Verdict Comes After Jury Finds the City of New Haven and Individual New Haven Police Department Officers Liable for Putting an Innocent Man in Prison for 21 Years

(Hartford, CT) After a month-long trial in the District of Connecticut, a jury has awarded Morant $38,000,000, the national civil rights firm Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger, LLP announced today. Morant was wrongfully convicted in 1994 for a crime he had nothing to do with. Though no amount of money can make up for what he went through, the verdict is powerful proof of what Morant has always maintained—he is innocent and his conviction happened because of egregious police misconduct.

The jury found not only that NHPD detectives made up false evidence and lied to frame Morant, but that the City of New Haven was directly responsible. Specifically, the jury found the City liable for its widespread custom and practice of suppressing evidence favorable to criminal defendants. Municipal liability claims are notoriously hard to prove, and the verdict against the City is a strong indictment of the City’s longstanding tolerance for widespread police corruption.

The jury also found former NHPD officer Vincent Raucci liable for the failure to disclose evidence favorable to criminal defendants and malicious prosecution and Maher and Raucci liable for coercion, fabrication, and civil rights conspiracy.

When he was wrongfully convicted at age 26, Morant was a loving father working to support his four young children in New Haven. His nightmare began when Raucci, a corrupt police officer involved in New Haven’s illegal narcotics trade framed him for a high-profile double homicide he did not commit and had nothing to do with. In fact, Morant was hundreds of miles away visiting family in North Carolina at the time of the murders.

Raucci and Maher threatened and coerced vulnerable witnesses, many of them teenagers, to pin the crime on Morant and his co-defendant Scott Lewis. They created sham audio recorded statements, stopping and starting the recordings to coach their witnesses off-tape on what to say.

Morant was released from prison in 2015 and received a full and unconditional pardon from the Connecticut State Board of Pardons and Paroles. Still, the City of New Haven took the extraordinary gamble of siding with Raucci at this trial. The City even doubled down on Morant’s guilt, opening this civil rights trial by arguing that Morant was a murderer and Raucci the truthful one, even after Raucci engaged in criminal witness tampering on the eve of trial.

“The systemic failures at the New Haven Police Department are the worst we’ve ever seen and the City’s failure to recognize and address these failures to this day is shocking and reprehensible,” said Anna Benvenutti Hoffmann. “The verdict should be a wake-up call to the City,” Hoffmann continued.

“Despite everything that he has been forced to endure, Mr. Morant has maintained extraordinary dignity and resilience at every step,” said Nick Brustin.

Today, Morant lives in the New Haven area with his wife, Kimberly, and is a public servant employed the City of New Haven. He enjoys spending time with his children, his “bonus” children (step-children), and grandchildren. He is a man of great faith and sings in his church choir; he also volunteers with the Innocence Project as a member of the Exoneree Advisory Council.

According to Morant, “Victory is mine. My faith has made me whole.”

Morant is represented by Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger, LLP, based in New York; his legal team includes partners Nick Brustin, Anna Benvenutti Hoffmann, and Amelia Green, attorneys Grace Paras, Katie Cion, and Elsa Mota, and paralegals Jackie Ochoa Acevedo and Priya Anand. Morant is also represented by co-counsel Kenneth Rosenthal of the Law Offices of Kenneth Rosenthal.