Incarcerated man says now-fired Raleigh detective framed him, seeks police video
A Wake County judge granted a request for police videos from an incarcerated man who contends he was framed by a Raleigh police detective and his confidential informant.
The detective, now fired, and the informant have been accused of sending about a dozen other men to jail on fake drug charges.
At a Wednesday hearing, attorney Abraham Rubert-Schewel sought the videos on behalf of David Weaver, who was arrested on drug charges in 2018, after then Raleigh Police Department Detective Omar Abdullah claimed Weaver had sold cocaine to confidential informant Dennis Williams.
Weaver pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking cocaine in 2020 and was sentenced to up to 4 years and 3 months in state prison, where Weaver currently resides.
After Weaver was arrested, he was taken to a secure location and stripped search, according to police documents provided by his attorney. About 36 grams of crack cocaine and 16 grams of marijuana were found inside his underwear and back pants pocket, states the report.
“Like many of the other individuals arrested by Officer Abdullah using this confidential informant, Mr. Weaver alleges, specifically, that Officer Abdullah planted drugs on him,” Rubert-Schewel said.
Rubert-Schewel sought the release of all related videos including ones showing the alleged drug transaction between the confidential informant and Weaver.
“We will use this video to investigate an innocence claim and to potentially overturn his conviction,” Rubert-Schewel said.
Police Department attorney Sherita Walton didn’t object to releasing the videos to Weaver’s attorney, which Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory granted.
The police department no longer has any dash or body-camera videos from the case, Walton said, but the undercover buy video will be shared.
Abdullah didn’t respond to a text sent to his number from The News & Observer.
The Raleigh Police Department also didn’t respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
The Wake County district attorney’s office is reviewing Weaver’s and other cases, wrote District Attorney Lorrin Freeman in an email.
”It is our intent to review any case in which this confidential informant was relied upon and in which there is not other substantive evidence,” Freeman wrote.
Freeman said her office isn’t reviewing Abdullah’s other cases at this time.
That review may be needed, she said, once the investigation into the former officer is complete.
Civil rights lawsuit
Abdullah and Williams were accused in a federal civil rights lawsuit of framing and sending to jail about a dozen Black men using fake drugs. Rubert-Schewel represented many of the plaintiffs in that lawsuit.
In September 2021, the city of Raleigh agreed to pay 15 people affected by Abdullah’s arrests $2 million to settle the lawsuit. It contended the detective repeatedly used an informant who said people had sold him heroin, or in one case marijuana, that turned out to be fake.
The informant has since been charged with obstruction of justice and prosecutors have dismissed the charges against about a dozen men and in one case vacated a conviction.
After spending about a year on administrative duty, Abdullah was fired in November.
Freeman has said the investigation into possible criminal charges is ongoing. Attorneys, activists and a mother whose son was arrested by Abdullah have criticized her inaction.
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Incarcerated man says now-fired Raleigh detective framed him, seeks police video."
