Roy Brown gets $2.6 Million







Syracuse, NY -- Roy Arthur Brown will receive $2.6 million in damages for being wrongly convicted and imprisoned in the 1991 murder of Cayuga County social worker Sabina Kulakowski, it was announced this morning.

The announcement came as a trial was about to begin in the State Court of Claims that would have determined compensation.

After serving 15 years in prison, Brown was later exonerated of the murder.

State Court of Claims Judge Nicholas V. Midey Jr. ruled recently that Brown was entitled to damages, and the trial set to begin today would have determined the amount he was due.

Brown now has to decide whether he will accept the money as a lump sum or on some structured payment process.

Midey wrote recently that Brown had shown "by clear and convincing evidence, that he did not commit any of the acts charged in the accusatory indictment."

Brown was sentenced to serve 25 years to life in state prison after being convicted in 1992 of second-degree murder in Kulakowski's death. He served 15 years before the conviction was overturned and the murder indictment dismissed last year based on DNA evidence linking another man to the crime.

Barry Bench committed suicide in 2003, but authorities verified it was his DNA on the T-shirt Kulakowski was wearing when she was killed.

Brown filed a lawsuit against the state in May 2007 seeking $5 million in damages for his wrongful imprisonment.

Midey noted in his decision that there are four elements required for a person pursuing such a lawsuit against the state: The person has to have been convicted of a crime and served all or part of a sentence; the conviction had been vacated and the indictment dismissed; the person did not commit any of the acts charged in the indictment; and the person did not cause his conviction by his own action.

Midey noted the first two elements were uncontested, but the state contended there were triable issues relating to the last two elements.

As for bringing about his own conviction, the state asked Midey to consider a confession Brown reportedly made to jailhouse informant Gordon Wiggins in July 1991. Wiggins testified to that confession at Brown's trial although Brown has steadfastly denied making any such confession, Midey noted.

The judge concluded "this alleged, uncorroborated, and unreliable "jailhouse confession' does not equate to an "uncoerced confession of guilt' sufficient to deny Brown the right to recover damages.

"Not only has the claimant consistently denied making this confession or admission, but the court also notes that the District Attorney of Cayuga County placed little, if any, credence on this confession since he joined in the application to dismiss the indictment against claimant following the revelation of the DNA evidence previously described herein, " Midey wrote.

As for whether Brown proved he did not commit any of the acts charged in the indictment, the state asked Midey to consider a July 1993 affidavit from Donna Merithew. She claimed she saw Brown in Auburn near the scene of the murder at the time of the crime.

Midey, however, noted that affidavit was made more than two years after the murder and about a year and a half after Brown was convicted. Authorities did nothing to corroborate the information Merithew provided and that information was directly contradicted by trial testimony about Brown's whereabouts at the time of the murder, the judge wrote.

At best, that affidavit only placed Brown several miles from the crime scene and did nothing to incriminate him or link him in any way to Bench, "who has been conclusively identified as the murderer, " Midey wrote.

The judge, therefore, concluded the state had not raised any facts that would require a trial to determine if it is liable for damages.