Exonerated man files $100M lawsuit after spending nearly 32 years in prison

Detroit — A Holt man exonerated after serving almost 32 years in prison has filed a $100 million federal lawsuit against Oakland County, the city of Pontiac and others, claiming he was wrongly convicted because of false testimony, fabricated evidence and junk science.

Gilbert Poole, 58, filed the lawsuit Tuesday, almost two years after he was exonerated in the June 1988 murder of 35-year-old Robert Mejia in Pontiac. The conviction was vacated on May 26, 2021, by then-Oakland County Circuit Judge Rae Lee Chabot after DNA testing showed Poole was not the killer, according to the lawsuit.

Officials from the city and Oakland County were deliberately indifferent to Poole's constitutional rights, fabricated and withhheld evidence, waged a malicious prosecution and committed willful misconduct, Poole's lawyer Kevin Riddle argued, according to the 90-page lawsuit.

The lawsuit attacked testimony from a "bite mark" expert who helped convict Poole, despite the evidence being "knowingly false and without a scientific" basis, Riddle wrote.

"This lawsuit seeks to remedy those constitutional rights that were violated and the injustice of 31 years in prison for a crime he in fact did not commit," Riddle wrote.

The lawsuit included as defendants Pontiac police officers, former Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Thompson, a Michigan State Police lab scientist and an expert forensic odontologist. There was no immediate comment from Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel or Thompson and Oakland County spokesman Steve Huber declined comment.

In the lawsuit Tuesday, Poole's lawyer criticized testimony from the prosecution team's expert witness, Dr. Allan Warnick, who examined a mark on Mejia's upper right arm.

Warnick compared the mark to Poole's dental work and concluded "the odds that two people would make the same bitemark is 2.1 billion to 1," according to the lawsuit.

But bite mark comparison is not recognized as a scientific means to link someone to a crime scene, Poole's lawyer wrote, calling Warnick's opinion "unscientific" and "knowingly false."

"Dr. Warnick was deliberately indifferent to Poole's constitutional rights in knowingly giving false testimony of statistical evidence which had no scientific support," the lawyer wrote.

Warnick did not respond to messages seeking comment.

In 2021, the year Poole was freed, Michigan was among the states with the largest number of exonerations for criminal convictions, according to a national research project that tracks wrongful imprisonments.

At 11 exonerations, Michigan tied with California for having the third-highest number, according to a report by the National Registry of Exonerations.

After leaving prison, Poole filed a compensation claim with the state and was awarded $1,597,577. And last spring, Poole was honored by Pontiac officials along with three other exonerees: Juwan Deering; George DeJesus and Melvin DeJesus.

"Deeper investigations should be done earlier on complaints (of innocence) than doing something down the road," said Poole. "But I'm glad they're acknowledging mistakes."

rsnell@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @robertsnellnews