05/18/2010 // West Palm Beach, FL, USA // Tara Monks // Tara Monks
Trenton, NJ – A man who was recently freed from prison and cleared of murder charges filed a complaint Monday, May 17, 2010 against the state and several law-enforcement agencies for his undue imprisonment, as reported by The Philadelphia Enquirer.
Perman Pitman, 36, is a former Camden gang member that was found guilty for the September 27, 2005 shooting death of Robert Mays, a friend and fellow member of the Sons of Malcolm X gang. He served approximately four years for the charge.
In February 2010, someone inside the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office found a note inside Pitmans case file stating the state’s witness claimed to have been paid to name Pitman as the killer. The author of the statement, Assistant County Prosecutor Harry Collins, allegedly asked the note be destroyed.
As a result of the finding, Pitman’s case was cleared and he was released from Bayside State Prison in Leesburg.
Collins resigned from the prosecutor’s office after Pitman’s release. He is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, among others.
The complaint states, “[Pitman] was falsely prosecuted and ultimately convicted based on perjury and paid testimony.”
The prosecutor’s office declined to comment on the lawsuit brought by Pitman.
Pitman’s attorney told reporters the lawsuit is meant to help him recoup the past four years he spent wrongfully imprisoned in county and state jails.
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