Activists say evidence withheld in Iverson case

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 | 10:51 a.m.

"They're wrong on every single point," Stewart Bell, district attorney of Clark County, Nev., said Wednesday.

"With the quantity and quality of our effort, we can assure folks everything was looked at. If there was anything else of evidentiary value, it would have been used," Bell said.

Sherrice Iverson, 7, of Los Angeles was sexually assaulted and strangled in a women's restroom stall at a casino in Primm, Nev., in May 1997. Jeremy Strohmeyer, 20, of Long Beach, Calif., pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

A community group called Voices for Sherrice Iverson said Wednesday its review of court records shows not all video surveillance footage was given to the grand jury, and that some fingerprint and physical evidence was withheld. That evidence, the group said, implicates Strohmeyer's friend, David Cash Jr., who was not charged.

The district attorney flatly disagreed.

"There was absolutely no incriminating evidence withheld from the grand jury," Bell said.

The video surveillance tapes were reviewed frame by frame, he said.

"Cash was in there 1 minute, 56 seconds. There is no credible evidence he participated, as opposed to witnessed, during that time. If anybody gives us any credible evidence, we'll charge Cash tomorrow. There just isn't any," Bell said.

The group also claimed that investigators collected a fluid from the girl's body but that in grand jury testimony the Clark County coroner said he hadn't tested that evidence.

The district attorney said the substance was tested.

"There was no semen found. There was an unidentified liquid substance found on Sherrice's body. It was tested through DNA testing, and was not a human substance," he said.

And fingerprint evidence was inconclusive, Bell said, because there were only smudges that couldn't be linked to a specific person.

"It could be Cash's, it could be someone else's. It's not at all inconsistent with what Cash said," Bell said.

The group also claimed that, given Strohmeyer's account of the attack, it would have been impossible for one person to hold her from behind, muffle her screams and remove her clothes and boots.

Cash is seen on a video surveillance tape going into the restroom with Strohmeyer, but has claimed he wasn't involved in the attack. Cash has said only that he saw Strohmeyer beginning to attack the girl, then left and did not report it.

But Linda Johnson, a member of Voices for Sherrice Iverson, claimed Cash lied, noting that a former girlfriend testified that Cash bragged to friends about the incident.

Cash's lawyer, Mark Werksman, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Voices for Sherrice Iverson has asked federal and state prosecutors in California and Nevada to investigate the case.

"This is about a little girl, defending her as a child," said Felicia DeShone, who wore a T-shirt printed with a picture of a smiling Sherrice.

"It's not who started the fire or who fans the flames. They're both responsible for the damage," DeShone said.