Boston quietly cut an $11 million check last August to Joseph Jabir Pope, a Dorchester man who spent nearly four decades behind bars before judges tossed his murder conviction. Pope, now 73, was first released from custody in December 2021 and later launched a federal civil-rights case against the city. The payout was never publicly announced and only came to light after reporters dug it out of city records.
Settlement Surfaced In City Paper Trail
According to The Boston Globe, the city and Pope reached the settlement in August, memorialized in a seven-page agreement that explicitly states Boston does not admit liability. The Globe reports the payment was logged in municipal documents as a “civil rights discrimination” matter, and officials said the city opted to pay rather than roll the dice on further litigation costs and uncertainty. Mayor Michelle Wu’s office declined to comment, and attorneys for Pope did not immediately respond, the outlet noted.
How Pope’s Conviction Came Apart
State court records show Pope was convicted in 1986 for the 1984 killing of Efrain DeJesus and served roughly 37 years before the state’s highest court vacated the conviction in June 2022. Prosecutors had withheld a key prosecutorial memorandum, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. That so-called Goodale memo contained witness statements and notes that the court said undercut the prosecution’s story. Prosecutors later moved to dismiss the case entirely, telling the court that lost files and the deaths of lead detectives made a retrial impracticable. Pope had already been released from custody in December 2021 while appeals and review of the case were still underway.
Federal Lawsuit Claims Evidence Was Manufactured
In April 2024, Pope filed a federal civil-rights suit accusing Boston Police detectives of coercing a key witness, Bienvenido DeJesus, to fabricate testimony and alleging a broader pattern of withholding and manufacturing evidence. Court filings on the federal docket show the complaint specifically names Detective Peter O’Malley and pursues Monell and other state-law claims against the city. A federal judge in November 2024 granted part of the city’s motion to dismiss but refused to throw out everything, allowing certain claims, including municipal liability theories, to move into discovery, according to the court record.
Part Of A Costly Pattern Of Payouts
The $11 million deal is one more entry in a growing list of multi-million-dollar settlements tied to overturned convictions and police-related claims in Boston in recent years. City settlement records detail other high-profile payouts, including a $16 million settlement related to the Sean Ellis case and additional seven-figure agreements that together have pushed civil-rights payouts into the tens of millions, according to municipal records published by the City of Boston. Officials typically emphasize that such settlements are not admissions of wrongdoing but calculated moves to avoid drawn-out, expensive court fights.
Legal Stakes For Boston Go Beyond The Check…