Baltimore’s spending panel is scheduled to approve Wednesday a $2 million settlement with a city man mistaken for the “Charles Village Rapist” and held in solitary confinement for more than a year beginning in 2008.
The settlement with Marlow Humbert comes after the Supreme Court declined this month to hear the Baltimore Police Department’s appeal in the case.
Humbert sued the Baltimore police in 2011, saying detectives had DNA results within about a month of his arrest that exonerated him, but they continued to hold him on the rape charge. He was held in solitary confinement for more than a year beginning in 2008. The two sexual assaults in 2008 — one in the 2600 block of St. Paul St. on March 5, then four blocks south on April 30 — incited fear of a serial rapist and police arrested Humbert. He was released about 14 months later after DNA evidence failed to link him to the crimes.
Humbert sued the officers and the police department in federal court and a jury ruled that the three officers violated Humbert’s right to be free from malicious prosecution. He was awarded $2.3 million in damages in April 2015.
About two months later, U.S. District Judge William Quarles Jr. reversed the jury decision, concluding the detectives had probable cause and were entitled to immunity. Quarles wrote that police had not acted with “actual malice.”
Humbert appealed the decision and won last August.
Next, the police department petitioned the Supreme Court to hear its appeal of the judgment. But the court only accepts about 1 percent of such petitions, Humbert’s attorney, Charles Edwards, said at the time.
The high court declined three weeks ago to hear the case. City officials say they have reached an agreement with Humbert to settle his case down to $2 million.
