Keith Cooper (center) shakes hands with his attorneys after a press conference in Chicago on Wednesday, May 4.
(Screenshot Captured Via Facebook Live)
The city of Elkhart has agreed to settle a wrongful conviction lawsuit for $7.5 million dollars — the state’s largest wrongful conviction settlement so far.
Keith Cooper served more than seven years in prison for a 1996 armed robbery and attempted murder that he didn’t commit.
Cooper’s civil suit claims investigators fabricated testimony, manipulated witness lineups and disregarded DNA evidence that proved his innocence.
“Mr. Cooper’s wrongful conviction did not happen by accident nor was it an aberration,” Cooper’s attorney, Elliot Slosar, said in a release. “Through this case, he has paved the way for other wrongfully convicted people from Elkhart to get a fair chance at justice.”
DNA testing in 2002 connected the robbery and attempted murder to a serial offender in Michigan who was already serving time for a separate murder.
In 2017, Cooper became the first person in Indiana to win a governor’s pardon based on actual innocence. And now, he’ll receive $7.5 million from the city of Elkhart, or about $1.1 million for each year of wrongful incarceration.
“On behalf of the entire City of Elkhart to Mr. Cooper and his family, we regret the suffering you have experienced,” a statement released by the city reads. “We are hopeful that this settlement will bring Mr. Cooper closure and peace to move forward with his life.
At a press conference in Chicago Wednesday, Cooper said the money won’t replace the years he spent in prison. But it could be used to help others who are wrongfully incarcerated.
“It helps me to build a better tomorrow with my family, and for that I am grateful,” he said. “And for all those other Keith Coopers out there — keep your hopes and faith, because we’re here to help.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs and defendants filed notice of the settlement Tuesday in a South Bend federal court. They didn’t disclose the terms of the deal but said the lawsuit would be dismissed with prejudice, meaning it couldn’t be refiled, if payment is made within 45 days.
Corinne Straight, Elkhart’s director of communications, said city officials were aware that there had been a settlement involving Cooper’s lawsuit but that they wouldn’t discuss it publicly until later Wednesday.
Cooper, 54, waspardoned in February 2017 by Gov. Eric Holcomb, who said he believed Cooper had been wrongly convicted in a 1996 armed robbery in Elkhart during which a teenager was shot and wounded. Holcomb cited the state parole board’s support for the pardon, along with the backing of the prosecutor and witnesses in the case.
Cooper was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the robbery, but advances in DNA testing and a nationwide offender database excluded him as the attacker and identified another person.
The Indiana Court of Appeals overturned his co-defendant’s conviction in 2005, and Cooper was given the choice of being released with a felony record or facing a new trial before the same judge who convicted him. He elected to be released in 2006 to go home to his wife and three children, who at times were homeless during his incarceration.
Cooper’s pardon by Holcomb was followed in March 2017 by a judge’s approval of the expungement of his armed robbery conviction.
Cooper had sought a pardon since 2009 and the deputy prosecutor who handled his trial asked then-Gov. Mike Pence in 2015 to approve the pardon to remove the felony conviction.
But Pence’s general counselnotified Slosar in September 2016, two months after Pence became Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate, that he believed Cooper needed to first exhaust all his options in court for having the conviction overturned before a pardon would be considered.
At the time of his arrest, Cooper had no criminal convictions, was a married father of three and was gainfully employed and providing for his family, according to his lawsuit. But after he was wrongfully incarcerated, the suit said his wife was forced to sell the family’s belongings and had “to live in shelters to survive.”
Cooper’s lawsuit accused the Elkhart Police Department of employing a “routine practice” of pursuing wrongful convictions “through reckless and profoundly flawed investigations” that included false evidence and reports and coerced evidence. It also contended that supervising officers knew of this misconduct but failed to properly supervise those officers.
