Cop withheld evidence in case that sent man to jail for 60 years, Indiana lawsuit says
After spending nearly 25 years in a maximum security prison for a crime he did not commit, an Indiana man is now suing the police officers involved in his case, saying they “framed” him for murder.
Leon Benson, 47, was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder in 1999 in connection to the death of 25-year-old Kasey Schoen.
Schoen was shot in the head five times while sitting in his truck in downtown Indianapolis around 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 8, 1998, according to police.
Benson was exonerated in 2023, 24 years into his 60-year sentence, following a joint investigation by the University of San Francisco’s Racial Justice Clinic and the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit, according to court records.
Benson and Kolleen Bunch, Schoen’s sister, filed a lawsuit on May 20 against the city of Indianapolis, as well as five Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers, accusing them of fabricating, manipulating and withholding “significant evidence” pointing to another man as Schoen’s killer.
McClatchy News reached out to the IMPD, which declined to comment on pending litigation. McClatchy News also reached out to city officials for comment on May 22 but did not immediately hear back.
According to investigators, no physical evidence, including DNA, fingerprints or a weapon, was ever found connecting Benson to the crime.
Instead, the case against him was built primarily on the testimony of two people, including a person standing 150 feet away from the scene in the dark, and a man Benson says held a grudge against him who did not witness the shooting, according to the lawsuit.
Police did not make “a single attempt to verify” Benson’s alibi, according to the lawsuit, and “willfully ignored” multiple leads pointing to the other suspect.
Evidence withheld by police instead pointed to a man who became an informant for federal law enforcement, according to the lawsuit and the National Registry of Exonerations.
The decision not to investigate the other man as a suspect in Schoen’s death “had the added benefit of protecting convictions that were gained” by using him as an informant, the lawsuit said.
In 2022, one of the officers involved in the case signed a sworn declaration saying “critical exculpatory evidence” was not turned over during Benson’s initial hearing, according to the lawsuit.
Withholding evidence that could have absolved Benson of guilt violated his constitutional right to due process, leading to a wrongful conviction, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and attorneys fees. A jury trial has also been requested.
The University of San Francisco, in partnership with the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, re-investigated Benson’s case and his first-degree murder conviction was vacated on March 8, 2023.
Benson is the first person to be exonerated by the Conviction Integrity Unit.
This story was originally published May 23, 2024 at 7:34 AM with the headline "Cop withheld evidence in case that sent man to jail for 60 years, Indiana lawsuit says."
