Miami Twp. submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, if it had been approved, would have asked the lower federal court to send up the record of the case for review. A writ of certiorari is a legal tool meant to address potential errors or constitutional questions among lower courts.
That petition was denied on Monday.
“We are grateful, but not at all surprised, that the Supreme Court has sided with Mr. Gillispie and allowed Judge Rose’s orders to stand,” a statement from Gillispie’s attorneys, David Owens and Mike Kanovitz of Loevy & Loevy, reads.
Gillispie of Fairborn spent more than 20 years behind bars for sexual assaults he didn’t commit following an investigation by former Miami Twp. detective Matthew Moore.
In 2008, Gillispie sought and received a new trial claiming evidence — including the identification of an alternative suspect and police reports possibly eliminating him as a suspect — were never turned over to his attorneys.
State and federal courts, along with the Ohio Supreme Court, released Gillispie, exonerated him and admitted he had been “wrongly imprisoned.”
Gillispie was freed from prison in 2011 after a federal judge ruled that the reports were never provided to his trial attorney.
In 2013, Gillispie filed a lawsuit, challenging his wrongful conviction.
The charges against Gillispie were formally dropped in 2017 and he was officially deemed wrongfully imprisoned.
A federal court in 2022 awarded Gillispie a $45 million wrongful conviction verdict, the largest in state history.
A federal appeals court ruled last May that Miami Twp. must pay the full $45 million awarded to Gillispie. The township’s attorneys at that time said the amount was too high and that the ruling could leave Miami Twp. “financially ruined for generations.”
The court said there was ample evidence showing the harm Gillispie suffered, from being wrongly labeled a violent felon to losing years of freedom and normal life. Because of that, the judges refused to reduce the verdict.
“The township has prolonged Mr. Gillispie’s suffering with dubious legal maneuvers and absurd appeals,” the statement from Gillispie’s attorneys reads. “It is now time, after more than 30 years since Gillispie was arrested and more than 3 years since the jury issued its verdict, for justice to be done. The township must pay the judgment immediately, just as it told Judge Rose it would have to do if its efforts failed.”
The Ohio Township Association, the Coalition of Large Urban Townships, the Ohio Municipal League and the County Commissioners Association filed a joint amicus brief in support of the township in the request to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In addition, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and the Dayton Development Coalition filed a separate amicus brief in support.
Gillispie’s lawyers said they believe this is the end of the line in terms of what options are available for the township to challenge this verdict.
“We cannot say whether the township will agree and finally relent,” said Owens, one of Gillispie’s attorneys.
The township released a statement Monday afternoon saying it was disappointed the U.S. Supreme Court will not consider the township’s appeal.
“Miami Twp. was judged by the federal courts to have no direct responsibility for the actions at issue in this case,” a statement from the township reads.
The township argued there was a constitutional conflict between governing federal civil rights law and Ohio’s state indemnification statute covering political subdivisions. The latter requires a political subdivision, or a local government entity, to defend employees sued for actions taken while doing their job, using public funds or insurance, according to the Ohio revised code.
“Nevertheless, the Township is now at risk of having to hold harmless a former employee — the lone defendant found by the jury to be responsible and liable in this case — for the full amount of the judgment against him individually, a judgment far exceeding the community’s ability to pay," the township’s statement reads.
Enforcing Miami Twp. “to attempt to pay a judgment of this magnitude held by a third party against the township’s former employee is contrary to the express purpose of the Ohio statute,” according to the township’s statement.
Had this been a state of Ohio employee or investigator, Ohio law caps liability at $1 million, according to the township.
The township also cannot rely on insurance because its insurer went bankrupt in 2003 for incidents from the early 1990s, the township’s statement reads.
“Miami Township will continue its efforts to preserve the interests of our residents in this matter,” the statement reads.
