Miami commissioners agreed Thursday to pay $2.2 million to settle a grave injustice involving a mentally retarded man who spent 22 years behind bars -- for murders and rapes he didn't commit.
The main evidence against Jerry Frank Townsend: his own confessions. But those confessions were fundamentally flawed.
Townsend has an IQ of 58, making him vulnerable to police coercion. Following his 1979 arrest, he was questioned for five days by Miami police and the Broward Sheriff's Office, without an attorney present.
Prodding by both police departments led Townsend to claim responsibility for a host of crimes in Miami-Dade County, Broward County -- even California.
Townsend's confessions were rife with inconsistencies, but he was sent to prison anyway.
Finally, in 2001, DNA evidence cleared Townsend and led to his release.
''This is a perfect example of how not to handle a case like this,'' Miami City Commission Chairman Joe Sanchez said Thursday.
``I don't think today that any police officer would be able to question someone for five days without an attorney present.''
PARALLEL CASE
The settlement instantly puts pressure on BSO to resolve Townsend's parallel civil rights case there.
Townsend, 57, lives with relatives in North Florida. He is a mild-mannered man, with a speech impediment and the mental capacity of a child.
''I've been through hell,'' Townsend told reporters in 2001, weeks after being freed. ``I've been through hell for something I didn't do.''
On Thursday, Townsend's lawyer, Barbara Heyer, said the $2.2 million settlement will help her client receive proper care.
''The money's so critical,'' she said.
``Because of his mental retardation there are very few programs available and all of them are quite costly. He's been precluded from having that assistance, and by this settlement we are now able to get him the care that he needs.''
As part of their recent back-room deliberations on whether to agree to the $2.2 million payout, Miami commissioners listened to tapes of Townsend's confessions.
Beyond the city, the suit named retired officers Bruce Roberson and James E. Boone and former city managers as defendants.
City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones said the repeated starting and stopping of tape was audible, leading to questions about what was said when the recorder wasn't on.
`MORE TO THAT'
''We know that there was more to that confession than what was being stated,'' Spence-Jones said.
Townsend's DNA testing came at the urging of a skeptical Fort Lauderdale police detective, John Curcio.
Court records say the DNA tests in two murders identified the killer as Eddie Lee Mosley -- known around his Northwest Fort Lauderdale neighborhood as ``The Rape Man.''
Mosley is in a state mental hospital for the criminally insane.
Ex-Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne apologized personally to Townsend following his exoneration in June 2001.
Townsend's civil rights complaint in Broward targets the BSO and former top deputies Tony Fantigrassi and Mark Schlein.
FRAMING ALLEGED
The case is before Broward Circuit Judge Patti Englander Henning.
The 10-count suit, filed in 2002, alleges BSO detectives have a tradition of framing suspects, for murder and other charges. It cites a ''pattern and/or practice of misconduct'' dating to the 1970s and the administration of the late Sheriff Ed Stack.
The suit claims detectives concocted confessions, doctored evidence, destroyed records, tampered with witnesses and committed perjury.
Miami's homicide detectives, after Townsend's Broward convictions had been tossed out, re-examined their own files.
`VERY CRITICAL'
''They were very critical of our 1979 investigation,'' Miami Assistant City Attorney Warren Bittner said Thursday.
``And in particular of the confessions that were taken.''
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle at first resisted vacating Townsend's Miami-Dade convictions, but the strong criticism coming from Miami police convinced her to do so.
One of the officers who pushed Rundle to free Townsend, Miami Sgt. Confesor Gonzalez, had this to say upon hearing of the $2.2 million settlement:
''I'm glad it's finally over,'' he said.
Miami Herald staff writer David Ovalle contributed to this report.
