by Thomas Breen
The Elicker administration has formally asked the Board of Alders for permission to borrow $27 million to help fund two newly struck wrongful-conviction settlements.
That request is included as an ordinance amendment on the agenda for Tuesday’s full Board of Alders meeting. The proposal now heads to an aldermanic committee for review before returning to the full board for a final vote.
While the principal amount to be borrowed would be $27 million, interest payments could drive up the total amount of debt service to $40.5 million over the course of the next 20 years, according to an estimated amortization schedule included in the proposal. Ultimately, the final terms of the bonds — including the interest rates — must be signed off on by the city’s Bond Sale Committee.
As explained in an Aug. 27 cover letter written by City Controller Michael Gormany, the city is seeking authorization to issue up to $27 million in general obligation bonds “to fund the self-insurance litigation account” in regards to the cases of Horn v. City of New Haven and Jackson v. City of New Haven.
City insurance will cover $5 million of the total award; that means the city needs to pay the remaining $25.5 million, pending aldermanic approval. The mayor’s office announced the proposed settlements on Aug. 12. Gormany wrote that the city’s Litigation Settlement Committee approved the settlements on Aug. 19.
“The City is using an amount not to exceed $27M, in the event the City issues the Bonds directly to a bank and needs to pay costs of issuance from the principal amount, rather than original issue premium from a public offering,” Gormany wrote.
“In addition, The Ordinance also authorizes the City to use bond proceeds currently on deposit with the City for other projects to pay the Settlements in advance of issuing the Bonds. If the City used current bond proceeds, the Bonds would be issued to reimburse the other projects from which the Settlements were paid (the City did this for a prior settlement).”
The Horn-Jackson settlements mark the first set of wrongful-conviction payouts the Elicker administration has agreed to since a federal jury awarded Stefon Morant $38 million in another wrongful-conviction case which the city took to trial in May. (The city has appealed the Morant decision.) Horn’s and Jackson’s respective federal court cases had been slated to go to trial in September.
Both Jackson and Horn were incarcerated on convictions related to a robbery-turned-murder at a deli in 1999. As with other wrongful-conviction cases that have surfaced in recent years, a witness eventually recanted, stating that a cop had threatened to pin the murder on him.
The men were exonerated after a reinvestigation uncovered nearly 140 pages of phone records found inside the home of retired assistant chief Petisia Adger, a former detective assigned to the case. The phone records had not been released to Horn and Jackson’s lawyers, and they contradicted the state’s evidence against Horn and Jackson. The pair walked free from prison in 2018.
That same year, Jackson and Horn filed lawsuits against the City of New Haven and four former detectives involved in their convictions: Petisia Adger, Leroy Dease (now represented by his estate executor), Daryle Breland, and James Stephenson. They alleged that New Haven detectives coerced witnesses, fabricated and suppressed evidence, and failed to follow through on untapped leads.
In February 2025, the state’s Judiciary Committee agreed to pay a $4,817,954 wrongful-conviction award to Horn and a $5,312,921 award to Jackson.
Morant and Horn and Jackson aren’t the only Black men who have sued New Haven for wrongful convictions based on alleged police misconduct. The city is also staring down potential future trials for ongoing lawsuits filed by Adam Carmon, George Gould, the surviving family of Ronald Taylor, and Maceo Troy Streater (who happens to be a current city alder for Ward 21).
The Horn-Jackson settlements also come roughly three years after the Elicker administration settled still another, more recent police-misconduct case — with Richard “Randy” Cox — for $45 million.
See below for an amortization schedule included in the city’s proposed new ordinance amendment.