Long Beach, Calif., to pay $8M to man who spent 24 years in prison on wrongful conviction

Calif. city to pay $8M to wrongfully convicted man

LOS ANGELES — The city of Long Beach, Calif., has agreed to pay a nearly $8 million settlement to a man who served 24 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned.

Thomas Goldstein was convicted of a 1979 murder on the strength of a jailhouse informant’s testimony that Goldstein had confessed to the crime.

Two federal judges and a federal appeals panel eventually ruled that Goldstein was wrongly convicted, and he was freed in 2004.

Long Beach Deputy Attorney Monte Machit says despite Wednesday’s settlement, city officials deny that Goldstein was wrongfully arrested or that his constitutional rights were violated.

Goldstein sued Los Angeles County prosecutors, saying they regularly used jailhouse informants but didn’t take steps to make sure they were telling the truth.

Information from: Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com