Today, our firm settled claims, brought on behalf of the estate of the late Jaythan Kendrick, against New York City for $15 million. Last month, our firm settled, for $4 million, a claim brought on behalf of the estate against New York State. Mr. Kendrick tragically died two years ago, after being released from 26 years of imprisonment for a murder he did not commit. Mr. Kendrick had been exonerated by the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Queens DA’s Office due to the efforts of attorneys at the law firms WilmerHale, Law Office of Thomas Hoffman, and the Innocence Project. In the civil case, we led a team that included Tom Hoffman and attorneys at Bloch & White. Jacob Loup and Of Counsel David Keenan of our firm were primarily responsible for developing the evidence in civil discovery that resulted in the two settlements. Our lawsuit for additional damages against the New York City Housing Authority, for the misconduct of its detectives and its unlawful policies, is ongoing in federal court.
Our firm today filed an unjust conviction lawsuit on behalf of Steven Ruffin, seeking a total of at least $27,010,000 in compensatory damages from the State of New York. You can read the lawsuit here. Mr. Ruffin was convicted of a Brooklyn homicide he did not commit in 1996, and spent fourteen years behind bars, until he was paroled in 2010. Mr. Ruffin’s case was investigated by, among others, the notorious NYPD detective Louis Scarcella, whose illegal practices have been responsible for numerous wrongful convictions, resulting in over $100 million in awards to victims by the City and State of New York. Mr. Ruffin’s conviction was vacated in January of this year, following a joint motion filed by his defense attorneys, the Legal Aid Society and Garrett Ordower, and the Conviction Review Unit of the Brooklyn DA’s Office. In a press release issued the same day, District Attorney Eric Gonzalez acknowledged that “Mr. Ruffin was convicted for the actions of a different person whom he claimed to be the killer all along.” Mr. Ruffin’s lawsuit seeks compensation from the State under a statute, the Unjust Conviction Act, that provides a remedy to innocent individuals like him. Garrett Ordower, who represented Mr. Ruffin pro bono for over a decade as he sought to overturn his wrongful conviction, is working with our firm on its efforts to seek compensation for the harms Mr. Ruffin suffered.
The firm filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Robert Hooper today, seeking $30 million in compensatory and punitive damages against individual police detectives and the City of New York. The complaint alleges that a team of narcotics officers fabricated drug charges against Mr. Hooper and then failed to disclose numerous lawsuits and civilian complaints accusing them of constitutional violations that could have been used to impeach their credibility at trial. The complaint alleges that the officers’ Brady violations were caused by the same unlawful policy and practice that a federal jury found our firm proved at trial in Fraser v. City of New York. You can read the complaint here.
Today our firm, as co-counsel with Bloch & White, reached an early settlement for $3,262,500 with the New York City Comptroller’s Office for a client who was wrongfully convicted in the Bronx on sexual assault charges and spent 7 ½ years in prison. The settlement is believed to be the largest ever reached with the Comptroller’s Office as part of its early settlement program on a per-year-in-prison basis: $435,000 for each year in prison. To protect the client’s identity, the client’s name is being withheld.
Our firm today filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit on behalf of Reginald Cameron, seeking a total of at least $37 million in compensatory and punitive damages against individual police detectives who caused Mr. Cameron to be falsely prosecuted in 1994–96 for a Queens homicide he didn’t commit. You can read the lawsuit here. Mr. Cameron’s conviction was vacated in August 2023, following a joint motion filed on his behalf by the Legal Aid Society and the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Queens District Attorney’s Office. This case, in which four persons including Mr. Cameron were coerced into giving false statements by police, was headed up by NYPD detective Carlos Gonzalez, who in years prior obtained false statements in the high-profile Central Park jogger and Brian Watkins “Utah Tourist” cases. Mr. Cameron was released from prison on parole in 2003, after having spent nine years wrongfully incarcerated. The Cameron lawsuit also seeks to hold the City of New York liable for its unlawful policies that brought about his wrongful conviction. Our firm has recovered more than $60 million over the last five years for seven clients who were wrongfully convicted in Queens.
