Legislature to vote on settlement for Bozella
Deal would pay Beacon man freed from prison $7.5 million
POUGHKEEPSIE » Dutchess County taxpayers could pay $7.5 million to Dewey Bozella to settle a “wrongful conviction” lawsuit brought by the Beacon resident for his 26-year imprisonment for the 1977 murder of a 92-year-old city of Poughkeepsie woman.
Members of the Dutchess County Legislature will vote Monday to issue $7.575 million in bonds to pay for the settlement. The bonds will be repaid over a five-year period. With fees and interest, the total cost to taxpayers will be $8.3 million.
Dutchess County District Attorney William Grady declined to comment on the settlement or the case, saying the settlement has not been finalized.
Dutchess County Legislature Chairman Rob Rolison also declined to comment.
Bozella had filed a $25 million lawsuit against Dutchess County and former Assistant District Attorney William O’Neill, alleging he was wrongfully convicted of
the June 14, 1977, murder of 92-year-old Emma Crapser in her apartment at 15 N. Hamilton Street in Poughkeepsie.
Bozella was convicted Crasper’s murder in 1983 and again in 1990. Authorities said Bozella, who was 18 at the time, killed Crapser because she walked into her apartment as he was burglarizing it.
His first conviction was overturned when a court found blacks had been kept off the jury by the prosecution. After a retrial, he was convicted a second time and sentenced to 20 years to life in state prison.
O’Neill was the prosecutor in both trials.
In 2007, Bozella, who had steadfastly maintained his innocence, convinced the Innocence Project to look at his case. The Innocence Project, in turn, enlisted the aid of Wilmer Hale, a large and prestigious law firm known for taking on cases like Bozella’s at no cost.
The law firm filed a motion asking for the verdict to be dismissed, claiming the prosecution failed to give to the defense evidence that seemed to point to Bozella’s innocence.
In October 2009, Putnam County Judge James T. Rooney overturned Bozella’s conviction, saying the “legal and factual arguments advanced ... are compelling, indeed, overwhelming.”
At the time, Senior Assistant District Attorney Ed Whitesell said because evidence had been destroyed and witnesses were no longer available, the District Attorney’s Office would not try Bozella for a third time.