Prisoner (pexels photo)
An Ohio man has won $45 million in a civil lawsuit against the police and detective whose actions led to his wrongful conviction and more than 20 years behind bars. Dean Gillispie sued the Miami Police Department and former detective Scott Moore for suppressing evidence and tainting eyewitness identifications in the 1991 rape and kidnapping case against Gillespie.
Gillespie was convicted in 1991 in Montgomery County and released from prison in 2011. The Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati Law School, former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, and Dean’s mother, Joanna Gillispie, worked to free him and clear his name. Today Gillespie is 57 years old, and lives in Fairburn, a suburb of Dayton.
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“It’s hard to wrap your head around the horror that was inflicted on Dean and his family and his community,” said Ohio Innocence Project Director Mark Goodisi. “The way the authorities pushed for a conviction and then fought back and refused to admit wrongdoing was so disappointing. Nothing can compensate for the horror.”
He added: “The jury’s verdict sends a strong message that those in power need to change the way they do things. Justice prevailed in this case, although it took a very long time for it to happen,” said Petro, who authored a book with his wife Nancy on wrongful convictions. .
Gillespie has steadfastly maintained his innocence from day one. In 2021, a Montgomery County judge declared Gillespie to be wrongfully imprisoned. He was convicted of raping and kidnapping twin sisters in one attack and a third woman in a second attack. But the jury in the federal civil suit found that Moore violated Gillespie’s rights by withholding evidence that would have helped Gillespie’s defense and created unfair trial procedures for the victims. No biological evidence ever linked Gillespie to the crimes
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