Putnam and Carmel Face Lawsuit Against Exonerated Man
Free from prison after a wrongful conviction locked him up for almost eight years, William Haughey intends to file a federal lawsuit against New York State, Putnam County, and the Town of Carmel.
Claiming he was falsely arrested and imprisoned, Haughey is also taking the state to the NYS Court of Claims for $25 million, on top of the federal action. His grievances, in a notice of claim obtained by The Putnam Examiner, include abuse of process, fabrication of evidence, violation of his rights, cruel and unusual punishment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The Carmel comptroller’s office confirmed it received a notice of claim and Putnam County Attorney Jennifer Bumgarner also confirmed the law department received a notice of claim.
In the claim, it asserts Putnam and Carmel participated in negligent hiring, retention, training, discipline, and supervision in connection to the Bureau of Emergency Services and police agencies at the time of the incident in 2007.
Haughey, who now splits time between Florida and New York, was wrongfully convicted of setting a fire at Smalley‘s Inn inside the bathroom in March 2007. He was found guilty in April 2008 and sentenced to ten years.
He was exonerated and released this May after it was determined he was put away with faulty evidence that throws much doubt into whether an arson actually occurred.
Haughey’s attorney, Rita Dave, called it “an utter disregard for what took place,” adding, “they just decided to say, hey, sure, it’s an arson. You think this guy did it, sure we’ll arrest him.’ That’s what happen.”
“This was never an arson,” Dave continued to state. “And it was investigated improperly.”
Dave said the individuals that looked into the fire weren’t trained correctly as arson investigators and protocol wasn’t followed.
The claim states a level 1 fire investigator at the time, Robert Geoghegan, provided flawed testimony when he said the fire was incendiary in origin and it didn’t have an electrical or other cause. He inspected the fire 13 hours later, the claim states.
Because Geoghegan kept his investigation to the bathroom and space between the bathroom’s ceiling tiles and plywood layer above, he couldn’t rule out unintentional cause, the claim states. Geoghegan didn’t investigate the smoke-heater vent, and didn’t examine wires and circuitry the smoke heater vent was connected to. He also failed to determine whether the inn was equipped with a circuit breaker or fuse box, failed to inspect the fire damage above the plywood layer and didn’t document the whereabouts of the supposed paper material that witnesses claimed was removed or fell from the ceiling, the claim states.
“Just took at face value that this was an arson and that Haughey started the fire,” Dave said. “He never looked for anything else.”
During his criminal trial, Haughey’s counsel didn’t secure an arson expert on his behalf, depriving him of an effective defense, the claim states. He was found guilty under the prosecution of former district attorney Adam Levy.
“The mere fact that the owner of the establishment had fixated upon the defendant was an instrumental factor in bringing about Haughey’s false arrest and wrongful conviction,” the claim states.
The claim noted current District Attorney Bob Tendy stated there was “nothing suspicious” about Haughey’s actions the night of the incident. Tendy was helpful in getting Haughey released once he took office in January and reviewed his case.
Smalley’s Inn owner Anthony Porto Jr. maintains that Haughey set the fire after the two men got into an argument that same night. He believes that Haughey was the first patron to rush into the bathroom where the fire took place to put it out because he’s the one who set it.
Dave said she hopes to negotiate a settlement with the parties for a reasonable money figure. While the state has a dollar amount attached to its lawsuit, Putnam and Carmel do not because of its size. She plans on reaching out to the parties included in the near future.
“And at any given time, I’m ready to sit down,” Dave said. “I don’t think this should go to trial and I don’t think this should be protracted.”
