00:00:00
Phoebe Judge: Today's episode is not okay
for younger listeners, and it could be upsetting
00:00:04
to victims of sexual abuse. So please, use discretion. Mary: Every time someone sees his face, they
say, he's Tommy Wall, that's the boy they
00:00:15
arrested. Even though they may know, or they may not
know. He can never live it down.
00:00:21
You just don't have a charge of pedophilia
and outlive it, you just can't outlive that.
00:00:28
Phoebe Judge: This is Mary. She's asked us not to use her real name. Her ex-son-in-law, Tommy Wall, was arrested
as part of an investigation into a child pornography
00:00:37
and sex ring. Four people had already been arrested, three
men and a woman. The ring was conducted under the guise of
a daycare center in Sanford, North Carolina.
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It's a horrible story, something none of us
ever want to even have to think about, much
00:00:52
less have our name associated with. As Mary says, you just can't outlive that. I'm Phoebe Judge.
00:00:59
This is Criminal. [Music.] Gerald Owens: Harnett County investigators
need your help to find a suspect in a child
00:01:15
pornography investigation. They say the man may be in Raleigh or the
Fayetteville area.
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Arielle Clay is live in Wilmington. Arielle, you just spoke with the lead investigator.
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What did he tell you? Arielle Clay: Gerald, Detective Brad Byrd
says that this unidentified man who he's looking
00:01:29
for as part of the biggest sex crimes case
that he has ever worked. [Fades out.]
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Phoebe Judge: The ring was run by a man named
Bailey Joe Mills. Mills presented himself as a babysitter and
mentor, but actually was producing child pornography
00:01:42
in the building behind his house, with victims
ranging in age from 1 to 14. Mills was caught after he contacted a 13-year
old on Facebook about paying her for sex,
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and the girl's mother called the police. This was the big news story across North Carolina
in June 2014.
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Four people had been caught, but the police
were still looking for the fifth man.
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That's when Mary saw her former son-in-law
on TV. Mary: I was sitting here in my reclining chair,
in my living room, and the news came on.
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And I was not paying real close attention
to the television at that time. But when it came on the second time I paid
attention, I said, "That's Tommy Wall."
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And it was just nauseating. It was just absolutely nauseating. Tommy Wall: And so I was basically sitting
at my kitchen table, working, and I get a
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text from my location manager at the store,
Kim West. And she said, "You look like the dude that’s
on TV."
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I said, "What?" Phoebe Judge: Tommy Wall is 50 years old,
a divorced father of two.
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Tall, white, thin hair. He's sitting in what seems like a brand new
house in Four Oaks, North Carolina.
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It's so clean and new, it looks like one of
those show houses they put together for new
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subdivisions. He has two pictures of his kids in frames. That's about it. Back in June, he'd been working for a construction
supply company, the same one he'd worked for
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for 23 years, when he got the text from his
boss. Tommy Wall: She said, "You were on the news
tonight."
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I said, "No way." So she sent me, because I don't watch the
news. So I didn't know.
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And this was like seven something, seven o'clock. So she sent me a link and it was four people
in the picture.
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And I texted her back and said, "I don't look
like none of them." It was a girl, a guy and — or three guys
and a girl.
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And I was like, "I don't look like them." And she said, "Scroll down." So I scrolled on my phone and I was like,
"Wow, that is me."
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And there was a little number, a phone number,
under my picture. And I didn't read any of the article.
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I just hit that button, was going to copy
the number. Well, it dialed the phone number and a man
answered the phone.
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I said, "Who is this?" He said, "Who are you looking?" I said, "Whoever's putting my pictures on
the website."
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I said, "I want to know what's going on." Phoebe Judge: He had called the detective
who was in charge of the case, Brad Byrd.
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Tommy Wall: And he says, "Well, who is this?" And I told him my name. He says, "Well, where do you live?"
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I told him where I live. I says, "I need to come down. We need to straighten this out right now."
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I said, "This is — something's going on,
and I don't know what it is." And I said, "I want to get to the bottom of
it."
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And the detective was like, "Well, we don't
open till 8 tomorrow. Can you come at 8:30?"
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I said, "8:30 tomorrow?" I mean, I'm thinking, "I want to do this right
now." Phoebe Judge: Tommy was trying to get himself
off the TV.
00:04:24
But what he had essentially done is handed
them his own name on a plate. News Reporter: We just received word within
the last 10 minutes that police have identified
00:04:31
who this suspect is. They have identified him as Tommy Wall, and
he is not in custody, but they do know who
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he is. They're still looking for him right now. Now, they released this picture of the suspect.
