The years-long legal battles involving a man accusing a Durham officer of a wrongful arrest that led to 21 years in prison ended with the city agreeing to a $7.75 million settlement with Darryl Howard and $350,000 with the police officer who led the investigation.
But it cost much more than that. City documents obtained through a public information request show that the city paid another $5 million to outside attorneys and consultants, bringing the city’s costs associated with fighting and settling Darryl Howard’s lawsuit to $13 million.
Records related to that strategy, including payments to outside attorneys and the negotiation details, provide an insider look to a lengthy legal fight that included city officials refusing to pay a $6 million jury verdict.
It was a controversial stand for a city known to be one the most left-learning in North Carolina that drew criticism from attorneys and a state civil rights group, a Washington Post columnist and even the Rev. William Barber.
Bradley Bannon, one of Howard’s attorneys, said Durham wasted millions of dollars defending an investigation that a federal jury found faulty. Former Durham police officer Darrell Dowdy fabricated evidence and performed an inadequate investigation that led to Howard being wrongly convicted, a federal jury concluded in a 2021 ruling.
“I certainly appreciate the change in Durham’s thinking that finally brought Darryl’s case to an end, but the fact remains that Durham made the path to that end far more painful for Darryl, and far more expensive for taxpayers, than it had to be,” Bannon wrote.
Mayor Pro Tempore Mark-Anthony Middleton disagrees.
“While hindsight makes us all seem smarter, any suggestion that the city could have just saved money and paid the settlement years ago betrays a profound lack of understanding of the intricacies of this case and the legal and fiduciary responsibilities of a chartered municipality,” Middleton wrote in a text.
Mother, daughter found dead
The decades-long twisting tale of injustices endured by Howard starts in 1991. That’s when police started investigating the death of Doris Washington, 29, and her 13-year-old daughter, who were found dead in their apartment in a now demolished public housing complex in East Durham.
In 1995, a jury convicted Howard of two counts of second-degree murders, resulting in a prison sentence of 80 years. Howard sold cocaine and heroin at the time and said he was getting high in an apartment nearby where the women were found with their apartment ablaze, court records say.
A Durham judge vacated the convictions initially in 2014 and then again after a prosecutor’s appeal in 2016, citing police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Freed from prison, Howard filed a federal civil lawsuit in 2017 contending a wrongful arrest and faulty conviction.Police fabricated evidence during the initial investigation and later withheld DNA evidence that would have proven his innocence, he alleged.
Howard initially sought damages against the city of Durham, former and current officers and a fire department employee involved in the investigation.
But over time, the defendants were narrowed to Dowdy, who retired in 2007.
Howard contended that Dowdy misled the 1995 jury by making up evidence, manipulating witnesses and ignoring factors pointing to members of a gang being responsible for the killings. The actions resulted in him spending 23 years and four months imprisoned for crimes he always denied committing, the lawsuit states.
Pretrial negotiations
Pretrial negotiation between the city and Howard began with a wide gap, according to records provided to The News & Observer after a public information request.
In October 2019, Howard’s team demanded $19 million to settle the federal suit. In April 2020, the city offered $2.75 million.
During the November 2021 civil trial in federal court, the city upped its offer to $4 million, according to John Roseboro, senior assistant city attorney. But Howard’s team rejected that..
Instead, they asked the jury to award Howard $48 million in damages, about $2 million for each year of the 21 and a half years he spent in prison. And another $5 million for the impact on his life after he was released.
Former officer Dowdy’s attorney Nick Ellis, paid by the city of Durham, argued that if the jury decided that his client had violated Howard’s rights, they should give Howard no more than $500,000, considering his history of drug addiction, sales and being shot about 10 times in five incidents.
The city paid Ellis’ firm Poyner Spruill the most of all the recipients, with about 50 payments totaling nearly $1.8 million, the records show. At least one other Poyner Spruill attorney also worked on the lawsuit.
On Dec. 1, 2021, a federal jury awarded Howard $6 million after agreeing Dowdy fabricated evidence and performed an inadequate investigation, leading to Howard’s wrongful murder convictions.
City won’t pay verdict
In the months after the verdict, the Durham City Council decided to not indemnify Dowdy, meaning they declined to cover the $6 million judgment or Howard’s nearly $4 million in legal fees.
During settlement negotiations linked to the federal suit, the city warned Howard’s team that the city might be legally prohibited from paying a judgment if there is a negative jury verdict against Dowdy, Roseboro wrote in an email.
In 2022 interviews and emails, City Attorney Kimberly Rehberg said a city resolution establishing standards for defending and settling claims and judgments prevented them from making payments for officers and other employees who engaged in fraud, corruption or malice. The federal jury’s judgment put Dowdy in that category, she said.
“The city’s hands were tied,” she said then.
Howard’s attorneys questioned that stance then and now.
“Durham’s explanation for that — we can’t pay the verdict because of the verdict — has never made sense, legally or morally,” Bannon wrote.
Criticism followed
The city’s decisions not to pay the judgment drew public criticism from many, including Dowdy, The Washington Post’s Radley Balko and Barber, the leader of the Moral Monday protests in North Carolina. Barber told The News & Observer in 2022 the city council’s decision was an injustice.
“The council ought to be running to do the right thing rather than putting this man through more trauma and more abuse than he has already experienced,” said Barber, who is also co-founder of the national Poor People’s Campaign
In July 2022, Howard offered to settle with the city for $9.5 million, which included the jury award and attorneys fees, but the city refused, Roseboro wrote in an email.
Appeal shifts course
A successful appeal by Howard of a federal judge’s decision to dismiss two officers from the lawsuit pushed settlement discussions in a different direction.
The March 2023 ruling from the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling said the trial judge improperly dismissed two other Durham police officers, Scott Pennica and Michelle Soucie, before the case went to trial in 2021.
The ruling allowed Howard to seek compensation from the officers who Howard accuses of not sharing vital post-trial evidence that would have allowed him to be released from prison sooner.
In April 2023, Dowdy filed his own federal lawsuit against the city, contending Durham officials abandoned him after using him as “pawn” in the litigation, despite his 28 years of working for the city.
Rather than risk another jury verdict against the city, the city settled the case against Pennica and Clark in the spring of 2024, Roseboro wrote. It also resolved Dowdl’s lawsuit with a $350,000 settlement.
Since there had never been a ruling against the two officers, it didn’t disqualify the city from paying a settlement for them, Roseboro wrote.
While city officials stand by their decision, Bannon and others continue to question the path that resulted in the city paying Dowdy.
“Durham effectively gave a $350,000 bonus to the police detective whose misconduct caused all of this,” Bannon said.
Virginia Bridges covers criminal justice in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News & Observer. Her work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The N&O maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
