(The Center Square) – Miami Township, which faces a $45 million payment to a man wrongfully convicted of rape, says the judgment is “far exceeding the community’s ability to pay.”
The U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to hear the township’s appeal in the case, which means it may have to pay the $45 million civil judgment for wrongful imprisonment.
A man sued the township after he spent 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. A
civil jury awarded him damages but the township appealed, claiming it had immunity. However, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the township last year and the U.S. Supreme Court last week, without comment, refused to review the lower court decision.
“Miami Township leaders continue to work to resolve this issue in a manner that preserves the township’s ability to provide our residents services,” it told TCS in a statement. “Miami Township was judged by the federal courts to have no direct responsibility for the actions at issue in this case. Nevertheless, the township is now at risk of having to hold harmless a former employee – the lone defendant found by the jury to be responsible and liable
in this case – for the full amount of the judgment against him individually, a judgment far
exceeding the community’s ability to pay.”
The case started in 1988 when a detective was assigned to investigate three rapes.
In 1988, a possible suspect, George Gillispie, was identified, but investigators ruled him out because he did not match the description of the alleged rapist.
In 1990, the township assigned two new detectives to the case, who showed the victims photos of suspects.
“All three identified Gillispie as their attacker,” a court synopsis of the case said.
Gillispie was convicted and spent more than 20 years in prison before a court freed him, ruling that documents from the original detectives that said the victims did not identify Gillespie as the rapist were never turned over to Gillespie’s defense attorneys during his trial.
Gillipsie sued the township and won. The township appealed. With last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision, it remains uncertain how the township would pay the judgment.
“Miami Township is disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court will not consider the township’s appeal regarding the constitutional conflict between governing federal civil rights law and Ohio’s state indemnification statute covering political subdivisions,” it told TCS.
Previous court rulings dismissed all claims against the township, it said in the statement.
“The awarded judgment is solely against the former employee and not the township,” the statement said. “Miami Township continues to maintain that this indemnification obligation conflicts with the federal civil rights statute at the heart of this case.”
