HUNTINGTON — A man who spent more than 10 years of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit is suing the West Virginia State Police for their alleged misconduct in coercing a false confession.
Justin Black filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
"During an overnight interrogation in 2007, Justin told police the truth: he knew nothing about the murder of Deanna Crawford," the Feb. 22 complaint states. "But investigators ignored his answers and instead pressured Justin improperly for hours, demanding that he falsely confess. Eventually, under extreme psychological duress, the investigators unlawfully overcame his will and Justin signed a fabricated statement. In reality, Justin was entirely innocent."
The defendants named in the case are WVSP, Anthony Cummings, Kimberly Pack, Greg Losh, Mike Parde, Eddie Blankenship and other unknown officers.
Black claims because of the defendants’ unconstitutional misconduct, he was wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for second-degree murder. His conviction hinged on his coerced and false confession, and on the implausible claims of another man, Brian Dement, who struggled with mental health issues and who later recanted his false allegations, according to the suit.
"Before interrogating Justin, police had questioned Mr. Dement overnight and extracted three separate statements, all of which spun wildly different tales about the murder, but all of which implicated Justin," the complaint states. "Because Mr. Dement’s stories inculpated Justin, the defendants interrogated Justin and forced him to falsely confess. Ultimately, Justin’s coerced confession differed from Mr. Dement’s fictional statements. But the defendants combined the statements of both men to concoct a narrative falsely blaming Justin and Mr. Dement, plus two other innocent men, for the murder."
Black was sentenced to 40 years in prison. During the next decade, he professed his innocence from prison until new DNA testing in 2017 proved his innocence when crime scene evidence was matched with the DNA profile of a violent serial rapist jailed in Ohio.
A judge vacated Black's conviction in 2019, and charges were dismissed against him in 2021. But Black says he never will regain the time he lost in prison.
Black is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. He is represented by Elizabeth Paukstis of Loevy & Loevy; and Lonnie C. Simmons of DiPiero Simmons McGinley & Bastress.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 3:22-cv-00096