Baltimore spending board OKs $48 million settlement to wrongfully convicted ‘Harlem Park Three’

BALTIMORE — Baltimore’s Board of Estimates on Wednesday approved a $48 million settlement for the wrongfully convicted trio dubbed the “Harlem Park Three” in a roughly four-decade-old murder case.

The settlement resolves a federal complaint brought by the three men, who were freed in 2019 by the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office after being accused of murder as teens. Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart and Ransom Watkins received writs of actual innocence after each serving 36 years in prison.

In the federal lawsuit, the three men accused former Baltimore Police detectives of misconduct during the investigation of the notorious 1983 killing of a Baltimore junior high school student, DeWitt Duckett, over a Georgetown University basketball jacket.

Detectives, according to the suit, coerced false statements from witnesses, including young people under the age of 18, and manufactured a narrative that pointed toward the three teens. Attorneys for the trio called the conduct a “longstanding pattern and practice” at the Baltimore Police Department.

Justin Conroy, chief legal counsel for the police department, told the Board of Estimates it was “difficult to defend this case,” given flaws in the case and the age of the conviction.

Conroy said each of the three men will get $14.9 million, which equates to $413,000 per year of incarceration. Attorneys will receive $3.3 million of the total $48 million settlement, he said.

The Board of Estimates approved the settlement in a unanimous voice vote.

Ebony Thompson, the acting city solicitor, said in a statement last week that the city agreed to the settlement “given the seriousness of the claims, the extensive time the three men served in prison and the risks associated with litigation before a jury.” Thompson added that the city has not admitted liability and has contested factual allegations.

The reinvestigation of the case was done under former State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who sought the exoneration for the three men following the office’s examination of the case alongside two nonprofit innocence projects.

Mosby’s team found BPD Detective Donald Kincaid and the prosecutor coached the testimony of four students, who later recanted, and that police discounted interviews from students who identified another suspect in the killing. That man has since died.

Mosby said in a statement last week that she was “extremely proud” of the group’s “relentless pursuit of truth and justice.”

“These men, through no fault of their own, were robbed of the most precious and irreplaceable elements of life,” she said. “They deserve more than any sum can offer in exchange for what was wrongfully taken from them.”

Conroy said Wednesday he does not believe there is any current investigation into police or prosecutorial misconduct, or into the 1983 killing.

Duckett’s killing was called the first homicide inside a Baltimore public school. Police said he was jumped by three other young people for his blue Georgetown jacket, and was shot in the neck, before collapsing in the school’s cafeteria.

Authorities at the time claimed a jacket found in Chestnut’s closet was Duckett’s — evidence that would be used to convict the three teens — but in 2019 acknowledged the jacket was actually a gift from his mother.

Prior to the city’s settlement, attorneys from the firm hired to represent police detectives said they “adamantly” denied improprieties in witness interviews and called Mosby’s reinvestigation “deeply flawed.”

Kincaid, one of the police detectives sued by the trio, was accused in court documents of threatening to put a 14-year-old’s “goddamn head” through a window and yelling at a 16-year-old witness, calling him a liar and threatening to charge him as an accessory to murder.

“He told me he would charge me, had me put in prison, separated from my family,” the second witness said in a January 2022 deposition in the case. “He became a god right there. This is a detective in a police department. I ain’t had no power. I ain’t got no say-so. I don’t have nothin’. I’m just sittin’ there quiet, following directions.”

Kincaid was also accused in court filings of telling one of the plaintiffs, after he’d been arrested, “I’m white, you Black, and I have a badge. Who do you think they going to believe at the end of the day?”

Officials on Wednesday could not answer whether the three detectives named in the suit, all of whom are retired, are still collecting pensions. But, in response to questioning from Council President Nick Mosby, Conroy confirmed this case would not be expected to affect the officers’ pensions.

This is the second wrongful conviction case the city has settled, Conroy said. There are three others on “active appeal,” and one that is in the discovery phase.

The other settled case was an exoneration based on DNA evidence. Malcolm Bryant served 17 years in prison for a 1998 killing of a 16-year-old girl before two DNA tests pointed to an unknown person and prosecutors concluded Bryant was not guilty. Bryant died early the following year at age 42.

Under State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, who took over the office in January, there have been no new exonerations, Conroy said.

The $48 million settlement approved Wednesday will be funded by the city through its risk management fund, according to Bob Cenname, the city’s deputy finance director. He said officials had set money aside for this potential settlement, knowing it involved multiple individuals and long prison terms.

Conroy noted the amount would resolve the case at less than $500,000 per year of wrongful incarceration, roughly half of what he said a jury would likely grant.

Mayor Brandon Scott, who was not present at the meeting, said in a statement read by his city administrator, Faith Leach, that the settlement is “necessary” and speaks to the “gross injustices” perpetuated against city residents.

“In 2023, we are literally paying for the misconduct of BPD officers decades in the past,” Scott’s statement said. “This is just part of the price our city must pay to right the wrongs of this terrible history. Looking back at incidents like the one that prompted the settlement underscores not only how far Baltimore Police Department has come, particularly in the past few years, but it just shows how painful that progress has been.”

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