Connecticut will pay nearly $5.9 million to the family of a disabled man who was wrongfully imprisoned for more than two decades before being freed in 2015 when his 1992 conviction In the murder and rape of an 88-year-old grandmother was destroyed.
Richard LaPointe, who died at age 74 in 2020, had Dandy-Walker syndrome, a rare congenital brain malformation that his lawyers say was a factor in his false confession. Lapointe was never found innocent, but his lawyers and the attorney general’s office eventually agreed to settle charges after years of legal battles.
The state claims the commissioner’s office on Jan. 2 awarded the money to the family, although it still must be approved by the Legislature. The Claims Commissioner’s office determines whether people can file lawsuits against the state or receive money under the state’s wrongful incarceration law.
Claims Commissioner Robert Shea Jr. said his office agreed the price is “reasonable and appropriate.”
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In this April 10, 2015, Photo, Richard Lapointe, center, raises his arms with Kate Germond, left, and Paul Casteleiro, both of Centurion Ministries, after being granted bail and released at the Connecticut Supreme Court in Hartford, Connecticut. (AP)
Lapointe’s lawyer, Paul Casteleiro, said the award “is a recognition of the state of the wrong it committed in prosecuting and imprisoning an innocent man. Unfortunately, Richard did not live long enough to witness his last justification.”
“The award is by no means sufficient compensation for what was done to Richard Lapointe,” Casteleiro said Friday, adding that the state destroyed his client’s life “for a crime he did not commit.”
The attorney general’s office said in a statement Friday that it was “negotiating a resolution of this claim in the best interest of all parties. This reflects that process.”
In 1987, Lapointe’s wife’s grandmother, Bernice Martin, was stabbed, raped and strangled in her burning apartment in Manchester, Conn.
Lapointe was convicted in Martin’s murder in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release. Key evidence in the case included Lapointe’s confessions during a nearly 10-hour interrogation by Manchester police.
His lawyers claimed that his mental disability was attributed to him by giving false confessions and that the confession was coerced without his lawyers present.
Lapointe was convicted of murder in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release. (Istock)
The state Supreme Court ruled 4-2 in a 2015 decision that LaPointe was deprived of a fair trial because prosecutors failed to disclose notes by a police officer That may have supported an Alibi defense. Later that year, prosecutors said new DNA tests did not implicate Lapointe and all charges were dropped.
No one else has been charged in Martin’s murder.
Lapointe was released from custody a short time later and left the Hartford courthouse wearing a black T-shirt that said “I Don’t Do It” while throwing his hands in the air in Triumph.
“Of course I didn’t do it,” Lapointe said at the time. ‘I wasn’t. I wouldn’t do anything else with anyone. I wouldn’t even kill my worst enemy.’
Casteleiro said the case against Lapointe destroyed his family, who shunned him.
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The state Supreme Court ruled 4-2 in a 2015 decision that LaPointe was denied due process. (Istock)
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Before Martin’s death, Lapointe and his wife, who has cerebral palsy, “made a life together.” They were doing well,” said Casteleiro. But after his arrest, his wife divorced him and he lost all contact with his son, who was young at the time.
After his release from prison, Lapointe began suffering from dementia, was placed in a nursing home in East Hartford and died after a battle with Covid-19, according to his attorneys.
LaPointe has been supported by several attorneys, including the groups of Friends of Richard Lapointe and Centurion, an organization that serves Casteleiro, for which it was wrongly convicted.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
