an innocent man wrongfully convicted in New York is finally out of prison after 26 years, and suing the NYPD officers that clearly framed him, hid evidence that he was innocent, and lost other evidence that would have cleared him.

The case joins a growing group of lawsuits filed against NYPD officers involved in wrongful conviction cases from the 1990s, when a mayoral commission uncovered rampant corruption and misconduct within the NYPD as crime reached record levels in the city. Last year, three of the four most expensive payouts for NYPD-related lawsuits — totaling $35.5 million — went to men who spent decades in prison for convictions from the 1990s that were later vacated.

Peets’ lawsuit paints a similar picture of officers who his lawsuit claims used shoddy tactics to solve an attempted murder of police and civilians, even if it meant convicting the wrong person. It also criticizes the department’s evidence preservation practices, which recently came under scrutiny after a fire severely damaged a department’s warehouse, destroying scores of materials that experts worry could make it harder to reexamine other potentially wrongful convictions.

https://gothamist.com/news/man-freed-after-26-years-behind-bars-sues-nypd-officers-who-helped-send-him-to-prison