Connecticut to award $5.9 million to family of wrongfully imprisoned disabled man

[January 25, 2025]  By DAVE COLLINS

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — More than four years after his death, Richard Lapointe's family is set to receive a nearly $5.9 million award from Connecticut for his wrongful, quarter-century imprisonment that ended in 2015 when his murder conviction was overturned in the rape and killing of his wife's 88-year-old grandmother.

Lapointe's case became a cause celebre, receiving widespread publicity from advocates for the disabled and celebrities, including writers Arthur Miller and William Styron, who called for his release. Lapointe, who died at age 74 in 2020, had Dandy-Walker syndrome, a rare congenital brain malformation that his lawyers believe was a factor in his falsely confessing to the crime.

The award by the state claims commissioner's office, which now moves to the legislature for approval, was issued Jan. 2 after years of legal battles between Lapointe's lawyers and the state attorney general's office. Lapointe was never declared innocent, but the two sides eventually agreed to settle, leading to the award.

“The award is by no means adequate compensation for what was done to Richard Lapointe,” his attorney, Paul Casteleiro, said Friday. He said the state destroyed his life “for a crime he did not commit.”

The award, he said, is "a recognition by the state of the wrong it committed in prosecuting and imprisoning an innocent man. Sadly, Richard did not live long enough to witness his final vindication.”

Asked about the award and Lapointe's case, the attorney general's office released a brief statement Friday saying it “negotiated a resolution of this claim in the interests of all parties. This reflects that process.”

In his decision, Claims Commissioner Robert Shea Jr. said his office agreed that the award is “reasonable and appropriate.” The agency decides whether people can file lawsuits against the state or receive money under the state's wrongful incarceration law.

A spokesperson for the claims commissioner’s office did not immediately return an email message seeking additional comment.

Bernice Martin, the grandmother of Lapointe's wife, was found stabbed, raped and strangled in 1987 in her burning apartment in Manchester, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of Hartford.

In this April 10, 2015, file photo, Richard Lapointe, center, raises his arms with Kate Germond, left, and Paul Casteleiro, both of Centurion Ministries, after he was granted bail and released at the Connecticut Supreme Court in Hartford Conn. (Jared Ramsdell/Journal Inquirer via AP, File)

Lapointe, a dishwasher, was convicted of murder in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release, with key evidence including confessions he made during a 9 1/2-hour interrogation by Manchester police. His lawyers argued his mental disability made him vulnerable to giving false confessions, and alleged the confession was coerced without any defense lawyers present.

The state Supreme Court ruled 4-2 in 2015 that Lapointe was deprived of a fair trial because prosecutors failed to disclose notes by a police officer that may have supported an alibi defense. Later the same year, prosecutors said new DNA testing did not implicate Lapointe and all the charges were dropped. No one else has been charged in the killing.

Ten days after the court's ruling, Lapointe was freed and emerged from the Hartford courthouse wearing a black T-shirt that read “I didn't do it." He threw his hands into the air in triumph.

“Of course I didn’t do it,” Lapointe said. “That wasn’t me. I wouldn’t do nothing like that to nobody. I wouldn’t even kill my worst enemy.”

Casteleiro said the case destroyed Lapointe's family, who shunned him. Before the killing, Lapointe and his wife, who has cerebral palsy, “were making a life together. They were doing OK,” Casteleiro said. She divorced him after his arrest, and he lost all contact with his son, who was young at the time.

After he was released from prison, Lapointe began suffering from dementia, was placed in a nursing home in East Hartford and died after a bout with COVID-19, his lawyers said.

Through the years, he was supported by an array of advocates, including the groups Friends of Richard Lapointe and Centurion, a Princeton, New Jersey-based organization for whom Casteleiro works that helps the wrongly convicted.

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