Charges dropped, Norfolk Four member cleared

NORFOLK

In the same courthouse where he first lost his freedom after being accused of raping and murdering a Navy wife in 1997, Derek Tice was declared a free man on Thursday.

Circuit Court Judge Charles E. Poston accepted a special prosecutor's request to drop two felony charges against Tice. After years of legal appeals, political lobbying and media attention, the former sailor was cleared of the crimes.

Special prosecutor D.J. Hansen asked the judge to drop the charges because of insufficient evidence.

"It is over," Poston said.

At the end of the hearing, Tice smiled and hugged his family members.

"It still feels like a dream," he said. "It's a victory for me, but there's still three other guys."

Tice is one of the former sailors known as the Norfolk Four, convicted in the rape and murder of Michelle Moore-Bosko in her Ocean View apartment. The men confessed to the crimes, were convicted and sent to prison. Tice, Danial Williams and Joseph Dick were convicted of murder and rape; Eric C. Wilson was convicted of rape.

A fifth man, Omar Ballard, later confessed to committing the crimes alone. Evidence from Ballard was the only match to the crime scene. He is serving a life prison sentence for the murder and other crimes.

Shortly after the convictions, the Norfolk Four began a series of appeals claiming their innocence. Their lawyers argued that Norfolk police detective Robert Glenn Ford forced false confessions from the men. Ford was convicted last year of federal corruption charges unrelated to the case.

In 2009, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine granted partial pardons to Tice, Williams and Dick and released them from their life sentences. Wilson, convicted of rape, already was free. Williams, Dick and Wilson remain on probation and are required to register as sex offenders in their home communities. The three men have various appeals active in state and federal courts.

Tice is the first to clear his name.

A federal appeals court granted Tice's appeal of his conviction in April. The court ordered prosecutors to decide by the end of August whether they wanted to retry the case or drop the charges.

Thursday's hearing reunited several players from a decade earlier. Poston presided over two jury trials, in 2000 and 2003, where Tice was convicted. The trials were moved from Norfolk to Northern Virginia because of the intense scrutiny placed on the case. Special prosecutor Hansen, a deputy commonwealth's attorney in Chesapeake, tried the original Norfolk Four cases.

In a quiet second-floor courtroom, Hansen moved that the charges be dismissed, or nol prossed, "since we do not have sufficient evidence."

Tice's attorney, E. Desmond Hogan, did not object.

Poston granted the motion. He told the lawyers that it appeared the court's supervision of Tice, which included his parole and registered sex offender status, was "dead." With that, the 14-year-old case ended in a five-minute hearing.

Michelle Moore-Bosko's parents, Jack and Carol Moore, did not attend. The Moores maintain the four sailors were involved in the attack on their 18-year-old daughter. In a statement, the Moores called the Thursday's hearing to dismiss the charges "nothing but a joke."

Attorneys for the other Norfolk Four members issued a statement calling for the exoneration of all the men.

"Virginia authorities should concede that their convictions are invalid, dismiss the charges against each of them, and allow these innocent men to rebuild their lives," said Don Salzman, an attorney for Williams.

A spokesman for the Virginia attorney general's office declined to comment. If new evidence surfaces, charges can be brought again against the Norfolk Four because there is no statute of limitation on murder.

Over the years, the case has been the subject of several national news shows. Author John Grisham has said he plans to write a screenplay on the case. A PBS documentary, "The Confessions," also detailed the sailors' story.

Released from prison 11 years after his arrest, Tice, 41, moved to North Carolina and lives with his family. He works for a window-cleaning company and takes classes at community college, he said.

He said he wants to be a nurse, but the felony convictions had barred him from getting hired in a hospital or other medical facility.

Tice said he fought with himself over whether to attend Thursday's hearing. He came because he thought it would help him with the slow process of readjusting into society, he said.

"It never should have happened, but things are as they are," he said. "We're just trying to right a wrong."

Before the hearing, Tice said he received a text from Williams, now living in Michigan: "Good luck."

Dressed in a navy blue suit with a button that reads "Free the Norfolk Four," Tice said the final decision had yet to sink in.

"It's all over," he said. "Everything else is a blur."

Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2341, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com