New York authorities pay €8m to innocent man jailed for 19 years

NEW YORK CITY authorities have agreed to pay $9.9 million (€8.26m) to an innocent man who spent 19 years behind bars after being framed by a notorious police detective who doubled as killer for the mob.

The settlement for Barry Gibbs, 61, set a record for a civil rights lawsuit against the city. The previous high ($8 million) went to a man paralysed when he was shot by a police officer in 1999.

The wrongful conviction of Gibbs, a former postal worker, was a disturbing footnote to the sensational case of former New York Police Department detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, the so-called “Mafia cops”.