By Ben Bedell, From New York Law Journal

Kareem Bellamy, who spent 14 years in prison before his 1994 conviction for a murder in Queens was overturned, was awarded $2.75 million Wednesday when a judge approved a settlement of Bellamy’s wrongful prosecution claims.

In a Manhattan courtroom, Bellamy told Court of Claims Judge Alan Marin that after he lost his final avenue of appeal 11 years into a 25-to-life sentence, “I thought all hope was lost.”

“My federal habeas was denied; I had no place to go,” he said, standing in the witness box as Marin looked on. “I wrote hundreds of letters asking for help.

“No one answered until Thomas Hoffman read my letter,” said Bellamy, speaking in a quiet voice as he read, hands shaking slightly, from a prepared statement.

Bellamy, 25 at the time of his arrest, had been convicted of fatally stabbing James Abbott Jr. on a Far Rockaway thoroughfare despite the failure of the only eyewitness to identify him as one of two perpetrators.

Now 46, Bellamy thanked Hoffman, a Manhattan solo practitioner who devoted 11 years to proving his innocence.

Hoffman, a 74-year-old Holocaust survivor born in wartime Budapest, rose and told the court that “from the time the jury was polled, and after each one of them said ‘guilty,’ my client said ‘I didn’t do it.’ And as they were removing Kareem from the courtroom that day, he shouted to the victim’s mother, ‘I did not kill your son’—from that day until this day, my client has insisted on his innocence.

“He has refused all plea offers, including ones that would have led to his immediate release from prison,” Hoffman added.

Hoffman, whose practice focused on family law, had enlisted the pro bono assistance of Cravath, Swaine & Moore and then fought a six-year battle against Queens District Attorney Richard Brown to vacate Bellamy’s 1994 conviction.

Hoffman and the Cravath team of seven lawyers produced 25 witnesses over a months-long hearing before Acting Supreme Court Justice Joel Blumenfeld that led to an April 2010 ruling vacating the conviction, granting him a new trial and releasing him on bail.

The Queens District Attorney’s Office appealed to the Appellate Division, Second Department. In a statement at the time, Brown criticized Blumenfeld, saying he had “embraced a fraud” and had allowed “duplicity” to be used “to unjustly unlock a jail cell door.”

The panel unanimously upheld Blumenfeld in May 2011, and the Court of Appeals refused to disturb the holding.

The Queens District Attorney’s Office decided not to retry Bellamy after finding the case “unprosecutable” (NYLJ Aug. 30, 2011). No one else has been charged in the slaying.

In an interview before Wednesday’s proceeding, Hoffman said “there is a systemic problem of wrongful convictions.” He said Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson had “done the right thing” by establishing an independent body to review doubtful cases.

“Thompson’s work has resulted in 20 exonerations in two years,” Hoffman noted. “In Queens, the last exoneration was 15 years ago.”

Bellamy said in an interview outside Marin’s courtroom that “the toughest thing was not being able to be with my children as they grew up.” His two daughters were one and four at the time he went to prison, and his son was seven.

Bellamy said his daughter Shalisha, now 25, had asked him to take her Disney World, as he had promised he would years ago. “I think that would be a good way to spend some of the money,” he said.

Bellamy said he also would use the money to try to find his second daughter, with whom he lost touch while in prison. “My son won’t speak to me,” he said, “but I am trying to re-establish a relationship.”

After asking Assistant Attorney General Janet Polstein to sign the settlement document, Marin followed, and said, “Good luck, Mr. Bellamy.”

Still pending is a suit by Bellamy for damages in federal court.

IMAGE: Kareem Bellamy, center, with his attorney Thomas Hoffman, left, and Jonathan Hiles, a Harvard Law School student who assisted Hoffman in the case.

Rick Kopstein

For more on this story go to: http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/id=1202727042164/Wrongfully-Imprisoned-Man-Settles-Claims-for-275M#ixzz3amR89Peb