Two Miramar police officers, William Mantesta and George Pierson, framed 46-year-old Antony Caravella for the rape and murder of 58-year old Ada Cox Jankowski, on November 5, 1983. A federal appeals court has now ruled that the two cops must pay Caravella $7 million. The court decided that Mantesta is liable for $4 million and Peirson is liable for $3 million; the city is not going to foot the bill for the rogue officers.
The jury found that both had “while acting under color of state law as members of the City of Miramar Police Department, acted with malice or reckless indifference to Caravella”. The two officers violated his constitutional rights and coerced him into confessing. They also withheld evidence that would have cleared him of the crimes.
Then 15-year-old, Caravella, who had an IQ of 67 and considered mentally challenged, was arrested on December 28, 1983 on charges of brutally raping and stabbing Jankowski 29 times on the grounds of an elementary school in Miramar, Florida. He was sent to prison for 25 years for a crime he did not commit.
On September 10, 2009, Caravella was released from prison. The prosecution dismissed the charges on March 25, 2010 and cleared him of any involvement in the rape and murder through DNA testing. The case was re-opened and investigators found that DNA from the crime scene was a match or partial match to Anthony Martinez’s DNA, the man last seen with Jankowski.
In June 2011, a wrongful conviction suit was filed on behalf of Caravella against the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, the city of Miramar, and several former officers who lied and hid evidence – Mantesta and Pierson were the two culprits who fed the young Caravella information about Jankowski’s crime scene, and then tricked him to repeat it in a way that it looked like a confession.
Sources:
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Anthony_Caravella.php
not surprising….but it should have been the government that payed him the money. And at least 25 million. Those two officer should have been charged and prosecuted and anyone involved in the cover up should be fired and labeled as corrupt officers.
This is a disgrace a similar thing happened to myself except I didn’t serve time the system is 2 fucked up nowadays 7 million don’t give him back the 25 years that he lost and now that he’s innocent how many more innocent men are inside
Welcome to Florida. Its where God got pissed at America one day and shook the whole country all the shit fell down into Florida including the Law Enforcement.
Dont get caught feeding the homeless or spitting on the sidewalk here. Its a billion dollar industry locking people up here whether your innocent or guilty.
How can they say Caravella has an IQ of only 67? Just watch that short vid. There’s no way that guy is that dumb.
Unfortunately with the city not paying the fine he’ll probably never see much of it. There’s no way a cop can pay $4M in restitution – a cop will never make that much in his life. They’ll garnish their wages and he’ll get a small stipend of a few hundred dollars every month those two guys continue to work. If he’s lucky.
I think the cops should now pay by serving 25 years each.