NORFOLK — The murder conviction of a man who claims a corrupt and abusive former Norfolk police detective forced a confession from him nearly 25 years ago was vacated Thursday.
Arsean Hicks was just 16 when he was charged with the Dec. 30, 1999, fatal shooting of an off-duty Norfolk Naval Shipyard police officer during a holdup at a diner on Tidewater Drive.
A jury found Hicks guilty of first-degree murder and robbery at his trial a little more than a year later. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison, and has been fighting for his freedom ever since.
Judge Charles Maxfield vacated Hicks’ convictions after his attorney presented evidence indicating disgraced former Norfolk police detective Glenn Ford repeatedly slammed Hicks’ head into a table during his interrogation, and that evidence about Hicks’ injuries from the beating was never disclosed to the defense, according to Hicks’ lawyer Jim Neale.
No parent or guardian was with the teen when he was questioned, Neale said. He was placed in juvenile detention afterward and has remained in custody ever since.
Ford was found guilty in 2010 of taking bribes from criminals and lying to the FBI about it. He was later sentenced to 12½ years in federal prison. Ford has also been repeatedly accused of forcing confessions from suspects, including the so-called Norfolk Four, who were convicted in the 1997 rape and murder of a Navy wife.
The group was later pardoned by Gov. Tim Kaine after evidence mounted that their confessions, taken by Ford, were coerced. DNA evidence also pointed to a sole attacker unconnected to the four, who later admitted he acted alone.
Maxfield is a Fairfax County judge who was asked to hear Hicks’ case this week after Norfolk’s judges recused themselves, according to Neale, a Charlottesville lawyer who took on Hicks’ case pro bono.
The Virginia attorney general’s office can appeal Maxfield’s decision, and if they win, Hicks’ conviction will be reinstated, Neale said. If the appeal is denied, the Norfolk commonwealth’s attorney’s office would have to decide if they want to retry the case, he said.
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com