Drumgold says he was beaten while imprisoned

His eyes grew misty as he showed jurors photographs of himself, his wife, and daughter that were taken during prison visits, as his child went from baby to teenager while he remained behind bars missing out on each milestone and holiday.

“I started losing hope in the system,’’ said Drumgold, 44, adding that he told his wife, Rachelle, that they should divorce so she could get on with her life, but she refused to leave him. Her faith was rewarded in November 2003 when a state judge overturned Drumgold’s conviction and set him free.

Drumgold took the stand in US District Court during the damages phase of his civil rights trial against a retired Boston police detective. Last week, the 11-member jury found that the detective, Timothy Callahan, concealed evidence that he supplied Ricky Evans, a key prosecution witness, with free housing at a Howard Johnson’s motel, fed him repeatedly, and paid him $20 during Drumgold’s 1989 trial. The jury found that Callahan violated Drumgold’s civil rights and caused his wrongful conviction.

Yesterday, jurors returned to court to begin deliberating how much money Callahan should pay to compensate Drumgold for his years in prison.

Drumgold’s wife, daughter Kiara, now 21, mother, and brother sat in the courtroom, several feet from Callahan and his family as jurors heard arguments from lawyers.

Attorney Hugh Curran, who represents Callahan, argued that prosecutors were aware in 1989 that Evans had been housed at the hotel and that it was their duty, not Callahan’s, to disclose it to Drumgold’s lawyer

The duty to disclose evidence “falls squarely on the shoulders of the district attorney’s office,’’ Curran said.

But Boston attorney Rosemary Scapicchio, who has represented Drumgold since 1991, said there was no evidence that Callahan told prosecutors about the favorable treatment he gave Evans. She also reminded jurors that they had already found Callahan liable.

“I want you to focus on what happened to Shawn Drumgold in those 15 years he spent in jail,’’ Scapicchio said. “How do you ever compensate somebody for 15 years of their life? You don’t get those years back.’’

Moore was slain Aug. 19, 1988, when she was struck by two stray bullets as she sat on a mailbox on a Roxbury street corner, talking to friends. She was caught in the crossfire as two gunmen wearing Halloween masks fired at a crowd in what police said was a gang shooting.

Evans was a key witness in the October 1989 trial that ended with Drumgold’s conviction for first degree murder.

A Globe investigative report in May 2003 challenged many aspects of Drumgold’s conviction, including favorable treatment of Evans that jurors were not told about.

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

Yesterday, Callahan’s lawyers called former Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Francis O’Meara to the stand in a bid to prove prosecutors were aware of Evans’s hotel stay.

O’Meara testified that he received a hotel bill for the stay in late 1989 and recalled discussing it with the prosecutor in Drumgold’s case.

But during blistering cross-examination by Scapicchio, O’Meara conceded that in prior proceedings he testified that he did not know whether he had discussed Evans’s bill with Callahan or the trial prosecutor. He said he only concluded the conversation was with the prosecutor after Callahan told him it was not with him.

“I’m asking you to hold Detective Callahan responsible for those 5,182 days’’ that Drumgold spent in prison after his conviction, Scapicchio told jurors. “I’m asking you to compensate him for those 15 years he spent away from his wife, away from his daughter, away from his life.’’

The jury will resume deliberations this morning on damages.