Lawsuit alleges Galveston Co. incarcerated Texas City man for crime he did not commit

HOUSTON - Alleging he was jailed for a long time for a crime he did not commit, Texas City local Joshua Bledsoe has filed a lawsuit. 

Court papers targeting the Galveston County District Attorney's Office, the Texas City Police Department and former county prosecutor Jon Hall were submitted Feb. 21 before Houston federal court.

The suit explains that Bledsoe served 10 months behind bars for aggravated robbery until on or around June 17, 2011, when Galveston County 212th District Court Judge Susan Criss issued a direct verdict in Bledsoe's favor.

The plaintiff's acquittal was ordered on the grounds then-Assistant District Attorney Hall and the district attorney's office withheld exculpatory evidence, the suit says.

According to the original petition, a 911 tape with eyewitness Tina Mullins's call secured by the Bledsoe's defense attorney and turned over to the court revealed Mullins told a dispatcher that the perpetrators were wearing ski masks.

Mullins, who is not a party in the litigation, testified that she identified Bledsoe in a photographic lineup, but the suit counters that TCPD and the district attorney's office coerced her into doing so.

"The defendants deliberately and maliciously caused the prosecution to commence by deliberately and intentionally fabricating some evidence, by deliberately and intentionally withholding some critical favorable evidence and by deliberately and intentionally mischaracterizing some critical evidence in their possession, custody and control," it says.

Hall resigned from his post late last year in light of the allegations which are the focus of Bledsoe's suit.

Consequently, the plaintiff seeks unspecified monetary damages.

He is represented by attorney Taft L. Foley II of Houston.

Case No. 4:13-CV-469