Two men who were wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for the 1984 rape and murder of a Long Island teen have been awarded $18 million each by a federal jury, $1 million for each year they spent in prison.
The men, John Restivo and Dennis Halstead, were convicted of raping and fatally strangling 16-year-old Theresa Fusco near a rollerskating rink in Nassau County in November 1984. They were incarcerated along with a third man, John Kogut, but charges were dismissed in 2003 after DNA evidence proved the rape and murder had been committed by someone else—that person has not yet been apprehended.
As part of a recent wrongful conviction suit, it was determined that then-lead detective Joseph Volpe had planted hair evidence and concealed other evidence from prosecutors that would have vindicated both men. "When a promising initial lead reached a dead end, Volpe, desperate to solve this high profile crime, planted hairs from the victim’s head in John Restivo’s van, and deliberately hid evidence that proved their innocence,” Nick Brustin, an attorney for Restivo and Halstead, said in a statement. “Today a jury finally acknowledged what the County never has — that its own officers’ intentional misconduct robbed these innocent men of eighteen years of their lives.”
Volpe died in 2011; Kogut has not won his wrongful conviction trial. Theresa Fusco's mother, though, believes that Restivo and Halstead are guilty; Concetta Napoli told Newsday, "I don't believe it. I don't see how they can get away with it. They are being rewarded for committing murder. It makes you lose a little faith in the system."
In February, David Ranta, who was wrongfully imprisoned for a Brooklyn murder for 23 years, was awarded $6.4 million in an out of court settlement with the city. That settlement is one of the largest the city has made with an individual.
