Cleveland Men Reach $18 Million Settlement in Lawsuit against City of Cleveland and Former Detectives for Police Misconduct and Wrongful Conviction

Settlement brings to an end a 45-year “nightmare”

CLEVELAND, Ohio (May 8, 2020) – Kwame Ajamu, Wiley Bridgeman, and Rickey Jackson, who were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for a combined 100-plus years for a murder they did not commit, have resolved their lawsuit against the City of Cleveland in an $18 million settlement agreement.

Ajamu, formerly known as Ronnie Bridgeman, his older brother, Wiley Bridgeman, and their friend, Rickey Jackson, were just 17, 20, and 18 years old when they were accused and later convicted of the robbery and murder of Harold Franks in 1975. Their convictions hinged on the coerced testimony of a 12-year-old boy, Edward Vernon, and all three Cleveland men were sentenced to death. Their sentences were later commuted to life in prison.

Many years later, Vernon came forward to acknowledge that Cleveland police coerced him to testify falsely at the murder trial. After decades of fighting for their innocence, all three men were exonerated in 2014. Their civil rights case against the City of Cleveland and the estates of the police detectives who caused their wrongful convictions was set to go to trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio this summer.

Ajamu and Friedman, Gilbert + Gerhardstein partners Terry Gilbert and Jacqueline Greene, who represented Ajamu and Bridgeman, participated in a Video Press Conference, Friday, May 8 at 10 a.m.

This lawsuit and settlement expose the egregious misconduct by police who worked up the case, fabricated false evidence, withheld evidence of innocence, and then coerced Vernon into lying on the stand at trial. The settlement also marks the City of Cleveland’s failure to monitor and train rank and file police in the 1970s, reflected in the department’s widespread culture of racist policing and misconduct with impunity.

This settlement allows Ajamu, now 62, Bridgeman, 65, and Jackson, 63, to close the chapter on their long fight for freedom and proving their innocence. They can now focus fully on building their lives and their relationships with family and friends in the present, without carrying the weight of the government’s false accusations against them.

Reacting to this long-overdue resolution, Kwame Ajamu said, “I guess I would say to the world, I am elated and very satisfied that this day has finally come. I have family, I have a wife to consider for the rest of my life to live in peace and harmony.”

Gilbert, lead counsel for Ajamu and Bridgeman, said the settlement brings long overdue closure and rightful accountability.

“For 45 years, our clients never gave up hope that someday their nightmare would be over,” said Gilbert, who, along with Greene and attorney David Mills, represented Ajamu and Bridgeman in this lawsuit. “That time has come with this final resolution providing some measure of justice and closure. But the physical and emotional trauma our clients were forced to endure is an example of the deep flaws of a racist criminal legal system focused on results rather than truth and justice.”

A Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision issued in an earlier stage of litigation acknowledged this reality, citing the testimony of a retired Cleveland police commander, who testified, “Winning the case was what it was all about. It wasn’t about what was fair. It wasn’t about what was honest. It was about winning.”

Vernon’s decision to come forward about the police coercion cracked open this case. In their subsequent civil rights lawsuit against Cleveland and police who caused the wrongful convictions, Gilbert and Greene said a key to their clients’ victory was finding retired detectives who were around in 1975 and were willing to break the code of silence and reveal what happened back then.