This updates a story first filed at 7:46 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD - Charles Wilhite, who spent more than three years in state prison for a murder he says he didn't commit, won a $1.4 million settlement from the city after City Councilors approved the resolution Monday night.

It is the largest in the city's history and may be reflective of a national sentiment toward police misconduct, according to internal municipal documents previously obtained by The Republican.

The council failed twice to come to the necessary consensus on the settlement, and it narrowly failed in executive sessions over the past month prior to the affirmative vote. Monday's roll call vote was not immediately available. A supermajority was required - meaning at least nine of 13 votes were necessary to approve the measure.

Prior to Wilhite's settlement, the largest paid to a plaintiff in a police misconduct case in Springfield was $1 million. That figure was negotiated down after a jury awarded the family of a dead Springfield teen, Delano Walker Jr., $1.3 million following a three-day trial in federal court in 2014. Walker was accidentally forced into traffic by police when he was stopped while riding a bicycle along Columbus Avenue.

At the council's Dec. 6 meeting, City Solicitor Edward Pikula distributed a memo to councilors detailing the rationale behind the proposed settlement.

In keeping with a stigma Pikula said currently exists nationally in police misconduct cases, the city's lead attorney said in the memo that juror sentiment may not have swung in the city's favor had the case gone to trial.

Pikula cited "a national trend of ever-increasing amounts of money paid for settlements and judgments in lawsuits involving the police" in his memo.

The city has faced its own police-driven scandals in recent months. They include one whose central player was formerly-suspended Officer Gregg Bigda. He was caught on camera threatening two juvenile suspects during interrogations in February.

The interrogations were captured in footage recorded at the Palmer police station, where a police pursuit ended. Reports of an ongoing investigation into an after-hours bar brawl involving off-duty police outside Nathan Bill's bar and restaurant in 2015 also have created public relations headaches for the department.

In Wilhite's case, he was charged and convicted for the 2008 murder of Alberto Rodriguez, fatally shot outside a Six Corners neighborhood market. Witnesses originally named Wilhite as the shooter, then retracted their statements and said they were coerced by police. Lawyers for two police detectives denied this and insisted the statements were voluntary.

Wilhite nonetheless won a new trial after his conviction in 2010. A second jury acquitted him in 2013 and he was released from state prison after 40 months behind bars.

Wilhite sued the city and two detectives - Steven Tatro and now-retired Anthony Pioggia - for $5 million. The city was later released from the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.



Wilhite, 33, told a reporter outside a court hearing in June that he is still working to shake off a nightmare.

"Some days are better than others. It feels like a bad dream I'm still waking up from," Wilhite said.

He was not immediately available for comment on Monday.

The Wilhite settlement brings the city's nine-year tally for payouts related to alleged police misconduct to around $4 million, according to city documents.