Wrongly detained, autistic man gets $340k

NEW YORK, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- An autistic man will receive $340,000 from the city of New York in a settlement because he was forced by police to make a false murder confession.

Attorney Gerald Allen, who filed suit against the city on behalf of Ozem Goldwire, said Tuesday Goldwire's imprisonment of more than a year "was a terrible, terrible injustice," the New York Daily News reported.

The newspaper said the settlement included no admissions of wrongdoing by New York police detectives Nancy Malota, Christopher Scandole or Matthew Collins. Goldwire, 31, claimed the detectives had harshly interrogated him for 21 hours at the city's 73rd precinct in connection with the 2006 slaying of his sister Sherika and told him he wouldn't be released unless he confessed.

The suit says the detectives screamed, cursed and shoved Goldwire and allegedly accused him of having sex with his sister, whose slaying remains unsolved.

Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach threw out the charges against Goldwire, describing the circumstances as "the perfect storm for false confession."

"This is an unfortunate situation, and we believe the settlement is in the best interest of all parties," a spokeswoman for the city law department told the Daily News.