BRAINTREE, Mass. (AP) - A man held in prison for 36 years on charges of murder, who was released in 2017 upon appeal, is suing the police, saying they withheld evidence favorable to his defense.
Frederick Weichel of Braintree, Massachusetts was convicted in 1981 of killing Robert La Monica. Weichel, 68, won an appeal for a new trial and was released in 2017.
He filed a lawsuit Monday against the police department, the town, the late former police chief, former Braintree police officers and former Boston and Massachusetts state police officers, The Patriot Ledger reported.
A police report from the murder investigation shows 11 witnesses identified a drawing of the suspect as someone other than Weichel. He only learned of the report’s existence in 2010 when his attorneys filed a public record request with the Braintree police department, the newspaper reported.
The report helped Weichel win a new trial and his release from prison. The lawsuit filed Monday said that the report was hidden in the basement of the police department for three decades.
Weichel suffered multiple injuries in prison, his attorneys told the newspaper, and is seeking damages and a jury trial.
The town has not been served with the lawsuit and would not comment, Nicole Taub, Braintree’s town solicitor and chief of staff to Mayor Charles Kokoros, told the newspaper.
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