Connecticut is set to pay nearly $5.9 million to the family of a disabled man who was wrongly imprisoned for more than two decades before being released in 2015. 1992 conviction In the murder and rape of an 88-year-old grandmother, she flipped.
Richard LaPointe, who died at age 74 in 2020, had Dandy-Walker syndrome, a rare congenital brain malformation that his lawyers say is a factor in his false confession. LaPointe was never declared innocent, but his attorney and the state Attorney General's Office eventually agreed to settle after years of legal battles.
The state Claims Commissioner's Office on Jan. 2 laid out the money being awarded to the family, though the Legislature still must approve it. The Claims Commissioner's Office determines whether people can file lawsuits against the state or receive money under the state's false imprisonment law.
Claims Commissioner Robert Shea Jr. said. His office agreed that the award was “reasonable and appropriate.”
In this April 10, 2015 photo, Richard LaPointe, center, poses with Kate Germond, left, and Paul Castillero, both of Centurion Ministries, after he was granted bail and released in Connecticut Superior Court in Hartford, Connecticut. (AP)
LaPointe's attorney, Paul Castelliero, said the award was “an acknowledgment of the error I made in prosecuting and imprisoning an innocent man. Sadly, Richard did not live long enough to see his final vindication.”
“The award is in no way sufficient compensation for what was done to Richard Lapointe,” Castillero said on Friday.
The Attorney General's Office said in a statement Friday that it “negotiated a resolution for this prosecution in the best interests of all parties. This reflects that process.”
In 1987, LaPointe's step-grandmother, Bernice Martin, was found stabbed, raped, and strangled in her burned-out apartment in Manchester, Connecticut.
LaPointe was convicted of Martin's murder in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Key evidence in the case included Lapointe's confessions during nearly 10 hours of interrogation by Manchester Police.
His lawyers argued that his mental disability attributed him to giving false confessions and that the confession was forced without his lawyer present.
LaPointe was convicted of murder in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. (iStock)
The state Supreme Court ruled 4-2 in a 2015 decision that LaPointe was denied a fair trial because prosecutors did not disclose notes by a police officer This may have supported an alibi defence. Later that year, prosecutors said new DNA testing did not point to Lapointe and all charges were dropped.
No one else has been charged in Martin's killing.
LaPointe was released from custody a short time later and walked out of the Hartford courthouse wearing a black T-shirt that read “I didn't do it” while throwing his hands in the air at the Triumph.
“Of course I didn't do that,” LaPointe said at the time. “That wasn't me. I would never do something like that to anyone. I would never kill my worst enemy.”
Castillero said the case against Lapointe devastated his family, which shunned him.
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The state Supreme Court ruled 4-2 in a 2015 decision that he was denied a fair trial. (iStock)
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Before Martin's death, LaPointe and his wife, who has cerebral palsy, “were making a life together. They were doing well,” Casteleiro said. But after his arrest, his wife divorced him, and he lost all contact with his son, who was young at the time.
After his release from prison, LaPointe began suffering from dementia, was placed in a nursing home in East Hartford and died after a battle with Covid-19, according to his attorney.
LaPointe was supported by several advocates, including the groups Friends of Richard LaPointe and Centurion, an organization Casteleiro operates that helps the wrongly convicts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
