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Jury finds for Drumgold in civil rights suit

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 14, 2009 02:53 PM

By Jonathan Saltzman and Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

A federal jury in Boston found today that a retired Boston police detective violated the civil rights of Shawn Drumgold, causing him to be wrongfully convicted for the notorious 1988 slaying of 12-year-old Darlene Tiffany Moore.

Shawn Drumgold

The jury did not award monetary damages, but the case is expected to continue in US District Court on Monday. The 11-member jury deliberated five days before it concluded that retired detective Timothy Callahan violated Drumgold’s rights by concealing that he had housed Ricky Evans, a key prosecution witness, at a Howard Johnson, fed him repeatedly, and paid him $20, according to one of Drumgold’s lawyers, Rosemary Scapicchio.

"This is the first time somebody has said that Callahan was wrong, what he did with Ricky Evans was wrong, and that Shawn spent 15 years in jail as a result of it," she said. "It's a huge victory for us to get recognition."

The jury rejected Drumgold's allegation that Callahan intentionally or recklessly obtained false statements or manufactured evidence regarding Evans's testimony. It also rejected Drumgold's claim that Callahan deliberately withheld evidence from prosecutors or that police promised Evans favorable treatment on criminal cases that were pending against him.

In April 2008, another federal jury found that Callahan violated Drumgold’s civil rights by withholding evidence about Evans but was unable to agree on whether it resulted in Drumgold’s wrongful conviction. Judge Nancy Gertner, who is presiding over the current trial, declared a mistrial in the first one.

Moore was slain Aug. 19, 1988, in a shooting that came to symbolize an epidemic of street violence in Boston. She was struck by two stray bullets as she sat on a mailbox on a Roxbury street corner, talking to friends. Two gunmen wearing Halloween masks and black clothes fired at a crowd in what police contended was a gang shooting that felled an innocent bystander.

Evans was a key witness in the 1989 state murder trial in Suffolk County that ended with Drumgold’s conviction. A Globe investigative report in May 2003 challenged many aspects of the conviction, including favorable treatment of Evans that jurors were unaware of.

Evans recanted his testimony at a hearing the same year, prompting a state judge to overturn the conviction and free Drumgold. Prosecutors opted not to retry Drumgold but stopped short of saying he was innocent.

The next step in the case is not entirely set, but the jury could begin deliberations on Monday about how much the retired detective should pay or hear Drumgold's lawyers present related allegations against the city. If the jury hears the case against the city, they would then determine the total damages as a whole.