BALTIMORE, Md. – After serving 32 years in prison — including a decade on death row — following a wrongful conviction for murder, a Maryland man is now suing the prosecutors and police detectives who mismanaged the case, according to an article from The Washington Post. Four of the five people being sued have now died.
John N. Huffington is now 62, though his arrest took place in 1981 when he was 18, as The Washington Post reported. He was released in 2013 after undergoing two trials. The main prosecutor on his case was Joseph I. Cassilly.
With Huffington’s help, Cassilly was disbarred in 2021 after it was revealed that the former prosecutor had withheld evidence. A reporter from The Washington Post had found a letter, sent from the FBI to Cassilly in 1999, stating that the agent who provided the evidence used to convict Huffington had falsely testified and that it could no longer hold up in court. Cassilly, however, never told anyone about the letter.
As reported by The Washington Post, at the end of his second trial in 2017, Huffington reluctantly entered an Alford plea, in which the accused acknowledges that the evidence is sufficient for a finding of guilt but does not admit guilt. He was sentenced to 32 years in state prison, including a decade on death row.
He was released in 2013, after The Washington Post uncovered information in 2011 regarding the FBI’s use of flawed evidence, exposing that Huffington was not connected to the evidence used in the 2013 trials — proving his innocence.
He was pardoned by Governor Larry Hogan in 2023 and awarded $2.9 million through a state program that compensates the wrongfully convicted. He is now suing Cassilly, Assistant State’s Attorney Gerard Comen, the Harford County government, and three Harford County Sheriff’s Office detectives — David Saneman, William Van Horn and Wesley J. Picha. All of the people being sued have now died except for Saneman, who declined to comment, according to The Washington Post.
As The Post reported, Huffington outlined in a news release how his wrongful imprisonment deeply and traumatically damaged his life, including stories of harmed relationships. The Washington Post described how prison officials did not allow him to attend his mother’s funeral and how his father had Alzheimer’s by the time he was released.
“It took many, many painful years, but the truth eventually came out about my case,” Huffington said. “But here’s another painful truth: All of those years I spent behind bars damaged and strained my relationships. Neither of my parents ever got to see and understand my name was cleared and I was free.”
Huffington’s lawsuit cites five other cases in which Cassilly and Van Horn “coerced witnesses into false testimony,” as The Washington Post reported, and disclosed that Cassilly had withheld additional evidence in other cases as well.
“These convictions were fundamentally wrongheaded and never should have happened,” Antonio M. Romanucci, one of Huffington’s lawyers, said. “John Huffington paid dearly for the insufficient investigation and prosecution with decades of his life, deep trauma to his personal relationships, and a derailment of his reputation, career aspirations and earning potential.”
U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson will hear the case in Baltimore.
