IAPE Evidence Blog

Pitts­burgh Tri­bune Review, Tri­bune Review Pub­lish­ing Com­pany
BYLINE: Adam Brandolph

Pitts­burgh, PA

Pitts­burgh City Coun­cil yes­ter­day approved spend­ing nearly $4 mil­lion to set­tle civil law­suits at its last meet­ing of the year. 

The largest set­tle­ment was $3.8 mil­lion for a Home­wood man wrong­fully impris­oned for nearly 19 years after being con­victed in 1986 of rape. Thomas Doswell, 50, was released from prison in 2005 after being exon­er­ated by DNA evidence. 

Down­town attor­ney James E. DePasquale, who rep­re­sented Doswell in his crim­i­nal case appeal, said no amount of money could replace the years Doswell spent “caged up like an animal.” 

“The Amer­i­can jus­tice sys­tem isn’t mag­i­cal, so the only imper­fect way to give him back those years is through money dam­ages,” DePasquale said. “It’s a lot of money, but I wouldn’t want to trade places with him.” 

The city’s pay­out will include pay­ments total­ing $1.26 mil­lion a year to Doswell, his attor­ney and Lib­erty Life Assur­ance Co. of Boston in 2010, 2011 and 2012, accord­ing to city doc­u­ments. Doswell’s civil attor­ney, Peter J. Neufeld of the New York law firm Neufeld Scheck & Brustin, did not return calls seek­ing comment. 

U.S. Dis­trict Judge Donetta Ambrose dis­missed part of Doswell’s 2007 civil law­suit against the city and police in June, but refused to dis­miss vio­la­tions of Doswell’s rights to due process and against cruel and unusual punishment. 

“(These pay­ments) will take care of him for the rest of his life,” DePasquale said. 

Attor­neys for the city declined to comment. 

Coun­cil also approved set­tle­ments for two for­mer city employees. 

It agreed to a $40,000 set­tle­ment with John Moon, a for­mer assis­tant chief of the city’s Emer­gency Med­ical Ser­vices. Moon, who is black, retired in Octo­ber as part of the set­tle­ment of a case in which he alleged he was passed over for a 2005 pro­mo­tion to deputy chief because of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion. Moon’s attor­ney, Paul G. Kay, did not return calls seek­ing comment. 

Coun­cil approved a nearly $10,000 set­tle­ment with Mer­cedes C. Tay­lor, a retired police offi­cer, for pen­sion, longevity and ben­e­fits, after a dis­pute over the num­ber of years she worked for the city. Taylor’s attor­ney, Jon Pushin­sky, said she was employed by the city for 24 years up until her retire­ment in 2003, but only received retire­ment ben­e­fits for 23 years of employment. 

“It’s impor­tant to keep the city hon­est,” Pushin­sky said. 

Legal set­tle­ments are paid out of the city’s oper­at­ing bud­get. It bud­geted $1.74 mil­lion for legal judg­ments for 2010, the same as 2009.
The city spent $1.55 mil­lion on set­tle­ments in 2008.