Ridgefield Attorney Gets Client $8M for Wrongful Murder Conviction: Report

RIDGEFIELD, CT —W. James Cousins a Ridgefield attorney representing Cathy Watkins who was wrongfully convicted of murdering a livery driver in 1995, helped his client to get an $8 million settlement, according to New York Law Review.

New York City and New York state will pay over $66 million to six people who served lengthy prison terms for two 1995 Bronx murders, the report stated.

Devon Ayers, Michael Cosme and Carlos Perez were convicted of murdering livery car driver Baithe Diop and FedEx Executive Denise Raymond, according to the reporty, and Eric Glisson and Cathy Watkins were convicted of Diop's murder.

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, on January 17, 1995, FedEx executive Denise Raymond, 38, was bound, gagged and blindfolded in her Bronx apartment and shot twice in the head. Less than 24 hours after Raymond was found, Baithe Diop, a 43-year-old New Harlem Car Service driver, was shot and killed a block from Raymond’s apartment, the report stated.

A drug addict named Miriam Tavares told police she heard Diop being shot and saw people flee from his car after the shots were fired, the report said. She later identified them as Ayers, Cosme, Perez, Vasquez, 18-year-old Eric Glisson, and 27-year-old Cathy Watkins.

In September 1997, Glisson and Watkins went on trial separately for the Diop murder and were convicted based on the testimony of the car service dispatcher and Tavares and each was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, the National Registry of Exonerations said.

Federal authorities later questioned Bronx narcotics gang called "Sex Money and Murder," including former members Jose Rodriguez and Gilbert Vega who told police that they had each shot the driver and fled, the National Registry of Exonerations said. Vega and Rodriguez pleaded guilty to robbery charges based on their own admissions.

According to the report, In 2012 after an investigation by Centurion Ministries, a New Jersey-based organization that investigates wrongful convictions, it was determined that Vega and Rodriguez were the murderers and that Ayers, Cosme, Glisson, Perez, and Watkins were innocent, the report said. Glisson and Watkins were released from prison on bond in October 2012. On December 13, 2012, the charges against Glisson and Watkins were dismissed.

The National Registry of Exonerations stated that Federal civil rights lawsuits were filed in 2014 on behalf of Ayers, Glisson, Watkins and Cosme. The lawsuits were settled for $8 million in April 2016. Ayers, Watkins and Glisson subsequently filed claims for compensation in the New York Court of Claims. Each received $3,890,000 in settlements.

Watkins was represented by W. James Cousins of Ridgefield and Paul Casteleiro of Hoboken, New Jersey.

Click here to read the full report on the National Registry of Exonerations website.