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[Fades out.] [Music.] Phoebe Judge: The next morning, Tommy went
to the Sheriff's Office right before 8:30,
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as promised. Tommy Wall: I get there, and they called the
detective and we go back into the interrogating
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room for questioning. And he has a picture there, and he shows me
this picture, and he says, "Do you recognize
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this picture?" And I said, "Nope, what is it?" Phoebe Judge: It was a picture of the building
behind the home of Bailey Joe Mills, the leader
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of the pornography ring. Tommy Wall: And he said, "I just need to go
and tell you, I'm going to arrest you."
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And so he read me my rights and my phone was
still gone. And he's reading and all this, and I looked
at him, I said, "Dude, do you really think
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I done this?" And he looked at me with this sarcasm look. He says, "Yeah, I've got you on video."
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Phoebe Judge: It's true Tommy was on video. Here's what happened. In 2011, Tommy had been online dating.
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One woman he met was the wife of Bailey Joe
Mills. Her name is Elizabeth. Tommy went to the Mills' home to visit her.
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He says he stayed for an hour. He says they fooled around a bit, and then
he left.
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The only time he ever saw her, he says. But Bailey Joe Mills appears to have had a
camera rolling in the house.
00:06:01
We're not really sure why, maybe for security,
who knows. But it caught Tommy's visit, and the video
was saved along with a whole trove of other
00:06:10
materials, apparently including the child
pornography at the center of the case.
00:06:16
So, he was on video from that visit three
years earlier. The problem for Tommy was that the police
were saying he was on other videos too, pornographic
00:06:26
videos. His bail was set at $1 million. [Music.] Tommy Wall: I went to a holding cell and I
spent the day there and spent the night.
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And the next morning I got up and they took
me to court. That's when I went from my first court appearance.
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And then in front of the judge, the DA read
all the charges. And then the judge looked at me and she says,
"You've asked for a court-appointed lawyer
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and everything." I said, "Yes, your honor." And she says, "You know that these charges
carry life in prison without parole?"
00:07:01
And I was like, "Whoa." Phoebe Judge: What are the charges? What are you hearing the judge reading?
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Tommy Wall: Assisting rape and child molestation. And then solicitation of sex with a minors.
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Phoebe Judge: Officially, the charges were
first degree rape of a child, first degree
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sex offense against a child and felony conspiracy. Tommy Wall: They're saying all these charges
and I'm just, like, shaking my head.
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I'm like, I don't ... this is ... Something
ain't right. News Reporter: Investigators are releasing
little about Wall's involvement, only saying
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he performed a sex act with a child on film. Neighbor: Yeah. I've got a 2-year-old daughter.
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We play out in the yard, and to think there's
somebody like that living next door to you.
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Mary: Tommy and I have always had a good relationship. And when all of this happened, everybody in
the neighborhood thought Tommy was guilty.
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So, I just never thought that. Phoebe Judge: This is Mary again, Tommy's
ex-mother-in-law.
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Mary is 80 years old. And she, along with Tommy's best friend growing
up, Tim, we're basically the only people who
00:08:09
helped once Tommy was arrested. Are you saying even your neighbors, those
people that you considered your friends, thought
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he was guilty? Mary: Yes. Phoebe Judge: What was that like? Mary: Well, it was not easy, especially when
you go to church and people are asking you
00:08:25
questions about such a sensitive matter. It was not easy. Phoebe Judge: Two days after seeing his picture
online, Tommy was sent to the Harnett County
00:08:34
Jail to await trial. He was terrified. He did whatever he could to stay close to
the guards.
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Tommy Wall: And I'm sitting there at the TV. And the first thing I do, I'm sitting there,
I try to stay in the very first seat closest
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to the CO in case something was to go, I'd
have protection. And I heard this guy behind me.
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He's like, "That's the dude. That's the dude that was on TV last night." Phoebe Judge: More than a month passed.
00:08:58
Tommy cycled through some public defenders,
eventually ending up with a court-appointed
00:09:02
private attorney named Fred Webb. The first thing Webb did was go visit Tommy
in jail.
00:09:07
Fred Webb: He was humped over. His appearance was of disbelief and not in
such a way as that, "Well, I just didn't do
00:09:15
it." No, "They got the wrong guy." That appearance to me meant a lot to me. Phoebe Judge: Webb sat down with the files
from the case.
