Dean Gillispie: Wrongful Conviction, Exoneration, and $45M Verdict

Dean Gillispie’s wrongful conviction is one of the longest and most consequential in Ohio history: he spent 20 years in prison for a 1988 rape and kidnapping he did not commit, was freed in December 2011 after a federal judge found the state had withheld evidence pointing to his innocence, and in November 2022 won a $45 million federal civil rights verdict that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review in January 2026.¹²

How the Investigation Went Wrong

Two sisters were abducted at gunpoint in Miami Township, Ohio, in August 1988 and forced to perform sexual acts.³ The original investigators, Sergeant-Detective Steven Fritz and Detective-Corporal Gary Bailey, looked at Gillispie and cleared him. He didn’t match the victims’ physical descriptions, he had no criminal history, and they documented that conclusion in supplemental police reports.¹

The case went cold. In 1990, a former police officer who had supervised Gillispie at General Motors named him as a suspect; evidence later presented at the civil trial indicated the tip was driven by a work-related vendetta.¹ The Miami Township Police Department reassigned the case to Detective Matthew Scott Moore in June 1990.⁴ Fritz later described Moore as “relatively new to the force,” “overzealous,” and having “a tendency to go rogue.”⁵

Moore received the earlier reports clearing Gillispie. According to testimony from his ex-wife, those reports “frustrated and angered” him. He then authored new electronic reports that omitted any reference to the prior elimination of Gillispie as a suspect.⁵ The original exculpatory reports were never turned over to Gillispie’s defense, a suppression later recognized as a violation of the prosecution’s disclosure duties under Brady v. Maryland.

The identification procedure was as flawed as the paper trail. Moore built a photo lineup around a General Motors ID badge photo of Gillispie that was larger and closer than the filler photographs, printed with a different matte finish, and set against a different background color. The filler photos depicted police officers with darker skin than Gillispie’s.⁶ Before showing the array to the victims, Moore told them he had a “possible suspect,” and after each identification he confirmed the pick was the person he suspected.⁵ He also pressed one victim, telling her she “needed to be 100 percent positive.”

Twenty Years in Prison and the Road Out

Gillispie was arrested on September 5, 1990, and convicted by a jury in 1991 of rape, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. He was sentenced to 22 to 56 years. No physical evidence connected him to the crimes. He was granted a new trial and was convicted a second time, and he served his sentence at Warren Correctional Institution in Lebanon, Ohio.¹⁷

His case became the first taken on by the Ohio Innocence Project when it launched at the University of Cincinnati College of Law in January 2003. OIP director Mark Godsey and generations of law students worked on it for nine years, building a case file of more than 60,000 pages.¹⁷ Former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro joined as pro bono co-counsel in 2007, saying he was “absolutely — absolutely — certain that Gillispie did not do this” and calling the prosecution a “gross miscarriage of justice.”⁸

State courts turned the case away for years. Relief came in federal court. On December 15, 2011, U.S. District Magistrate Judge Michael Merz of the Southern District of Ohio issued a conditional writ of habeas corpus, finding that the suppressed reports and other withheld information “could reasonably be taken to put the whole case in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict.”¹ The order gave the state a choice between retrying him and releasing him.⁹

Gillispie walked out of prison on December 22, 2011, at age 46, after 20 years behind bars.¹ In 2017, the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas dismissed all charges against him with prejudice.³ In 2021, Judge Susan Solle of the same court formally declared him wrongfully imprisoned.¹⁰

The $45 Million Federal Verdict

On December 13, 2013, Gillispie filed a federal civil rights lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, case number 3:13-cv-00416.¹¹ Loevy & Loevy, with attorney David Owens, represented him.¹² The case went to trial on two claims against Moore: suppression of exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady, and the use of an unconstitutionally suggestive identification procedure.⁶

On November 21, 2022, the jury awarded Gillispie $45 million in compensatory damages.¹³ Miami Township itself was not found liable under the municipal liability standard from Monell v. Department of Social Services, but the district court ordered the township to indemnify Moore for the full amount under Ohio Revised Code § 2744.07(B), which requires municipalities to cover judgments against employees acting within the scope of their employment.¹⁴

Appeals and the Supreme Court

Moore and Miami Township both appealed. The township argued the award was excessive and that the state indemnification statute effectively imposed the kind of vicarious liability federal law forbids for municipalities in Section 1983 cases. On May 2, 2025, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the judgment in full.⁴

On damages, the Sixth Circuit held the $45 million was supported by extensive trial testimony about the physical and emotional trauma of two decades of wrongful imprisonment, the loss of the chance to start a family, and the humiliation of being publicly labeled a sex offender. Juries, the court said, have “broad discretion” in setting damages for intangible losses, and it rejected the defendants’ attempt to compare the award to smaller verdicts in other wrongful conviction cases.⁴ The panel denied rehearing on June 23, 2025.¹⁴

Miami Township petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari on November 20, 2025, arguing the Ohio indemnification statute created unconstitutional de facto respondeat superior liability preempted by federal law. On January 26, 2026, the Supreme Court denied certiorari, leaving the $45 million judgment in place.²

Why Gillispie Hasn’t Been Paid Yet

Miami Township has exhausted its appeals but has not paid. Interest has been accruing on the unpaid amount since the original 2022 verdict.¹⁵ In early 2026, Loevy & Loevy filed a request in the Southern District of Ohio for a telephone conference with the court and the township to set a payment timeline.¹³

The township continues to resist. Because the judgment was entered against Moore personally, its lawyers argue Gillispie has “no right to demand payment” directly from the township and cannot assert Moore’s indemnification claim for him. They have also suggested the question of how the indemnification should be structured and paid may need to go before the Ohio Supreme Court.¹³ The federal court had not ruled on the request for a payment conference as of the most recent reporting.

1
University of Cincinnati. Dean Gillispie
2
U.S. Supreme Court. Docket 25-607 – Miami Township v. Gillispie
3
Dayton 24/7 Now. Miami Township Seeks Supreme Court Review of $45M Wrongful Conviction Award
4
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Gillispie v. Miami Township
5
FindLaw. Gillispie v. Matthew Scott Moore
6
U.S. Supreme Court. Gillispie v. Miami Township – Exhibits
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WYSO. Wrongfully Convicted Man Awarded Millions
8
Denison University. Jim Petro and the Gillispie Case
9
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Gillispie v. Timmerman-Cooper
10
Loevy & Loevy. Dean Gillispie Wrongful Conviction
11
CourtListener. Gillispie v. Miami Township Docket
12
Cincinnati Enquirer. Wrongful Imprisonment – $45 Million – Ohio Man Dean Gillispie
13
Dayton Daily News. Dean Gillispie Seeking Payment Timeline for $45M Verdict
14
U.S. Supreme Court. Certiorari Petition – Miami Township v. Gillispie
15
University of Cincinnati. U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Review $45 Million Award