Michigan court charges reality TV producer with perjury

A photographer for a reality television show who filmed a police raid where a 7-year-old girl was killed has been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying under oath about the May 2010 incident.

The prosecutor’s office in Wayne County, Mich., charged Allison Howard, who is the principal photographer and field producer for “The First 48,” on Tuesday, alleging that she committed perjury at an investigative subpoena hearing and obstruction of justice during the investigation into the death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, according to a press release from the prosecutor's office. In Michigan, the maximum penalties are 15 years for perjury and five years for obstruction of justice.

Howard was filming the May 16, 2010 police raid where a Detroit police officer allegedly shot and killed Stanley-Jones. Police raided the building in an attempt to execute a search warrant on a suspect in a murder that had happened two days earlier.

Howard is alleged to “have had control over the video footage that became crucial evidence in the homicide investigation” of Stanley-Jones, according to the press release. Following the shooting, officials from “The First 48,” a reality crime show on A & E, gave tapes from the incident to the police, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Robert Moran, assistant prosecutor in Wayne County, told the Free Press that his office expended “vast resources” in “trying to undo” the lies Howard allegedly said during the investigation so that it could figure out what happened at the raid. On Tuesday, his office also charged a police officer who was at the raid with involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a firearm.

According to the indictment, Howard knowingly made false statements under oath in testifying “that she did not show third parties video recordings that showed the subject of the investigation and/or that she did not provide third parties with copies of said video recordings,” the Free Press reported.

Howard’s attorney, Robert Harrison, said he has not received transcripts of his client’s testimony from the subpoena hearing or additional details about what she allegedly did.

A one-man grand jury indicted Howard, and a Michigan statute prohibits documents from being released in such cases until trial scheduling begins, said Maria Miller, assistant prosecutor in Wayne County.

The next court date is a scheduling conference in November, Harrison said. “In between that, we’ll be attempting to obtain transcripts of the testimony so we have a better idea of what we’re defending,” he said.

Harrison said he expects his client to prevail.

“It’s without foundation, and we’re going to defend it,” he said.