Jury backs Boston police in rights suit

Verdicts a setback for freed inmate

Shawn Drumgold served 15 years on a murder charge.

A federal jury all but cleared yesterday two former Boston police detectives who were sued for allegedly violating the civil rights of Shawn Drumgold in the 1988 fatal shooting of 12-year-old Darlene Tiffany Moore, one of the city's most notorious homicides.

On the fourth day of deliberations, the jury in US District Court in Boston found that retired detectives Timothy Callahan and Richard Walsh did not violate Drumgold's right to a fair trial in 10 instances. They had been accused of manipulating evidence, withholding information that could have cleared Drumgold, and conspiring against him.

Drumgold served 15 years in prison for Moore's killing, which became a symbol of drug- and gang-fueled street violence in Boston, until several witnesses recanted in 2003 and a state judge threw out the verdict. But Boston police and Suffolk County prosecutors never exonerated him.

Yesterday, the federal jury found that Callahan violated Drumgold's civil rights in only one of 11 claims that were printed on the court's verdict form: concealing that the detective gave a crucial prosecution witness "a substantial amount of money" before the witness testified at the murder trial.

At issue is what constitutes a substantial amount of money. Callahan testified at the trial, which started last month, that he gave $20 to Ricky Evans, a homeless teenager who implicated Drumgold in Moore's fatal shooting. Evans testified that Callahan regularly gave him cash that ultimately totaled hundreds of dollars, said Drumgold's lawyer.

Callahan's lawyer, Mary Jo Harris, immediately asked US District Judge Nancy Gertner to set aside that one verdict, saying the amount of money Evans allegedly received could not have been enough to result in Drumgold's wrongful conviction.

"I think Ms. Harris raises an interesting point," said Gertner, who scheduled a hearing for this morning to discuss whether the case should proceed. The jury is scheduled to return to court tomorrow.

If the jury found that Drumgold's civil rights had been violated, the lawsuit was expected to enter a second phase during which jurors would decide whether the city and former police commissioner Francis M. Roache were also liable. In the third phase, the jury was to determine damages.

Lawyer Rosemary Scapicchio, who began representing Drumgold more than 17 years ago, two years after he began his prison sentence, appeared crestfallen after the verdict. She said it is unclear what will happen.

Gertner might ask jurors to resume deliberations and define what they meant by a substantial amount of money for Evans, she said. Gertner also could end the case - meaning Drumgold would receive no award for 15 years in prison - or send it directly to the damages phase, Scapicchio said.

Howard Friedman, a Boston lawyer whose client Neil Miller received a $3.2 million settlement from the city in 2006 for his wrongful conviction in a rape case, said an undisclosed cash payment to Evans would violate Drumgold's right to a fair trial.

"But it's a very limited claim on which the plaintiff has won," said Friedman, who is not involved in the Drumgold lawsuit. "The question is, what damages flow from that?"

If Gertner allowed the jury to consider whether the city and the former police commissioner are liable, Friedman said, Drumgold would have to prove that the city had a policy of allowing officers to give witnesses money without telling prosecutors, who are required to share that sort of information with the defense.

Drumgold, who told a reporter at the start of the federal trial that it had rekindled painful memories, looked subdued while speaking with his mother, Juanda Drumgold, in the hallway after the verdict. He declined to comment to the media.

Callahan and Walsh left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.

William F. Sinnott, the city's corporation counsel, beamed after the verdict.

"We've always maintained that these two police officers are fine individuals who did not violate Mr. Drumgold's rights, and we're confident that when all the proceedings are over, they and the City of Boston will be vindicated," said Sinnott, who oversaw the outside legal team that defended the city at trial.

The Boston Police Department has recently faced a spate of wrongful conviction suits, but officials balked at paying Drumgold.

Through January, before the trial started, the city's defense had cost taxpayers $1.23 million in legal fees and expenses, according to Sinnott. The trial, which enters its 23d day today, has raised the total considerably, he said yesterday. "But I'm sure you'd agree that whatever we pay them isn't enough."

Darlene Tiffany Moore was struck by two stray bullets as she sat on a mailbox on a Roxbury street corner talking to friends on the night of Aug. 19, 1988. Two gunmen wearing Halloween masks fired at a crowd in what police believed was a gang shooting that killed an innocent bystander.

Ten days later, the case seemed to have been solved when Drumgold, then 22, and a second man, Terrence Taylor, were charged with killing the girl. Drumgold was convicted the following year; Taylor was acquitted by the trial judge because no witness placed him at the scene.

But Suffolk prosecutors reopened the case in 2003 after several prosecution witnesses interviewed by the Globe recanted statements and testimony used to convict Drumgold. The witnesses said police had bullied them into providing incriminating evidence, and the trial judge threw out the conviction.

But in every instance except one yesterday, the federal jury - which was barred from considering whether Drumgold was innocent or not - rejected contentions that Callahan and Walsh were responsible for the wrongful conviction.

Those assertions included an allegation that the officers concealed that a key eyewitness was suffering from brain cancer when she implicated Drumgold. It also included assertions that the officers failed to tell prosecutors that police put Evans up in a Howard Johnson's free for eight months before the trial and cleared up a handful of his outstanding arrest warrants.

Some legal specialists said that lawyers for the officers may have persuaded jurors that Callahan and Walsh fulfilled their duty by sharing such information with prosecutors and that the district attorney's office neglected to pass it on to the defense. (Prosecutors have immunity in federal civil rights suits).

Regardless of the verdict in the rights suit, Drumgold can still seek $500,000 from the state to compensate for years spent behind bars as a result of a wrongful conviction, but the state attorney general's office could oppose that.

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.