Dallas man exonerated of 1982 aggravated child sexual assault after new investigation
A 75-year-old man convicted in 1982 of two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and one of burglary of a habitation is innocent, and the state now officially recognizes that, according to a news release from the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office.
Mallory Vernon Nicholson was convicted in 1982 and in prison until 2003 after serving 21 years of a 55-year sentence Nicholson was released on sex-offender parole, according to the Dallas County DA.
But witness descriptions of the actual attacker didn’t match Nicholson, who was at his wife’s funeral a few hours before the attack and had friends with him at the funeral and afterward, into the night.
But Nicholson, at the time 35, was convicted. The DA’s office said prosecution at the time didn’t turn over vital evidence, namely that witnesses said the actual attacker was a 14-year-old boy who went by the nickname “CoCo” and lived across the street from the home in which the boys were attacked.
In 2021, the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit began reinvestigating the case after the Innocence Project insisted they review it again. They looked back at original documents and interviewed people again, coming to the conclusion that Nicholson was innocent of the crime.
“I’ve said it before, there’s no time limit on seeking justice,” Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said in the release. “We owe it to Mr. Nicholson to clear his name fully and completely. Our job at the district attorney’s office is not just to seek convictions but to ensure that justice is done. I am proud to say that today justice has, in fact, been done in the case of Mallory Nicholson — who is an innocent man.”
The DA’s office in spring 2021 agreed to habeas corpus relief for Nicholson because the prosecution in 1982 didn’t turn over the exculpatory evidence about the suspect description to the defense, according to the news release. The case was sent to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which reversed the convictions and sent the case back to Dallas County in November 2021.
The false accusation and trial
Nicholson was accused of, on June 12, 1982, going up to a 9-year-old boy and a 7-year-old boy outside their grandmothers’ apartment and offering to pay them to help break into another apartment, according to the DA.
The actual attacker lifted the boys up to get through a window, then had them kick through the drywall to get him into the unit, the DA’s office said in the news release.
Once inside, the attacker stole items like food, clothes and TV before going back inside and sexually assaulting the boys. When the attacker left for the last time, the boys escaped and told their aunt, who called police.
The DA’s office said they were taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas for sexual assault exams and described their attacker as a 14-year-old boy.
When the 9-year-old boy was taken by detectives, along with his mother, to look at the crime scene, the boy saw Nicholson sitting on the porch and said he was the attacker. Nicholson was arrested, but in a six-picture lineup including Nicholson’s photograph, the 7-year-old boy did initially not pick him as the attacker.
The mother called police and said the boy recognized his attacker but was afraid to point to him, though, according to the DA’s office. At a live lineup the next day, the boy picked out Nicholson. But, the DA’s office notes, Nicholson was the only person who was present in both lineups.
During pretrial, defense was granted a review of any evidence that would suggest Nicholson’s innocence, but the alternative suspect information was not included in that.
The lead prosecutor of the case told investigators after the conviction that he couldn’t recall whether those reports of another suspect were turned over, according to the DA’s office.
“He said that because of his practices and understanding of Brady at that time, it’s likely that any information about the 14-year-old suspect was ignored or not provided to defense attorneys,” the DA’s office said in the release.
The Brady Rule requires prosecutors to disclose exculpatory evidence in the government’s possession to the defense.
The only eyewitness testimony that was presented at the 1982 trial was from the boys, who identified Nicholson as their attacker.
Creuzot said it is the job of his office to correct the wrongs of the past, like not handing over the information about an alternative suspect and convicting a man who was not in the area when the crime occurred.
When Nicholson married his current wife Ethel 20 years ago, she asked him if he committed the crimes for which he was convicted, Star-Telegram media partner WFAA’s Chris Sadeghi reported. He told her no and they’ve worked together for his exoneration ever since.