A woman told police that she had been attacked by her window cleaner. Her DNA analysis contradicts this.

FLINT, MI – A woman had her hands bound and duct tape over her eyes when she was robbed at gunpoint on Nov. 17, 2023. She told police she recognized the voice of the man who attacked her and identified him as the man who had cleaned her windows the day before.

However, the man’s DNA did not match evidence found at the crime scene, and a photograph showing a man using the victim’s bank card in the hours after the attack did not indicate that he was the suspect.

On Thursday, May 23, after four months in prison and seven months as a defendant in a heinous crime, 39-year-old Thomas Hameline posed for a photo with his two attorneys outside the Genesee County Jail.

The public prosecutor has dismissed the charges in this case.

“I admire the integrity of (Genesee County) Prosecutor (David) Leyton and his office for doing the right thing,” Hameline’s attorney Mitch Manwell told MLive/The Flint Journal in a text message. “Mr. Hameline is now in a position where he must repair his life and reputation based on false accusations. We are asking the public for help in catching the man who committed this crime so he and the victim can have closure.”

In a statement, Leyton said there was reasonable suspicion that his office had decided to file charges against Hameline based on the police investigation conducted by Burton police.

“As we continued our investigation, including DNA testing of some of the evidence, we concluded that we could not sustain the charges against Mr Hameline and the only appropriate course of action was to dismiss the case,” Leyton said.

The victim of the crime Hameline was originally accused of was awakened from her sleep in the early hours of November 17, 2023. According to court documents, the man who woke her tied her hands behind her back and taped them. He taped her mouth and eyes shut.

According to records, the victim told police the suspect was carrying a handgun. The woman’s money and credit cards were stolen. A safe in her Burton home was broken into, documents were taken and money was stolen.

After the man left the house, the woman was able to free herself and called the police.

According to court documents, the woman told police she did not see the man’s face but recognized his voice. She said it was Hameline, the man she had hired to clean the windows; he had been at her home the day before.

Hameline was arrested the day of the attack and charged with aggravated burglary, false imprisonment, armed robbery, safe breaking, illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, carrying a concealed weapon and several counts of illegal possession of a firearm.

Three days after his arrest, Hameline was arraigned in Genesee County District Court. Bail was set at $750,000.

At the preliminary examination a month later, the victim reported being awakened by a man with a gun. Although she could not identify any physical characteristics of her attacker, the woman testified that she was certain it was Hameline.

“She was convinced she could identify the intruder by his voice alone,” the lawyers wrote in court documents.

When police searched Hameline’s home, they found no rope, no tape, no money or no bank cards belonging to the victim, according to court records.

In January, a private lie detector test taken by Hameline showed that she had not lied when he denied any involvement in the attack, court records show.

Other evidence handed over to lawyers in February included an MSP report showing that men’s DNA traces were found from the duct tape used in the attack, but when the DNA profile was run through the DNA indexing system, it found no matches.

However, Hameline’s DNA is in CODIS; he was convicted of sexual abuse in 2002. On February 14, a new DNA sample was taken from Hameline, which will be compared to the profile taken at the crime scene.

ATM photos show a person using the victim’s bank card shortly after the attack. According to the records, police believe the person in the photo is not Hameline.