Carmon Files Suit Over Wrongful Conviction

by LAURA GLESBY

Adam Carmon is suing the city of New Haven and six former New Haven police officers for the wrongful conviction that imprisoned him for nearly three decades.

Carmon filed the lawsuit on Monday against the city as well as former city cops Michael Sweeney, James Stephenson, Gilbert Burton, James Ponteau, Peter Carusone, and the estate administrator of Leroy Dease (a detective involved in Carmon’s case who has since passed away).

“I was framed for a child’s murder of which I was innocent,” Carmon stated in a press release.

“I can never get back the almost 30 years that were taken from me. I believe this is the first step toward making sure the people who caused this nightmare are held accountable in some small way.”

The lawyers who led Carmon’s petition for a new trial, New York-based Doug Lieb and David Keenan, are representing him in the lawsuit.

Carmon and his lawyers are suing the detectives for suppressing and fabricating evidence, malicious prosecution, filing a warrant affidavit with false information, coercing self-incriminating statements from Carmon, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

They are suing the city for indemnification, municipal liability, and negligence.

The complaint they filed calls New Haven the “wrongful conviction capital of Connecticut,” noting that New Haven is home to 4 percent of the state’s population but more than 40 percent of people who have been exonerated.

The attorneys wrote, “the City and its municipal policymakers were deliberately indifferent” to the corrupt police practices that led to Carmon’s conviction.

Eight months ago, Superior Court Judge Jon Alander overturned Carmon’s conviction for the 1994 shooting that killed a seven-month-old baby, Danielle Taft, and paralyzed her grandmother, Charlene Troutman.

Alander cited a wealth of evidence that the state had suppressed in Carmon’s original trial as well as new forensic science; “How could anyone have confidence in a verdict of guilty in a case such as this?” the judge wrote.

Carmon removed his ankle monitor one month ago, a final step out of incarceration, when New Haven State’s Attorney John Doyle decided not to pursue a new trial against Carmon for Danielle’s murder.

Carmon was imprisoned from age 22 to age 50. His lawyers wrote that he “was a target of violence and harassment in prison” due to the horrific nature of the crime for which he was convicted, and that “due to grossly substandard dental care in prison, Mr. Carmon lost most of his teeth while incarcerated.”

Shortly after he was incarcerated, Carmon’s son, Najee, was born. Over 27 years, they met and formed a relationship through prison visits and phone calls.

The city did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article.

“It’s up to the jury to decide what will fairly compensate Mr. Carmon and hold the defendants accountable,” wrote Lieb.

This is the latest in a series of lawsuits against the city and state tied to costly police and prosecutorial misconduct

A previous lawsuit for the wrongful conviction of Scot Lewis resulted in a $9.5 million settlement from the city. Four other New Haveners received $4.2 million each in the settlement of a suit filed after they were released following more than a decade behind bars due to new information about their prosecution for a 1996 Quinnipiac Terrace murder. More recently, the city agreed to pay $45 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Randy Cox, whom police paralyzed while in custody.