Today Governor Hochul is commuting the sentence of our firm’s pro bono client Jermaine Swaby. Jermaine has served 22 1/2 years in prison for his 2002 Kings County murder conviction. He will now be eligible for release to parole supervision this November, two years earlier than he would have been eligible under his original sentence of 25 years to life.
The Governor’s decision reflects the remarkable and tangible transformation Jermaine, who was 19 at the time of the crime, has achieved during his many years in prison. During his incarceration at Green Haven Correctional Facility, Jermaine demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to education, leadership, and service to others.
We commend Governor Hochul and her office for their extraordinarily thorough review of Jermaine’s application and for their compassion.
The clemency application was prepared by the firm’s talented paralegal, Thelo Coleman, who obtained 30 supporting letters, including from the family of the victim, and prepared a beautifully written, comprehensive memorandum making a compelling case for clemency.
A check awarding law firm client Leroy Harris $7.5 million for unjust imprisonment in Connecticut was received today. This was one of the largest awards ever by the Connecticut Claims Commissioner, approved by the Connecticut State Legislature under that state’s unjust conviction statute, which caps awards to wrongfully convicted claimants. Mr. Harris served 30 years in prison for rape, robbery, and escape convictions before he was released in 2017, thanks to the work of the Innocence Project, following a “no-contest” plea to resolve his case. Due to the brilliant work of Law Firm Counsel David Keenan, he then obtained a full pardon on all his convictions from the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles, which allowed him to seek compensation. Our Firm, led by David Keenan, worked with international law firm Arnold & Porter in winning the compensation award.
Law firm principal Joel B. Rudin is vice chair of the amicus committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (“NACDL”). Today, Mr. Rudin filed an amicus, or “friend of the court,” brief, on behalf of the NACDL and numerous other defense lawyer organizations, to be considered by the full, or en banc, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The issue is an important one: whether a criminal defense attorney is required to warn a client of the possibility he may be stripped of his citizenship and deported if he pleads guilty to an offense for which such denaturalization is authorized. Despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that a defense lawyer must warn their client of the “immigration consequences” of a criminal conviction such as deportation, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit, by 2-1 vote, held that this rule did not include the possibility of denaturalization even though it usually leads to deportation. The amicus brief was authored by Matthew A. Wasserman, a former associate with the firm now employed by the Innocence Project, and edited by Mr. Rudin. The appeal is scheduled to be heard by the full complement of 13 judges comprising the Second Circuit on May 22, 2024. The amicus brief can be accessed here.
A State Supreme Court Justice today ordered a hearing into allegations that our firm made in a post-judgment or “440” motion to vacate our client’s murder conviction because of an inappropriate, secret meeting between another judge’s law clerk and “local” counsel for our client, Gregory Thayer, in Ulster County, New York. During the meeting, our court papers allege, the law clerk revealed to the lawyer that Mr. Thayer would be better off not waiving a jury trial and having his case decided just by the judge, essentially because the judge was not receptive to Mr. Thayer’s temporary insanity defense. However, the law clerk swore the local counsel to secrecy and counsel did not inform Mr. Thayer or his principal attorney, Robert C. Gottlieb, of the conversation until after the trial, at which the judge convicted Mr. Thayer of manslaughter. The hearing will be held May 7, 2024, in Kingston, NY. News articles about the court’s ruling appeared in the New York Law Journal, here, and Law360, here.
Law360 reports on our firm’s motion seeking a new trial for our client Gregory Thayer. Mr. Thayer was convicted of manslaughter earlier this year at a bench trial in Ulster County, New York. After the conviction, his principal defense attorney, Robert Gottlieb, discovered that an improper, secret communication had occurred between the judge’s law clerk and Mr. Thayer’s local counsel, but local counsel had not told Mr. Gottlieb about it because the law clerk had improperly sworn him to secrecy. The communication revealed that the judge was biased against Mr. Thayer’s defense. The judge and law clerk also did not reveal to Mr. Thayer that the law clerk, for seven months while Mr. Thayer’s high-profile case was underway, was employed in a high position by the Ulster County D.A.’s Office, the same office that was prosecuting Mr. Thayer. Mr. Gottlieb retained our firm to file a motion to overturn the conviction, which will be heard after Mr. Thayer is sentenced later this month. Our motion papers, which can be read here, were drafted by firm senior associate Jacob Loup.