Three men wrongfully imprisoned for more than 20 years have won a $15 million verdict against East Cleveland, a municipality long known as being financially distressed, and where police abuses formed part of the focus for a popular podcast, reports Law.com. A federal jury awarded Derrick Wheatt, Laurese Glover and Eugene Johnson $5 million each on claims that detectives investigating the murder for which they were convicted withheld potentially exculpatory evidence from prosecutors and used improper photo array techniques to identify the three as the prime suspects. In the same suburb, a man won a $22 million verdict in state court in 2016 after police allegedly beat him and locked him in a closet for several days. The city, which was scrutinized in the criminal justice-oriented podcast “Serial,” has been teetering on the edge of financial collapse. In 2016, it petitioned for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, and there were talks of merging the city with Cleveland.
Michael Pasternak, the attorney who secured the latest verdict, said he still expects to recover the award. The case stems from the 1995 murder of Clifton Hudson. Court papers said Wheatt, Glover and Johnson witnessed the shooting while they were in Glover’s SUV, and they drove off after the shooting took place because they were scared. Tamika Harris, 14, also witnessed the shooting, and saw the shooter run toward a bridge afterwards. Wheatt and Glover were arrested after Harris said she saw a similar SUV at the scene. The two told detectives they had witnessed the murder, and that Johnson had been with them, but that they were not involved in the shooting. Harris recanted her testimony in 2004, saying the officers directed her to identify Johnson. In 2015, the plaintiffs’ convictions were vacated.