A former postal worker who spent 18 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit won the largest personal settlement the city has ever agreed to pay: $9.9 million. Thanks to the Innocence Project, Barry Gibbs was set free in 2005 after prosecutors' key witness admitted that Detective Louis Eppolito had forced him pick Gibbs out of a line up, even though the man he'd seen was smaller and shorter. Eppolito and his partner Stephen Caracappa are in prison for life for taking part in mob-related killings and doing other dirty work for the Luchese crime family.
Gibbs, a recovering drug addict, was just getting his life back together and returning to his postal service job in 1986 when he was accused of strangling a 27-year-old prostitute to death and dumping her near the Belt Parkway. Gibbs knew the woman, and his lawyers say Eppolito focused the investigation on him because he was trying to protect the real killer, who may have had mob ties. Of course, Eppolito says he's the one who was framed, and during a deposition two years ago kept saying, "You know I’m innocent. I’m a case for the Innocence Project."
Gibbs, who lives in Canarsie and has severe health problems, will pay the standard 1/3 of the settlement to attorney Barry Scheck, a co-director of the Innocence Project whose private firm handled his case. Gibbs tells the Times, "The settlement I’m happy with; it was my bottom-line settlement. They are permanent scars. It’s been a long road. I’ve been through a lot, and it was very traumatic for me." Speaking with the Post, he added, "I think the whole criminal-justice system needs an overhaul. It's not just the cops; it's the whole justice system. They're lucky that they got away with what they got away with."
