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Streater: Lost 24 years of his life to a crooked prosecution.
On Monday Troy Streater was sworn in for his first full term a city alder. On Tuesday he sued the city for $50 million in punitive damages and $50 million in compensatory damages for the two dozen years he spent in prison on a wrongful conviction.
57-year-old Streater, who won the special election for Ward 21 alder in January 2023, received a state pardon in April 2022 after being wrongfully convicted of murdering 19-year-old Terrance Gamble in Newhallville in 1990, when he was 23 years old. He spent 24 years in prison as a result of a case based on no physical evidence but primarily on false testimony later revealed to be coerced, including by a woman who testified she’d been threatened by cops with retaliation against her and her child.
In a suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Streater is seeking compensation from the city and accountability for a system that forced him to serve time for a crime he had always maintained he did not commit.
“In January 2023, Mr. Streater was elected a member of the City of New Haven’s Board of Alders — a testament not only to his strength, character, and resilience, but also the potential destroyed by Greene, DiLullo, and the City of New Haven’s violation of his constitutional rights,” Streater’s complaint states in part.
“Mr. Streater now brings this case to seek redress in damages for the grievous harms inflicted by his wrongful conviction and incarceration, to hold the City of New Haven Police Department accountable for the misconduct that ruined his life, and to prevent this miscarriage of justice from occurring to anyone else in the future.”
Streater’s 10 listed claims against the defendants include malicious prosecution, failure to intervene, fabricating evidence against him, and withholding exculpatory evidence, depriving him of a right to a fair trial.
The complaint details the missteps taken by the New Haven officers involved in the Gamble case: Joseph Greene, Robert Lawlor, Vincent Raucci and Vaughn Maher.
Greene and now-deceased officer Anthony DiLullo, especially, are described as having fabricated evidence and intimidated four witnesses whose testimonies helped convict Streater. All four, including a young boy who was told by the officers his testimony would keep his mother out of jail, have since recanted their statements and spoken up about the intimidation they faced. There was no other physical or forensic evidence tying Streater to the murder.
City Corporation Counsel Patricia King declined to comment on the specifics of the suit, which she hadn’t received yet.
Streater referred questions for this story to his lawyer, Alex Taubes.
“If Greene and DiLullo had not basically fabricated these witness statements against Troy, if they had not intimidated people and coerced people to testify against Troy, there wouldn’t have been a case in the first place. There was no physical or forensic evidence tying him to the crime,” Taubes told the Independent Wednesday.
“He never would have spent those 24 years in prison. He would not have been taken away from his family. He would have been able to continue with his life, his family, his career.”
The complaint lists several instances of similar behavior from the two officers, as well as the New Haven Police Department more generally, that preceded Streater’s case and lasted for decades.
The complaint names not only the four officers involved in Streater’s case as defendants, but also then-Police Chief Nicholas Pastore, who served in his position from 1990 – 1997, and the city of New Haven. It alleges that although neither officer was ever disciplined, the city knew of their actions.
The $100 million is meant to compensate Streater for the 24 years he spent in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and the harm caused to both him and the people close to him. Streater, who had been employed by the Southern New England Telecommunications Corporation before his arrest, was not able to make any money during that time, or to be with his three children, or to attend the funerals of loved ones after they died, the complaint states.
Taubes said the high figure sought is also intended to deter the city from falsely imprisoning people in the future.
Corporation Counsel King said that given Streater’s elected position, her office will review “what, if any, potential conflicts of interest and ethical implications may arise with the filing of this lawsuit.”
Streater became an alder in a mid-term special election. He won reelection, to a full term that began Monday.
He likely will not be able to vote on the settlement of his own case, but otherwise will not face any conflict of interest, Taubes said: It would be no different if a police officer had rear-ended Streater’s car, and he sought compensation from the city.
“Simply because you’re an alder does not mean that you cannot go to the courts to seek justice for a historical wrong that’s been done to you,” he said.
Correction 1/4/2023: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Robert Lawlor, Jr. as one of the four officers named as defendants in the lawsuit. This was an error in the lawsuit itself, and the correct name of the defendant is Robert Lawlor. Robert Lawlor, Jr. was not a New Haven police officer at the time or involved in Troy Streater’s case. This article has been updated to reflect this.