Friedman said judges typically award $1 million per year in compensation for defendants determined to have been wrongfully imprisoned.
Attrney Howard Friedman addresses reporters during a press conference at the Arise for Social Justice office on State Street, during which he announced he filed a civil rights lawsuit against two Springfield police officers and the city of Springfield on behalf of his client Charles Wilhite, right. SPRINGFIELD - Charles Wilhite, who spent more than three years in jail and a maximum security prison for murder until he was freed after a retrial, is suing two Springfield police officers and the city for civil rights violations.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield, argues officers Anthony Pioggia and Steven Tatro threatened and coerced witnesses against Wilhite, who later recanted before a second trial. Wilhite was charged in the 2008 slaying of Alberto Rodriguez, shot in the back outside the Pine Street Market while driving his car.
Numerous witnesses told police that the victim had a longstanding beef with market owner Angel Hernandez, according to the complaint, and that the men had physically come to blows in the past. One witness told police a young Hispanic male had threatened Rodriguez with a gun in front of the market the day before the shooting.
Wilhite, who is black, stood trial along with Hernandez in 2010; both were convicted based on the testimony of witnesses, whom Wilhite's lawyers argue were coerced and intimidated by police. The lawsuit argues the detectives prodded witnesses to represent themselves as eyewitnesses to the shooting when they were not and improperly cajoled others into making photo identifications of Wilhite.
One was tagged as an identification witness after she told police that Wilhite's "lips looked familiar," according to the complaint.
Wilhite, 31, won a motion for a new trial after three witnesses recanted, offering differing versions of their original statements and stating that police intimidated them in various ways, including allegedly threatening one jailhouse source with a criminal charge related to the shooting. Wilhite was acquitted by the second jury in 2013 and was released from prison.
"In our system of justice, wrongful convictions don't just happen - people make them happen," said Boston-based civil rights lawyer Howard Friedman, who was a member of the so-called "$102 million Dream Team" that secured a civil award for two mob associates, Joseph Salvati and Peter Limone, framed by the FBI in connection with the Whitey Bulger debacle. That figure also included awards to the estates of Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo, who were wrongfully implicated in the same case but died in prison.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, since 1974, 35 men and one woman have been exonerated in Massachusetts through various methods, ranging from DNA evidence to unearthing false accusations and official misconduct. Defendants have been released while serving sentences from seven years to life without parole, like Wilhite. Many had been charged with murder, and some had been facing a death penalty before that law was repealed in this state.
The group cited by the registry spent a cumulative 478 years behind bars, with an average stay of 13.3 years, according to the data.
During a press conference Wednesday at Arise for Social Justice on State Street, Wilhite sat silently, eyes downcast, while Friedman and Wilhite's aunt, Vira Douangmany, spoke about his ordeal. Friedman instructed Wilhite not to speak to reporters during litigation.
Referring to his young daughter, Douangmany said the family created a ruse for the child.
"She thought her dad was working in a factory. She couldn't understand why he didn't come home and visit her," Douangmany said during a tearful address to reporters crammed into the social justice advocacy office. "If someone is innocent, how could we ever, ever, ever give back what they lost?"
The lawsuit names the two officers personally and includes the city in its reach, arguing that: "The Springfield Police Department has a policy or a custom of failing to investigate allegations of misconduct by its police officers who violate the rights of the people of Springfield and failing to discipline officers for these violations."
The complaint seeks an undetermined amount of financial damages and attorneys' fees.
Police Sgt. John M. Delaney, executive aide to Commissioner William Fitchet, said Pioggia and Tatro are "good, dedicated police officers."
In a statement, Delaney also said: "The Springfield Police Department is a professional organization from the Police Commissioner and Command Staff right down to the brave men and women who protect this city. Members of this department do a heroic job in keeping crime down on a daily basis. Officers in this department are equipped with the finest of training anywhere. We make arrests based on probable cause," the statement read. "In this country, if an individual feels his rights were abused then they have an avenue through the court system to complain about it. I am confident that in this case the public will see that the SPD acted professionally and properly."
A lawyer for the city declined to comment.
Both Tatro and Pioggia have received commendations for police work from the department.
Douangmany also denounced Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni for bringing the case to trial a second time.
"The commonwealth of Massachusetts did not have to try him a second time. They had a choice," she said.
At the time of the second indictment, Mastroianni said he did not lightly make the decision to try Wilhite a second time. He refused comment for this story.
A pretrial conference has not yet been set in the civil case. Friedman said judges typically award $1 million per year in compensation for defendants determined to have been wrongfully imprisoned.
Under state law, Wilhite also may be entitled to $500,000 in damages under the so-called erroneous conviction statute that does not require a litigant to prove willful misconduct.
Friedman said he went the civil rights route with Wilhite's case because he believes investigators fabricated evidence and flagrantly violated photo identification procedures.