CLEVELAND — Attorneys for a man imprisoned for 35 years for a murder he didn’t commit filed a lawsuit against the city of Cleveland and former police officers Tuesday, one year after his case was officially dismissed.
The date of the murder was August 17, 1987. It involved a stolen van, drugs, a shooting and one person killed and two injured on Cleveland’s eastside. Dwayne Brooks was 21 years old at the time. Two suspects testified against him and a police investigation ultimately led to Brooks’ trial and conviction.
“If the jury had of believed one more lie, they might have voted for the death penalty and I wouldn’t be here today,” Brooks said alongside his attorneys at FG+G.
“I can’t explain to you to where you can understand how it feels to be kidnapped, hunted down and kidnapped and put in an environment where I had to either survive or become a perpetual victim.”
For about 35 years, Brooks maintained his innocence while in prison. Articles 3News found from the Plain Dealer in 1987 and 1988 show Brooks argued from the beginning that he was in New York with family at the time of the shooting.
“The whole time this evidence was there to show that I didn’t do it,” Brooks said.
In April last year, the 57-year-old Brooks was granted a new trial when court records showed several exhibits were not disclosed during the discovery phase prior to his first trial. His attorneys claim officers and supervisors investigating the homicide intentionally hid evidence.
This is so pervasive, and we see the same police officers—the same homicide detectives—coming up in case after case, that it’s hard for me to believe they were being lazy or taking the easy way out. The evidence that they intentionally disregarded in this case of Dwayne’s innocence is powerful,” FG+G partner Sara Gelsomino said.
“There’s no world in which [investigating officers] didn’t know,” attorney Elizabeth Bonham said.
For the last 17 months, Brooks has been a free man. His case was officially dismissed in September 2023 but his fight for justice is far from over.
“It’s been beautiful being able to breathe free air. But the nightmare’s still there,” he said. “They don’t care that they took my whole life. But maybe they’ll care about some money they have to spend.”
Brooks' attorneys have filed a civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court against the city of Cleveland and several named, former police officers who investigated his case.
“I have yet to see Mayor (Justin) Bibb or anyone from the law department take an honorable stance to do what is right, to even just say, ‘no, we will not allow this to happen anymore’,” Gelsomino said.
She said they’re looking for damages in the tens of millions but ultimately, “there’s no amount of money that can ever make up for this.” Looking back, Brooks said there is not any amount of money he would go to prison for and miss out on 35 years of his life.
“I want to live my life,” he said. “The pain is pervasive. You can’t take the pain away. From being incarcerated for 35 years for something that you didn’t do. Taken away from my children. Taken away from my parents.”
3News reached out to the city of Cleveland for a response to the lawsuit. A spokesperson said in an email, “Per our policy, the City does not comment on pending litigation. We respect the legal process and will refrain from comment until the matter is resolved.”