Prince George’s County lost its bid to not pay nearly $7 million to a man who spent eight months in prison after being wrongly accused of raping and killing his wife.
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals upheld the award, confirming an earlier ruling that the Prince George’s County Police Department has shown of pattern of “unconstitutional police conduct.”
Keith Longtin’s wife was raped and stabbed to death while jogging near her Laurel home more than 10 years ago. Prince George’s County police suspected that Longtin was the murderer and subjected him to 38 hours of questioning with only 50 minutes of sleep while shoving pictures of his dead wife in front of him and reading Bible verses to coax him into confessing, court records show.
Police said Longtin, a former ironworker, essentially confessed — which Longtin denied.
He spent eight months in jail, lost all his belongings, was attacked by another inmate and prohibited from attending his wife’s funeral.
During much of his time in jail, county detective Ronald Herndon withheld DNA evidence that cleared Longtin from the murder and linked serial rapist, Antonio Oesby, to the crime, court records show. Oesby was later convicted of the murder.
A jury awarded Longtin $6.4 million in 2006, which was later reduced to about $5 million. Since state law requires that an award accrue 10 percent interest until it is paid, the county’s lengthy appeal has added an nearly an extra $2 million to the award, according to Longtin’s attorney, Cary Hansel.
The county argued that Longtin’s award was invalid because he hadn’t sued within the six months allowed by law after he was arrested, and that any compensatory award from a local government should be capped at $200,000 as state law mandates.
The appeals court ruled that the six-month window didn’t apply to Longtin’s case because he was behind bars when the six-month marked passed while police withheld DNA evidence that cleared him of the crime. The court said the cap on damages didn’t apply because it wasn’t written into law at the time of Longtin’s arrest.
A county spokesman said the county is considering appealing to the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court. Hansel noted that every day the award isn’t paid an additional $1,400 in interest is added.
“Unfortunately for the taxpayers, that’s all taxpayer money,” Hansel said.
