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| Wrongly Convicted Man to Sue for $300 Million |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 08/26/2002 |
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A Massachusetts man who spent 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit plans to sue the federal government for $300 million, according to a published report. Joseph Salvati was exonerated last year in the 1965 murder of Edward ''Teddy'' Deegan. A Middlesex Superior Court judge ruled FBI agents withheld evidence that might have proved his innocence and the state dropped the charges. Salvati's attorney, Victor J. Garo, told the Boston Herald he drew the $300 million figure from the amount the Iranian government was ordered to pay in punitive damages to journalist Terry Anderson, a former Associated Press correspondent who was held hostage by terrorists for more than six years before his release in 1991. ''The Salvati case is worse than the Anderson case because this was done by our own government to our own citizen,'' Gar said. Garo claims the FBI in 1968 helped mob hit man Joseph ''The Animal'' Barboza frame Salvati, now 69, and three others in the bureau's war on organized crime. FBI files show the bureau knew that Barboza, one of its criminal informants, gave false testimony that convicted Salvati and three other men who had no connection to the crime. Garo said he planned to notify the FBI on Wednesday that he is moving to file a lawsuit after discussions with the Department of Justice failed to produce a ''fair and reasonable compensation package.'' Under federal law, Salvati must notify the government six months before filing suit in federal court. The Boston FBI declined comment on Salvati's claim. The Deegan murder has already spurred $375 million in lawsuits filed on behalf of three other men who were wrongly convicted. |
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