Jamal Trulove, Man Framed By SFPD For Murder, To Receive $13.1M From City

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF / AP) — A man who spent more than six years in prison after police framed him for murder is expected to receive a $13.1 million settlement from the city of San Francisco on Tuesday.

The Board of Supervisors scheduled a vote to approve the payment to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed by Jamal Trulove.

Trulove was an aspiring actor and hip-hop artist when he was arrested in the 2007 murder of his friend and neighbor in a low-income housing project. A jury convicted him of murder in 2010 and he was sentenced to life in prison.

An appeals court overturned the conviction in 2014 and ordered a new trial. He was acquitted in a 2015 retrial. Three years later, Trulove sued the police department and four officers claiming they fabricated evidence, coerced a key eyewitness and withheld vital information that may have exonerated Trulove.

A federal jury last year determined the two lead homicide detectives, Michael Johnson and Maureen D’Amico, had violated Trulove’s civil rights and awarded him $14.5 million. Trulove accepted the $13.1 million offer in exchange for the city’s dropping of its appeal. The jury cleared two other officers of wrongdoing.

The jury found that detectives showed an eyewitness a single photo of Trulove rather than presenting the person with photos of other people as part of a “lineup” to identify a suspect. Evidence also was produced showing the detectives were aware of another suspect who they failed to investigate, among other investigative failures.

The four officers named in Trulove’s lawsuit have retired.