00:09:23
And he says he found some inconsistencies. First off, the alleged fifth man in the ring,
the man the police thought was Tommy, supposedly
00:09:33
changed his cell phone number every 90 days. Fred Webb: I thought that was something that
could easily be tracked if that was true.
00:09:40
And I did track that, and I tracked that and
determined that Mr. Wall had had the same
00:09:44
telephone number for over 12 years. Phoebe Judge: There was also the fact that
Tommy Wall didn't have internet access at
00:09:49
his home. He says he never had. He didn't even have a computer. Fred Webb: And you would assume that people
who get involved in that kind of activity
00:09:56
would at least have a desktop or something
in their residence, whereby they could communicate
00:10:02
with people. That they would at least have an internet
connection at home. And he didn't even have that.
00:10:09
Phoebe Judge: So what do you think when you're
sitting there, you're going through these
00:10:12
80 pages. You're finding one thing after another after
another. What are you thinking?
00:10:16
Fred Webb: Well, I'm thinking that they've
got the wrong guy. And if there were videos that showed him,
I wanted to see the videos.
00:10:24
[Music.] Phoebe Judge: Life in jail was hard for Tommy. He says he spent a lot of time alone in his
cell, reading the Bible.
00:10:38
Then one day, he was served a search warrant. Tommy Wall: And he says, "This is the search
warrant.
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This is what we're going to do. We got to take photographs of you and your
body without your clothes on."
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I'm like, "Excuse me? Does my lawyer need to be here?" "Oh no, he'll get a copy of the photos."
00:10:54
And I was like, you know, you got two men
standing there with pistols on, what do you
00:10:59
do? There's two of them, one of me. You know, I guess I got to take my clothes
off.
00:11:03
Phoebe Judge: So, you're standing there naked
in the room and they're saying, "Turn left,
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turn right"? Tommy Wall: Hold your foot up, hold your hands. Taking my head. And all my private parts.
00:11:16
I mean, this man taking pictures of me. The first thing that popped in my mind is
someone was going to try to take these pictures
00:11:25
and do something to incriminate me, because
there was just the three of us in there.
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The whole time I was thinking, "I can't trust
what's going on." Phoebe Judge: A second month passed, then
a third.
00:11:39
Fred Webb kept working on Tommy's defense
strategy. And he was finally able to watch the video
that allegedly placed Tommy at the center
00:11:46
of the ring. And, you know, I spoke with Tommy about this,
and he says that he has not seen the video?
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Fred Webb: No, he has not. And he cannot. Phoebe Judge: Can you describe what's on that
video?
00:11:57
Fred Webb: No. Because of federal laws regulating the behavior. Phoebe Judge: Is it fair to say that this
is behavior that would absolutely fall into
00:12:08
the label of child pornography? Fred Webb: Yes. Phoebe Judge: And when you saw it, did you
know now for certain that Tommy Wall wasn't
00:12:17
the right guy?
Fred Webb: To me? Yes. Phoebe Judge: According to Fred Webb, there
were some physical things that made it clear.
00:12:23
But mainly he says it was the voice. It just didn't sound like Tommy. Did the district attorney say anything?
00:12:29
Was there any comment in the room? Fred Webb: His comment was that he did not
want to keep a man incarcerated for something
00:12:35
that he didn't do. Phoebe Judge: And at that point, did Detective
Byrd say anything?
00:12:42
Did he apologize? Did he say, "I think I've made a mistake here"? Fred Webb: No.
00:12:47
Phoebe Judge: I spoke with Detective Byrd
and asked him about Tommy Wall. He said he couldn't comment on ongoing investigations.
00:12:54
When do you find out that you're going to
be set free? Tommy Wall: I was just laying in the bed reading,
and they said, "Tommy, you got an attorney
00:13:04
visit." So I get up and I walked out, and as I was
getting ready to go through the doors, Fred
00:13:12
meets me in the hallway. Well, he doesn't have his notebook and all
this. And I'm like, "Oh, God."
00:13:16
He was teary-eyed. So we kind of go into our little room where
the table's at. [Sniffling, crying.]
00:13:24
We didn't even sit down. He says, "Go home." He said, "I don't want to hear from you for
a couple of weeks.
00:13:33
Just go on and get your life together. Be with your family." He said, "And I'll be getting back with you."
00:13:46
So, we had just come out of the room. All the people were in the room, and everybody
was standing there, looking at me.
00:13:52
"What's going on? What's going on with Tommy?" So, I turned around and walked out the door,
and I come through.
