void.
The judge said he would approve the police settlement, $500,000 for each brother, and would determine Mr. Megaro’s fees. Court-appointed guardians would put the money in trust and the brothers would not be obliged to repay their loans out of the settlement.
Mr. Megaro agreed to the terms but the case is far from over. The State Bureau of Investigation and the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office still face lawsuits.
Mr. McCollum lives in Virginia with his fiancé. On Monday, a judge there appointed a guardian to protect Mr. McCollum’s finances and recover any misappropriated money.
Mr. Brown lives in a North Carolina group home, where his sister visits regularly and sometimes takes him home on weekends. In a phone call, Mr. Brown said he didn’t belong in a group home. “A judge put me here,” he said. “I want my freedom.”
As for Ms. Pointer and Ms. Weekes, they said they were still owed $75,000 from the state compensation and may sue Mr. Megaro. Asked if she had any regrets, Ms. Pointer said she was offended by the question.
“We came into this with pure hearts to help two brothers who had suffered,” she said.
Source: The New York Times, Joseph Neff, April 7, 2018. Joseph Neff is a staff writer for The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on criminal justice issues.
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