Shown is a Philadelphia police car on Thursday, June 24, 2021. Associated Press/Matt RourkeThree ex-detectives from Philadelphia were charged with perjury in official matters and false swearing.Prosecutors claimed that the officers falsely testified during a 2016 retrial of a man wrongfully convicted for rape, and murder.Insider was told by the lawyer for the officers that they were "good men" and are innocent of any charges.For more stories, visit Insider's homepage.According to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, three former homicide detectives were indicted by a grand jury in Philadelphia on charges of lying at the witness stand while a wrongfully convicted person was being retried.The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the charges were unveiled Friday and that officers surrendered to police later in the afternoon. According to prosecutors, the three former officers Martin Devlin and Frank Jastrzembski were each charged with multiple counts perjury as well as false swearing in official matters.This was for Anthony Wright, a wrongly convicted man who was charged in the 1991 rape- and murder of Louise Talley, 77. Wright's conviction was overturned by new DNA evidence in 2014. However, prosecutors retried Wright in 2016. After deliberating for just one hour, Wright was exonerated by the jury.Insider was told by a Santiago attorney and Jastrzembski's lawyer that their clients were innocent of any charges.Brian McMonagle, their lawyer, stated that "these three good men spent their entire career seeking justice for crime victims." "They sought justice in this case for an 80-year-old woman who had been brutally raped, and then murdered."Wright, his attorneys at the Innocence Project and Philadelphia prosecutors all claimed that Santiago and Devlin coerced Wright into signing a false confession during their 1991 inquiry. Jastrzembski falsely testified that bloody clothing was discovered during a search in Wright's bedroom when it was actually found in Talley’s home.Continue the storyProsecutors claimed that Santiago and Devlin lied to Wright and used violence to get him to sign the false confession. They are accused of telling Wright that he could return home if he signed a confession. Santiago and Devlin also lied to Wright, saying they would stop him reading the contents and threaten to "pull out his eyes and skull-f---" him."Wright, then twenty years old, told detectives repeatedly that he did not know or have any involvement in the crime and spent hours crying for his mother outside of the interrogation area screaming for him," prosecutors stated in their Friday statement.Prosecutors claimed that the grand jury was directed to examine the conduct of the former officers during Wright's 2016 trial and 2017 lawsuit. The statute of limitations for their conduct during the 1991 investigation has expired.They claimed that Santiago, Jastrzembski and Devlin lied under oath about both the evidence used in the conviction of Wright and their knowledge regarding the DNA evidence that eventually exonerated Wright. The prosecution claimed that Santiago and Devlin lied during the trial and in depositions and that Wright had freely confessed to his rape and murder.Insider has the original article.
