Barry Gibbs, Framed by 'Mafia Cop' Louis Eppolito, Gets $9.9 Million From New York City

(June 4) -- A man framed for murder by an infamously corrupt detective who moonlighted as a mob hitman will get $9.9 million from New York City, the largest civil rights settlement in city history.

Barry Gibbs, 61, served almost two decades in prison after former "Mafia cop" Louis Eppolito coerced witnesses and manipulated evidence that falsely implicated him in the 1986 murder of a prostitute.

Gibbs was sentenced to 20 years but was released in 2005, when feds arrested Eppolito on racketeering charges and found evidence in his Las Vegas home that Gibbs had been falsely convicted of murder.

In this September 2005 file photo, Barry Gibbs, center, speaks at a news conference following his release from prison earlier in the day.

Hiroko Masuike, AP

Barry Gibbs, center, speaks at a news conference on Sept. 29, 2005, the day he was freed from prison on charges he killed a prostitute. He has been awarded $9.9 million for his false conviction in the case.

"The settlement I'm happy with; it was my bottom-line settlement," he told The New York Times. "It's been a long road. I've been through a lot, and it was very traumatic for me."

After spending 18 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, Gibbs, a former postal worker, is a free man. The man who framed him, however, will spend the rest of his life in prison.

In 2006, Eppolito was convicted of eight counts of murder and sentenced to 100 years. Authorities said the former police detective had carried out killings on behalf of the Luchese crime family.

Eppolito maintained his innocence. "I never hurt anybody. ... I never did any of this," he told the Daily News at the time of his sentencing.

Gibbs sued the city for wrongful conviction, charging that Eppolito "deliberately fabricated witness statements and police reports," and "intentionally failed to conduct an adequate investigation." His lawyers said officials knew Eppolito was crooked but did not fire the detective.

Thursday, the city settled the suit and agreed to pay Gibbs $9.9 million. The city's corporation counsel said settling the suit was "in the best interest of all parties."

But Barry Scheck, a director of the Innocence Project and one of Gibbs' attorneys, called the case a "horrible" miscarriage of justice.

"He was in prison close to 19 years, and he was framed by one of the worst cops that ever served in the New York City police force, a man who disgraced the badge," he told The Times.

Gibbs told the Daily News that justice has been a long time coming.

"I hope he has a long life in prison and suffers," Gibbs said of Eppolito. "Nothing is worse than being in a cell 23 hours in a day."