Claims board agrees to compensate wrongfully convicted man (UPDATE)

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The Wisconsin State Claims Board has decided to award a wrongly convicted man $36,847.89 following his third attempt before the panel to seek compensation.

David Turnpaugh’s latest appearance before the board, which acts as an arbiter cases involving monetary claims against the state, came on Sept. 11, when he argued he should receive $46,000 to cover attorney’s fees as well as for compensation for the three days he spent in jail, 57 days on house arrest and then 10 months on probation for eventually overturned prostitution and bail jumping convictions. An appellate court later ruled the act Turnpaugh had been convicted of was actually not a crime in Wisconsin and he was thus “innocent as a matter of law.”

On Monday, the Claims Board released a decision that prorated the amount of Turnpaugh’s award to take into account only the days he had spent in jail and on house arrest, discounting his time on probation. Turnpaugh greeted the news by both expressing weariness over his long battle against the board and determination to continue fighting for every dollar he believes he is owed.

Turnpaugh said he has spent more money on attorneys since the September hearing and said he is considering whether he should demand the board cover that amount as well.

“We are going to have adjust all that to be the current fees,” he said. “But I don’t have much energy to fight a bunch of liars.”

Members of the Claims Board could not be immediately reached for comment Monday. In the ruling, the board rejected the idea that Turnpaugh was entitled to receive the maximum payment for each individual crime. It also did not accept his argument that he should be compensated for the time he spent on probation.

Wisconsin law allows a wrongfully convicted person to collect up to $5,000 for each year of incarceration.

Even though Turnpaugh only spent three days in jail, he argued that time, added to his days on house arrest months on probation, added up to an entire year. He also said he should receive a $5,000 payment for each of the crimes he was wrongfully convicted of – prostitution and bail jumping – and for attorney’s fees, bringing his total claim to about $46,000.

The board instead calculated what the compensation would be for a single day and multiplied that amount by 60 – the number of days he spent in jail and on house arrest – arriving at the final figure of $822. Beyond that, the board agreed to pay the total amount of attorney’s fees requested by Turnpaugh – $36,025.89.

“Despite the fact the Mr. Turnpaugh was convicted on two counts, the facts show that he was imprisoned only once, not twice,” according to the decision. “Therefore, based on the plain language of the statute, the court order, the potential untimeliness of this argument, and the equities, the claims board finds that Mr. Turnpaugh is not entitled to recover twice under the statute for his single 60-day term of imprisonment.”

Turnpaugh estimated he has spent an additional $1,000 in attorney’s fees since his September appearance before the Claims Board. In October, Turnpaugh’s lawyer, Todd Nelson of the Milwaukee-based firm Stupar & Schuster S.C., submitted a motion for contempt and a request for a writ of mandamus to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court after the board did not release a decision in Turnpaugh’s case within 20 days of the Sept. 11 hearing.

State law requires that decisions in most matters that come before the Claims Board be released within 20 days of the date they are heard. But Patti Reardon, program and policy analyst for the board and who couldn’t be immediately reached, said last week that cases involving wrongful convictions fall under a different part of the statutes and do not carry a deadline governing the release of decisions.

Before Turnpaugh’s latest filing, his dealings with courts and lawyers have been lengthy and expensive. In his first appearance, in December 2010, he sought $13,682.89 in lawyer’s fees. The request was turned down because, the board reasoned, Turnpaugh had not shown “clear and convincing evidence” that he was innocent. The Court of Appeals later disagreed, saying Turnpaugh had been convicted of an act that is not a crime and was thus clearly innocent.

In his second attempt, Turnpaugh asked for $23,201.20 to pay for his attorney’s fees. The Claims Board elected not to award him anything, reasoning that his actions had contributed to his conviction, albeit a wrongful conviction. In ordering the case back to the Claims Board, Judge Paul Van Grunsven said similar reasoning could be used to prevent almost anyone who is wrongfully incarcerated from obtaining compensation.

“For example, under the claims board’s interpretation,” the judge wrote, “a person wrongly charged with intent to buy drugs would not be eligible for compensation simply because they were standing on a corner in a bad neighborhood having a conversation with a known drug dealer.”

Van Grunsven ordered the claims board to award Turnpaugh compensation.

In in its decision Monday, the members of the Claims Board said they were striving to both take Turnpaugh’s lengthy legal fight into account and yet avoid setting a precedent that could have unintended consequences for future decisions.

“The claims board is very mindful of the precedent such an award could set, and cautions that the claims board is generally not inclined to award the full amount of such requested fees for future cases,” according to the decision. “However, the claims board is aware of the significant litigation history unique to this case and the issues raised herein. That history and the balancing of the equities surrounding such history are the basis for this award.”

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