Verdict Against Cops for Fabricating Murder Case Evidence Upheld

The $15 million that a jury awarded three plaintiffs in their suit against East Cleveland, Ohio, and two of its police officers for fabricating the evidence that led to their murder convictions was upheld by the Sixth Circuit.

The city, officer Vincent Johnstone, and the estate of officer Michael Perry claimed that the trial court erred by reading the jury a fabrication-of-evidence instruction, but the unpublished opinion by Judge Alice M. Batchelder said that the evidence in the case supported the instruction.

Derrick Wheatt, Laurese Glover, and Eugene Johnson were convicted of murder in 1996. But they were exonerated in ...