Lawsuit claims law enforcement used any means necessary to wrongly convict James Hill in two 1980 cases
HAMMOND, Ind. (CBS) -- They used any means necessary to convict him – that is what attorneys are saying about several law enforcement outfits in Northwest Indiana when it comes to James Hill.
Hill has had two convictions overturned -- in the 1980 murder of a police officer at a Hammond, Indiana hotel, and in a rape the same year. As CBS 2's Chris Tye reported Friday, Hill is now seeking damages for the decades he has spent behind bars.
"It's over 20 years of my life been taken away for something I didn't do," Hill said, "and it's hard. It's really hard. "
Prosecutors convinced a jury Hill was the getaway car driver in the 1980 murder of Hammond police Officer Larry Pucalik at a Holiday Inn in Hammond where Pucalik was working security.
But Hill spent the bulk of his time put away on a different case -- a 1980 rape conviction.
In both cases, Hill says he was innocent. And in both he was later exonerated.
Prosecutors in both cases violated what is known as the Brady rule - failing to give Hill's defense team evidence at the time of trial that would have been helpful to their side.
In a lawsuit filed this week against the cities of Hammond, Valparaiso, Griffith, and others – as well as the Northwest Indiana Major Crimes Task Force and several of the individual officers handling his cases — Hill's lawyers argue these cities and police departments "created and maintained a... policy or practice of deliberate indifference to the constitutional rights of citizens, by failing adequately to train and supervise and discipline its police officers."
They argued "Hill's arrests; detentions; prosecutions; conviction and imprisonment for Pucalik's murder were the product of unconstitutional and unlawful efforts by the defendant law enforcement officers... to use any means necessary to obtain a conviction."
"They deliberately failed to turn over what they're obliged to turn over," said Hill's attorney, Scott King. "That's why it's called due process – it's a process that's due you."
"I was a 17-year-old kid," added Hill. "I'll be 60, and this is basically still not over."
In the 40 years since his arrest, the hotel where that murder occurred has been re-branded - and in a very real way, James Hill has rebuilt himself.
Out of prison 16 months, Hill is now a grandfather - and all cases have been dropped.
He is now asking a jury to decide what he is owed, and demanding that the cities that wronged him change their policies to prevent a case like his from happening again.
We reached out to a number of the cities and police agencies named in the lawsuit. They did not respond to our request for comment.