Autistic man jailed with coerced confession gets $340K
Ozem Goldwire forced to confess to murdering his sister, Sherika
The city will pay $340,000 to an autistic Brooklyn man railroaded by NYPD detectives into falsely confessing to murdering his sister.
Ozem Goldwire spent more than a year in prison for the January 2006 slaying of his sister, Sherika, before he was exonerated by prosecutors in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.
“This was a terrible, terrible injustice,” said lawyer Gerald Allen, who filed a lawsuit on behalf of Goldwire in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Goldwire was subjected to 21 hours of interrogation at the 73rd Precinct by detectives who screamed, cursed and shoved him. They also accused him of having sex with his sister, according to the suit.
Warned that he wouldn’t be released if he did not confess, Goldwire wrote a statement claiming he strangled his sister because she refused to lower the volume on the TV…
Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach threw out the charges against Goldwire, describing the circumstances as “the perfect storm for false confession.”
At least one of the corrupt coppers involved in this suit – cost the city on another one a few years back. Still around. Still a detective.
Doesn’t have to be, you know. I’ve known many more good cops, caring folks who became cops to make a difference. I had an uncle on the NYPD who fit that mold.
I’ve known a couple of sleazy gits who shouldn’t have been allowed to take the test to get into cadet training. But, that’s part of the political process, sometimes. Maybe – in addition to separation of church from state – we should have separation of politicians from police?
And there will still be those who defend these cops. What these deniers miss is that all the time they were railroading this kid, the real murderer was getting away with the crime.
These cops should have been criminally charged for forcible confinement.
Mr. Fusion
November 26, 2009 at 8:17 am
Wish you good luck friend
Tanto Bardianto
December 2, 2009 at 3:50 am