Jeffrey Deskovic Wins $40 Million Suit Against Putnam County: News Report

A federal jury has found that ex-Putnam Sheriff’s Investigator Daniel Stephens, then an Investigator with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, fabricated evidence and coerced a false confession from Jeffrey Deskovic that led to his wrongful conviction of the 1989 rape and murder of a Peekskill High School classmate.

Deskovic was 17 when he was sentenced. Deskovic was exonerated in 2006 after serving almost 16 years in prison, when Steven Cunningham confessed after DNA evidence ignored during the trial identified him.

Several lawsuits were filed. Westchester County settled in 2011 for $6.5 million. The city of Peekskill settled for $5.4 million, and Putnam wanted to settle but Deskovic wanted a trial, according to The Journal News. Putnam will only have to pay $10 million, due to a pre-trial settlement.

Attorney Nick Brustin told TJN reporter Jon Bandler that the jury awarded $25 million for Deskovic’s years in prison and $15 million for the long-term and future effects of that prison time.

Read the entire article on lohud.com.

Read the Innocence Project’s file on the Deskovic case.