00:14:00
I said, "I'm going home." And it was like I had just won a tournament,
and they were cheering and crying.
00:14:12
[Crying.] And I went and started packing up my stuff. That's when I go back, and they give me my
clothes.
00:14:18
Phoebe Judge: The same clothes that you had
put on three months ago, thinking you're just
00:14:22
Tommy Wall: Shorts and T-shirt and flip-flops. Phoebe Judge: Because it was like summer.
00:14:27
Tommy Wall: Yeah. I weighed 189 pounds the day I was arrested. And right before I left, I got Holly, which
was one of the nurses.
00:14:34
I said, "I'm going home. Can you weigh me?" I weighed 151 pounds. Phoebe Judge: It had been 105 days.
00:14:48
[Music.] What was it like when you finally heard that
Tommy — even though you had believed from
00:14:55
the beginning that this was all nonsense,
that of course he couldn't have — but when
00:15:00
you heard he isn't guilty. He was never guilty. This wasn't
Mary: I broke down and cried.
00:15:07
I was so overjoyed, when I heard that they
had admitted they arrested the wrong person.
00:15:17
I was just completely overjoyed, because it
was so grossly unfair to him. He can never live it down.
00:15:26
Phoebe Judge: In the months that Tommy had
been in prison, he had lost his house.
00:15:29
There was some issue with him missing a loan
repayment meeting, and the house was auctioned.
00:15:34
He'd also lost his job. The one he'd had for 23 years. After his name was cleared, he tried to go
back to the company and talk with a woman
00:15:42
from HR.
Tommy Wall: And basically she said, you know, "We're not doing it. We've changed the way things are run.
00:15:48
We don't have anything for you right now. And I just want to wish you well with your
career."
00:15:53
And I says, "Do what?" She said, "Good luck with your career." And I said, "Okay, that's all I needed to
hear."
00:16:00
Phoebe Judge: We called his employer, Stock
Building Supply, and they said they don't
00:16:04
comment on legal or personnel matters. A lot of news outlets ran stories about Tommy.
00:16:10
The news clips you've been hearing are from
WRAL, a local TV station. Tommy was interviewed for a followup story
after he got out, and an editorial note has
00:16:20
been added to each of the old stories saying
Tommy was cleared of all charges and his record
00:16:25
expunged. But his name and picture are still there. WRAL told us they didn't have anything to
add to their coverage.
00:16:32
As for the actual fifth man, the guy Tommy
was mistaken for, police haven't released
00:16:38
any information. We know that there are at least 10 victims
and that police recovered tens of thousands
00:16:44
of pornographic images. Tommy hasn't lost sight of that. Tommy Wall: It's sickening that you could...
00:16:57
Basically hurt kids. You know, to me, anybody that hurts a kid
should be punished.
00:17:07
Phoebe Judge: When we talked to him, he'd
been out of jail for less than two months.
00:17:11
He says he sometimes has trouble leaving the
house. He'll drive down the street and turn right
back around.
00:17:17
Even if he's scared to go out, people have
started reaching out to him. He actually got a text message while we were
sitting there saying, "Congratulations, thinking
00:17:25
of you." Then he showed us one from the night before. Can you read it? Tommy Wall: [Weepy.]
00:17:30
What it was, it says, "Hey buddy, wishing
you the best merry freaking Christmas."
00:17:40
And then she goes to say, "I have thought
about you for months, and I hope you are doing
00:17:48
well. I really, truly hope your holidays are special
for 2015. And God bless you.
00:17:57
Keep your head up. Love you. Hope to see you soon." Phoebe Judge: Maybe by next Christmas, the
same text message won't carry so much weight.
00:18:15
[Music.] Criminal is produced by Eric Mennel, Lauren
Spohrer, and me. Our episode art is by Julienne Alexander.
00:18:28
You can find out more about this show and
our previous episodes at thisiscriminal.com.
00:18:32
We're on Facebook and Twitter, @CriminalShow. We're putting on a live show on January 21st
at Motorco Music Hall here in Durham, North
00:18:40
Carolina. We'd love to see you if you're around. Criminal as a proud member of Radiotopia from
PRX.
00:18:47
Check out the other shows at radiotopia.fm. If you're interested in supporting this and
other podcasts like it, email [email protected].
00:18:58
Radiotopia from PRX is made possible with
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00:19:02
who celebrate creativity, chaos, and teamwork. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.
00:19:08
Jingle: Radiotopia. From PRX.