A federal appeals court reinstated a $2.3 million award to a homeless man who spent more than a year in solitary confinement before the government dropped its charges against him.
The government charged Marlow Humbert with committing sexual assault and placed him in pretrial solitary confinement, where he spent nearly 15 months.
The Baltimore City Police Department’s “questionable investigatory strategies” led to Humbert’s unlawful arrest, according to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion, which said the officers failed to tell the prosecutor that the victim could not identify Humbert as the attacker and DNA findings excluded him as a suspect.
“During Humbert’s 15-month detention, the officers never obtained any evidence of his criminality before or after his arraignment,” the appeals court said. “To the contrary, the victim continuously informed them that she could not identify Humbert. What is more, the officers received reports excluding Humbert as a source of the DNA found on the victim and her clothing” but did not give such information to the prosecutor as directed.
The prosecutor dropped the charges against Humbert after learning that information, and Humbert sued the government officials and law enforcement officers who caused his arrest and that “he believed sanctioned the deprivation of his liberty.”
A jury awarded Humbert $2.3 million in damages because it decided the law enforcement officers violated his constitutional rights, but a district court disagreed and said the officers were entitled to qualified immunity.
The 4th Circuit Appeals Court reversed the district court’s decision and reimposed the jury’s verdict, giving Humbert an unusual rags-to-riches story.
