Man wrongly convicted of murder loses suit

[Nemesis]

Boston Globe 2 detectives accused in conspiracy claim

By Michael S. Rosenwald, Globe Staff, 4/29/2004

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against two Boston police detectives for their handling of the case against Donnell Johnson, the Boston teenager who served five years in prison for a murder he didn't commit.

While Johnson's allegations against detectives William Mahoney and Daniel Keeler were "deeply troubling," US District Judge Morris E. Lasker ruled that Johnson did not prove liability, according to the written ruling issued Monday.

Johnson was convicted in 1994 of killing 9-year-old Jermaine Goffigan in a crime that stunned the city. His suit against Mahoney and Keeler charged that the officers conspired to bury evidence that could have cleared Johnson in the first of two trials in juvenile court.

With his parents present, the teenager had asserted his innocence in 45 minutes of interviews with police, but police and prosecutors maintained throughout the first of two trials that the statements did not exist, according to the suit.

In an initial trial before a judge, Mahoney testified that Johnson refused to be interviewed by police. As Johnson and his parents pleaded for copies of the police interview, prosecutors told them none existed, according to the suit.

The reports didn't surface until a new jury trial, when Mahoney faxed the statements to the prosecution the evening before it rested its case, according to court papers.

In the statement, Johnson had told police he was home watching Monday Night Football when Goffigan was slain.

Johnson's lawyer, Austin J. Freeley, maintained yesterday that his client would not have been convicted in the first trial if evidence about an alibi had been presented to the judge.

"That would have been the end of the case for him," Freeley said. "He thinks he should be allowed the civil remedy of suing the officers who withheld the important evidence."

Freeley said he plans to file an appeal.

In June 2002, the Boston Police Department suspended Mahoney for 30 days without pay for negligence and case mismanagement for his role in helping send Johnson to prison.

The suspension order charged Mahoney, then a 30-year veteran, with "failing to ensure the statements by the defendant were provided to the district attorney's office in a timely manner."

Douglas Louison, Mahoney's lawyer, called the dismissal of the lawsuit "a good result." "Never did my client or anyone else involved with the case seek to have an individual not responsible convicted in the crime," Louison said. "They went where the evidence pointed to."Johnson was released four years ago after evidence surfaced that he was the victim of mistaken identity. He is now a college student in Mississippi. In a statement, Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole noted that the court "found that no action by any police officer compromised Donnell Johnson's due process rights."


This story ran on page B6 of the Boston Globe on 4/29/2004.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

[Keltria]

So the kid does 5 years and the officer gets suspended for 30 days. Now that is justice for you isnt it....

[lapeterson1120]

There Is No Justice In The Sweet U.s.a

[LORNA]

No justice, no apologies either. What an insult!