Settlement would end wrongful conviction lawsuit
Putnam County legislators gave preliminary approval on Tuesday (Oct. 8) to a $20 million settlement with a man who spent 23 years in prison before being acquitted at retrial of raping and killing a Carmel girl.
The three members of the Legislature’s Rules Committee voted to approve the settlement with Andrew Krivak, who filed a federal lawsuit against Putnam County and the sheriff and district attorney’s office in August 2023, six months after a jury found him not guilty of killing Josette Wright, 12.
Putnam will be responsible for $200,000, with the remainder covered by insurance. The agreement must be approved by the full Legislature, which in 2020 authorized a $12 million payout to Krivak’s co-defendant, Anthony DiPippo, who spent 20 years in prison before a state court overturned his conviction.
In this case, both sides made “unrealistic” offers, according to the county attorney’s office — Krivak wanted $50 million, while the county offered $500,000 — before reaching a compromise during an all-day meeting on Sept. 4.
County Attorney Compton Spain said the settlement was the best course of action for the county because Krivak not only had the benefit of materials used by DiPippo’s defense but other records “unfavorable” to Putnam could be revealed if the case continued.
“These items could serve to drive the value of the case up, and make any settlement possibility less favorable,” Spain wrote in a memo to Legislator Toni Addonizio, who chairs the Rules Committee.
Krivak accused police and prosecutors of strong-arming witnesses, withholding evidence and other misconduct in prosecuting him and DiPippo for the rape and murder of Wright, whose remains were discovered by a hunter in Patterson.
In separate trials in 1997, juries convicted both men of second-degree murder and first-degree rape. Krivak implicated himself in a statement that his lawyers contended was a false confession coerced by Putnam County Sheriff investigators.
DiPippo’s conviction was overturned in 2011. An appeals court determined that his lawyer had failed to disclose that he had represented Howard Gombert Jr., a sex offender who knew Wright and was put forth as a more likely suspect.
A jury convicted DiPippo at a retrial in 2012, but an appeals court overturned that conviction in 2016. A third trial that year lasted three weeks before a jury found him not guilty.
A judge in Westchester County threw out Krivak’s conviction in 2019. (Judges in Putnam County recused themselves.) After losing an appeal to restore the conviction, Putnam District Attorney Robert Tendy opted to retry Krivak. A jury found him not guilty in February 2023.
“The jury has rendered its decision and we must respect it,” Tendy, who tried the case, said at the time of the verdict. Tendy earlier had criticized the county settlement with DiPippo, calling it “incomprehensible and indefensible.”
In claims filed after his exoneration, Krivak sought $100 million in compensation and $50 million in punitive damages from the county, the District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Department. A separate claim asked for $50 million from the state under the Unjust Conviction and Imprisonment Act. Krivak settled that claim for $5.7 million.
“Even if we got every dollar that was listed in the two claims it would not sufficiently compensate Mr. Krivak or anybody for 23 years of wrongful incarceration for a heinous crime that you didn’t commit,” Krivak’s attorney, Oscar Michelen, said last year.
