A police department and detective whose actions resulted in an Ohio man's wrongful conviction and more than 20 years in prison were found liable in a civil case for $45 million.
Dean Gillispie filed a lawsuit against Miami Township police and retired detective Scott Moore for falsifying eyewitness identifications and withholding evidence in the 1991 rape and kidnapping case involving Gillispie.
Ohio Man Suffers 20 Year Imprisonment Due to Incorrect Decision
In Montgomery County, Gillispie was found guilty in 1991, and he was freed from jail in 2011. Juana Gillispie, Dean's mother, the Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati Law School, and former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro all campaigned to release Dean and clear his reputation.
Currently 57 years old, Gillispie resides in the Dayton neighborhood of Fairborn, according to USA Today. David Owens, a lawyer for Gillispie whose company Loevy & Loevy protects people who have been unfairly imprisoned, stated that they feel $45 million establishes an Ohio record.
In 1991, a Fairborn man was found guilty of raping and kidnapping three women during two separate incidents in Miami Township and Harrison Township. In 2008, he filed for a new trial, claiming that authorities had withheld exonerating evidence and fresh evidence pointed to a different suspect.
Per CBS News, the convictions were overturned by a judge, who also mandated a fresh trial, and the matter was ultimately dropped. Gillispie was freed in 2011, and his legal lawsuit was made possible by the December decision that he had been "wrongfully imprisoned."
According to the lawsuit, a former Miami Township detective withheld camping receipts that showed Gillispie was in Kentucky during two of the offenses. The inquiry took place thirty years ago, which the municipality highlighted as complicating the defense and expressing disappointment with the result. It declined to comment further.
Dean Gillispie Case
Although the jury in the lawsuit found that the former detective, Scott Moore, had violated Gillispie's rights by withholding information that would have aided in his defense, Gillispie was convicted of raping and kidnapping twin sisters and another lady in two different occurrences.
Moore claimed that a witness made an identification, but the witness did not, and evidence presented at the civil trial proved that Moore hid camping receipts that showed Gillispie was in Kentucky at the time of the killings.
Moore also mentioned to the victims that Gillispie "dyed his hair" so that they would not have recognized him in the initial trial. Since his initial trial, Gillispie has maintained his innocence, and a county court concluded that he was wrongly imprisoned last year. The jury's verdict, according to Ohio Innocence Project director Mark Godsey, sends a message that those in positions of authority need to change "the way they do things."
However, nothing can make up for the "horror" Gillispie suffered, Godsey added. It was so disheartening, he continued, "the way the government pushed through a conviction and then fought back and refused to accept a mistake." It's unclear if Moore or the township will appeal the decision, as per The Hill.
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