The Wyandotte County Board of Commissioners voted unamiously last night to approve a $12.5 Million settlement with Lamonte McIntyre who was freed from prison after serving 23 years in prison for a double murder he did not commit.
In March, McIntyre and his mother Rose McIntyre filed a civil lawsuit against the Unified government asking for $93 million in damages. The trial was scheduled to begin in October.
With the settlement, McIntyre agrees to dismiss his lawsuit.
In addition to approving the settlement, the commission also approved a resolution allowing them to issues general obligation bonds to pay for the settlement.
“This would not mean the UG is admitting to any wrong doing,” said Commissioner Gayle Townsend ahead of her vote. “It’s an expensive choice, but brings final resolution.”
McIntyre claims that a sloppy and vindictive investigation by the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department into the slayings of Doniel Quinn and Donald Ewing resulted in his wrongful conviction. Rose McIntyre alleged that a detective in the case, Roger Golubski, sexually assaulted her in the late 1980s, continued pursuing her sexually and ultimately framed her son for the murders because she spurned him.
In March 2020, the state of Kansas settled a mistaken-conviction lawsuit filed by McIntyre. From the case, he was issued a Certificate of Innocence, his record was expunged and he received a settlement of $1.5 million.
Earlier this year, officials with the Unified Government acknowledged that an ongoing federal grand jury investigation alleging widespread police corruption and the related McIntyre civil lawsuit against it could result in significant financial problems.
In a prospectus to prospective municipal bond investors, the Unified Government said that an unfavorable outcome in the McIntyre lawsuit could have a “material adverse effect” on the Unified Government’s finances and operations.
The financial risk disclosure appeared in a March 2 official statement to investors as the Unified Government sought to raise $45 million from the sale of general obligation bonds to pay for public improvements. Securities laws require government officials to disclose any significant risks that investors face if they decide to buy municipal bonds.
The document said the Unified Government faces a number of claims and lawsuits but, in the opinion of its lawyers, none of them would result in a material effect on government finances — except for the McIntyre case.