Man Falsely Imprisoned for 24 Years Seeks Damages

Attorneys for Thomas Lee Goldstein, who spent 24 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, announced Wednesday that they had filed damage claims, alleging that police officers and prosecutors had committed egregious acts of misconduct that cost the Vietnam veteran the prime years of his life.

“For the police to fabricate evidence and use perjured testimony to achieve their conviction” was an “egregious affront” to Goldstein and the Constitution that calls for compensation, said Ronald O. Kaye, Goldstein’s attorney, at a Pasadena news conference.

Goldstein, 55, said he could never be compensated for the years lost to prison.

“I was 31 years old. I never got married, I never had children, I never started my career. No human being should have to suffer what I went through,” Goldstein said.

Since his release April 2, Goldstein has been attempting to re-acclimate to life as a free man. He attended his first Passover Seder in a quarter of a century, had his first beer and started to explore the Internet.

Last week, he returned to his native Kansas for a five-day reunion with his mother, two brothers and a sister. He said he met for the first time nieces and nephews who had “known me as the uncle in the pen.”

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James B. Pierce freed Goldstein after prosecutors said that they would not retry Goldstein on charges that he had shotgunned John McGinest to death in November 1979.

Pierce earlier had dealt a critical blow to the case when he ruled that prosecutors would not be allowed to present the transcript of testimony given at a 1980 trial by Loran Campbell, the only eyewitness against Goldstein.

Campbell recanted his testimony in 2002 and died last year.

In recent years, five federal judges said Goldstein’s constitutional rights had been violated at the trial, where he was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. Campbell’s testimony was improperly influenced by police officers, the judges ruled.

And the judges found that police and prosecutors had sat mute as longtime jailhouse informant Edward F. Fink -- who said Goldstein confessed to him in a jail cell -- lied when he testified that he had received no benefit for his testimony.

In reality, prosecutors had agreed to drop one case against Fink, a career criminal, and to reduce charges in another.

Goldstein, an honorably discharged Marine, was attending Long Beach City College and living in a garage near the scene of McGinest’s slaying when he was arrested in November 1979. Goldstein had always maintained his innocence and reiterated that Wednesday. No physical evidence tied him to the crime.

The claims filed this week asserted that police and prosecutors conspired to violate Goldstein’s civil rights, maliciously prosecuted him, falsely imprisoned him, defamed him and subjected him to emotional distress.

The complaint against Los Angeles County names two retired prosecutors, Kurt S. Seiffert and Timothy Browne, and Patrick Connolly, who represented the district attorney’s office in the most recent proceedings against Goldstein.

Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said, “We don’t comment on civil litigation.” H. Anthony Nicklin, principal deputy county counsel, said his office would respond within 45 days.

The complaint against the city of Long Beach names four officers -- John Henry Miller, William B. Collette, William McLyman and Logan Wren -- who worked on the investigation and prosecution of Goldstein and are now retired.

It also names detectives Perine Soth and Richard Birdsall, who allegedly violated an order by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that Goldstein be released forthwith.

Long Beach City Atty. Robert E. Shannon said he thought that Goldstein was barred from filing a claim against the city now because he filed a similar claim from prison in 1998.