Created: 12/29/2009 5:05 AM KSTP.com | Print |  Email

Bookmark and Share

Mass. man settles wrongful conviction suit

(AP) BOSTON - A Massachusetts man who spent 18 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of raping three women has settled a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Boston for $3.25 million.

City lawyer William Sinnott says the city settled with Ulysses Rodriguez Charles earlier this month to avert a federal trial.

The deal comes eight months after a jury cited "clear and convincing evidence" that the 59-year-old Charles was innocent of the 1980 rapes in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood and was entitled to $500,000 under the state’s wrongful conviction compensation law.

Charles’ lawyer tells The Boston Globe his client is a victim, just as the three women were victims.

Charles’ legal problems are not over. He now faces deportation to his native Trinidad.

___

Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


MORE NEWS

5:00    5 Eyewitness News Live at 5pm
5:30    ABC World News with Diane Sawyer
6:00    5 Eyewitness News at 6pm
6:30    5 Eyewitness News at 6:30pm
7:00    Lost
8:00    Lost
9:00    The Forgotten
10:00    5 Eyewitness News at 10
10:35    Nightline
11:05    5 EYEWITNESS NEWS at 11:00