Exonerated Bed-Stuy Man Who Spent Half His Life In Prison Sues NYPD

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Andre Hatchett was 24 when the dead body of Neda Mae Carter was found in a Bed-Stuy park in 1991. Investigators put Hatchett away for her murder for 25 years. Last year, the Kings County District Attorney's Office said it would have been "impossible" for Hatchett to have committed the murder, and it overturned his conviction. Hatchett is now suing the NYPD in Brooklyn Supreme Court for wrongfully jailing him for half of his life.

"The damages are extraordinary, but despite all of that he is maintaining a positive outlook and doing his best to move on with his life," Hatchett's attorney Emma Freudenberger told Patch.

Freudenberger said Hatchett's case is just one of many examples of how police misconduct affected the lives of people living in certain Brooklyn communities in the 90s.

"It's now clear that the extraordinary misconduct going on in Brooklyn in the early 90s in and around Bed-Stuy was much bigger than anyone thought," Freudenberger said.

The suit alleges that Hatchett's poor physical condition and the physical strength and aggression the murderer appeared to show when killing Carter did not add up.

In 1991, Hatchett was unable to walk without a cast or crutches, Hatchett's civil rights suit alleges. Hatchett, who has "cognitive limitations," had suffered gunshot injuries to his leg and throat the year before. He also suffered multiple fractures in the bones of his right leg, for which he got fixation pins and bone grafts.

Someone had killed 37-year-old Carter by strangling her and repeatedly striking her with a heavy metal object, exposing her skull, knocking her teeth out, crushing her larynx, tearing her uterus and dragging her across the ground, investigators found.

"Because of his injuries, Mr. Hatchett lacked sufficient mobility and strength to wield a heavy object with force or drag an adult human body on the ground, as the unknown perpetrator who attacked Ms. Carter had done," the suit says.

Police misconduct led to Hatchett's wrongful conviction, the suit alleges. Cops used purported witnesses who weren't credible, coerced them to fabricate accounts of the crime and they suppressed evidence that showed the possibility that Hatchett was not guilty, according to the suit:

No physical or other evidence has linked Hatchett to the crime.

Hatchett repeatedly told police that he had come to Carter's house the day of her murder where Carter had lived with his aunt, and Carter asked him if she could borrow money to buy crack on two separate occasions, the suit says. Both times, Hatchett loaned Carter money and she left the house, but when she didn't come home from the second outing, he left the building, he said.

The suit says that Hatchett's cognitive limitations are such that the alibi he told investigators multiple times could not have been fabricated. Hatchett's IQ is reported to be in the range of 58 to 66, and he is described to have "mild retardation and borderline intelligence," according to the suit.

A week after Carter's murder, cops arrested Jerry Williams on a burglary charge and questioned him in the 81st precinct. Williams had dozens of priors, according to his criminal record.

During questioning, Williams identified Carter's murderer as someone who was in jail with him in the past, but it turned out the man Williams identified was still in jail, making it impossible for him to have murdered Carter, the suit says.

Less than 24 hours after Williams' wrong identification of the murderer, cops showed Williams a headshot of Hatchett, familiarizing Williams with Hatchett's face, according to the suit. Cops then showed Williams a live lineup including Hatchett and made suggestions that prompted Williams to positively identify Hatchett as the murderer.

Williams did this in exchange for a reduction in his burglary charge, the suit says. Cops never told prosecutors in the case about this, according to the suit.

The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office refused to implicate Hatchett with just Williams' positive identification, so cops reacted by questioning other purported witnesses and feeding them fake facts about the murder in order to convict Hatchett, the suit says.

The suit blames police misconduct for the fact that Carter's actual killer has not been found.

Hatchett's younger son, both of his parents, two close aunts and his younger brother passed away while he was in prison.

"His wrongful conviction caused him to miss much of his remaining children's childhoods," the suit says.

Photo of Hatchett via The Innocence Project