Man Exonerated Of Murder Conviction In 2018 Suing Baltimore Police

A man convicted of murder who was exonerated in 2018 -- after spending nearly 30 years in prison -- is suing Baltimore police.

Jerome Johnson, then 20, was convicted in a July 1988 murder inside the Nite Owl Bar, which was located in the 3600 block of Woodland Avenue in Park Heights. Johnson's conviction hinged on testimony from a 15-year-girl who claimed he was in the bar when the victim was shot multiple times.

Prosecutors said in July that, with help from the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, two other co-defendants said Johnson had not been there and that they found the shooter, who has since died.

Attorneys representing Johnson announced Wednesday that a federal lawsuit has been filed against Baltimore police and four former homicide detectives. The lawsuit alleges "detectives concealed an initial, exculpatory statement by the state’s star witness."

The attorneys said in a statement that the lawsuit alleges the detectives pressured the witness to alter her story and that the detectives falsified police reports and knowingly misled the jury and judge at trial.

Johnson is the second longest-serving exoneree in Maryland history, having spent 10,886 days in prison, attorneys said.

"I spent so much of my life in prison for something I didn't do. We can't go back and change the past, but I hope that there is justice at the end of this road," Johnson said in a statement.

WBAL-TV 11 News is reaching out to the Baltimore Police Department for comment.