HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) — A federal jury has awarded a Gary man $25.5 million in his lawsuit alleging that a now-retired police officer violated his civil rights and deprived him of a good trial in a case involving a 1980 rape and robbery.
The jury in U.S. District Court in Hammond deliberated for about three hours Tuesday before awarding James Hill Jr. $25 million in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages.
The decision following a civil trial represents the second time a federal jury has ruled against retired Hammond police Capt. Michael Solan and town of Hammond, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported.
In 2006, Hill’s co-defendant within the 1980 case, Larry Mayes, won a $9 million verdict that was later reduced to $4.5 million.
Hill, 59, and Mays had their 1982 convictions put aside after a Lake County magistrate found the state had violated their rights by failing to show over evidence to their defense attorneys before their trials.
Political Cartoons
Hill filed his civil lawsuit in 2010. To win the case, he needed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the end result of his 1982 trial might have been different if Solan had turned over two sets of police records.
Jurors needed to agree that the documents were favorable to Hill, were either exculpatory or might have been used to question a witness, and that they were material to the case.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material is probably not published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.