Roger "Dean" Gillispie lost his youth serving behind jail bars after he was accused of kidnapping and raping three women. Now many years later, the man has been proven innocent, and to somehow compensate for his lost time, the Ohio jury has awarded him $45 million in a settlement in what is reportedly the largest settlement in Ohio's history.
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Roger "Dean" Gillispie, now 57, was found guilty in 1991 of assaulting 22-year-old twin sisters as well as a third woman in Miami and Harris townships. The jury has now awarded the Ohio man $45 million after he was wrongfully convicted on the charges of kidnap and rape.
On Monday, a Montgomery County jury found that a Miami Township detective suppressed evidence that led to Gillispie's guilty verdict, and awarded him what was ultimately the largest settlement in Ohio's history.
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"The verdict just proved my point from day one, that I'm innocent," Gillispie said on Monday outside a Dayton courthouse after he was awarded the record-breaking amount, the Daily Mail reports.
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In 2008, Gillispie asked for a new trial and three years later, he was proved to be innocent.
"I like to thank my family and friends, my advisors, the Ohio Innocence Project and the many others for their belief in me and the dedication to seek the truth over the last 31 years," Gillispie said at the time.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Susan Solle shared her empathy, stating that she couldn't "even imagine" what the last three decades had been like for him.
"Hopefully today will take you into the next and final chapter of this nightmare that has been your life for the past 30 years and the next part will be a lot smoother and a lot quicker," the judge said.
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Gillispie later stated that there was not enough money in the world to compensate for the time he lost serving in jail.
"There's not enough, if they said $5 billion, nobody's taking $5 billion for 31 years but they don't know if they are going to get out or not," he said. "Nobody's taking that. The money is irrelevant. It's about showing that we were right. The money is just to help me survive and help my family — my family is buried in debt from this..."
"The money doesn't fix me, it doesn't fix the lost time. It doesn't fix the mental anguish and the PTSD that I got from this. It doesn't do a thing for it."
"There's not enough, if they said $5 billion, nobody's taking $5 billion for 31 years but they don't know if they are going to get out or not," he said. "Nobody's taking that. The money is irrelevant. It's about showing that we were right. The money is just to help me survive and help my family — my family is buried in debt from this..."
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"The money doesn't fix me, it doesn't fix the lost time. It doesn't fix the mental anguish and the PTSD that I got from this. It doesn't do a thing for it."
Evidence in the re-trial showed that a police officer had set up an unfair lineup and falsely stated that a witness had identified Gillispie.