Legal Justice
Jury awards practically $60M to former police officer for wrongful prosecution in intercourse assault case
Federal jurors in Detroit awarded about $58.5 million Tuesday to a person who was a police officer in Duval County, Florida, when he mentioned he was wrongly charged with sexually abusing a baby in Michigan. (Picture from Shutterstock)
Federal jurors in Detroit awarded about $58.5 million Tuesday to a person who was a police officer in Duval County, Florida, when he mentioned he was wrongly charged with sexually abusing a baby in Michigan.
Jurors awarded Sean MacMaster $33 million in compensatory damages in opposition to David Busacca, a Michigan State Police officer, and Brian Kolodziej, a former Michigan assistant legal professional normal, report the Detroit Free Press, the Related Press and WXYZ. Jurors additionally awarded punitive damages of $10 million in opposition to Busacca and $15 million in opposition to Kolodziej.
Jurors mentioned the defendants acted “deliberately, intentionally or with reckless disregard for the reality” in pursuing the fees.
Attorneys for MacMaster had alleged that Kolodziej pursued the fees to impress a girl near MacMaster’s ex-wife, who was engaged in a custody battle with MacMaster, in keeping with the AP.
Michigan Legal professional Basic Dana Nessel dropped the felony sexual conduct cost in opposition to MacMaster in 2021. At about that point, Kolodziej resigned from Nessel’s workplace amid proof that he was in a romantic relationship with a unique lady in a sexual assault case that he oversaw. In response to the AP, he pleaded no contest to willful neglect of obligation and gave up his regulation license.
Representing himself at trial, Kolodziej mentioned his resignation from the legal professional normal’s workplace “has completely nothing to do with the information of this case supporting possible trigger for an arrest warrant and a search warrant,” the AP reviews.
Busacca’s lawyer mentioned his consumer was a highway patrol trooper supervised by others, and he was “not going out on a limb right here to assist Brian Kolodziej get a girlfriend.”
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