Felipe Rodriguez and Police Accountability

By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma

My extraordinary client Felipe Rodriguez was released from Otisville Correctional Facility in 2018 by then-governor Andrew Cuomo after serving almost 27 years for a murder he did not commit.

He was exonerated in 2019 after the Queens District Attorney’s Office found an exculpatory note that no one had ever seen before.

He sued the State of New York under the Unjust Conviction Act and settled for $5 million. He sued seven police detectives, the City of New York, and the Long Island Railroad for violating his constitutional rights and settled with the City and the five NYPD detectives last month for $10 million.

But the case continues against the two retired Long Island Railroad detectives, who say they are not liable for coercing witnesses and withholding evidence that led to Felipe’s conviction in 1990. Those two detectives, Charles Wendel and Thomas Sullivan, will likely face trial later this year on the claims against them.

Felipe and I had the pleasure of speaking about his case last week to students at Wesleyan University organized by the University Network for Human Rights, which help put the case and the U.S. innocence movement in the context of the global struggle for human rights. The case against Wendel and Sullivan was also highlighted by Channel 7 News in the video to the left.

Felipe told the reporter that no amount of money can ever give back what was taken from him.

But perhaps a trial against these two recalcitrant detectives can shed light on how police framed people during the crime wave of the late 1980s and how such abuses can be prevented in the future. Felipe’s 34-year struggle for for justice continues.