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Settlement For False Imprisonment Will Be Paid From City's Savings Account

WAMC

A $1.4 million dollar payment to a Massachusetts man who claims police framed him for a murder will come from the city of Springfield’s rainy day fund.

Springfield does not have insurance to cover the settlement with Charles Wilhite.  He’ll be paid out of a reserve fund that now totals about $40 million. 

City Councilor Tim Rooke said the city looked into obtaining insurance years ago, but decided it was too expensive.

"That is why we have a law department and they go in and argue and debate and negotiate and they keep our costs down," said Rooke.

The city council approved the compensation for Wilhite – the largest payout in the city’s history for a police misconduct case.

Wilhite spent three years in prison after being convicted for a fatal shooting outside a grocery store.  He was acquitted at a second trial after two witnesses recanted their testimony.    

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.