Kristine PhillipsIndianapolis Star
A man who was exonerated after spending nearly 25 years in prison for murder has filed a lawsuit accusing Indianapolis police officers of not only committing misconduct that led to his wrongful conviction, but also of failing to investigate the real killer.
Leon Benson was convicted in 1999 for the murder of Kasey Schoen, who was killed near downtown Indianapolis in 1998. Last year, Benson walked out of the Correctional Industrial Facility in Pendleton a free man, after an investigation revealed police failed to disclose critical pieces of evidence, including information implicating another man ― a drug dealer who, years later, became an informant and helped the FBI bring down a notorious Indianapolis drug ring.
The lawsuit filed Monday in federal court also details a new allegation: That after Benson's conviction was vacated, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department detectives tried to manipulate Schoen's family members into believing that he, in fact, is the real killer despite evidence to the contrary.
Schoen's sister, Kolleen Bunch, is Benson's co-plaintiff in the lawsuit.
"Together, Mr. Benson and Ms. Bunch seek justice for the tragic damage done to themselves and their families," their attorneys said in a press release.
IMPD declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
The case of Leon Benson: After more than 20 years in prison, Indianapolis man exonerated in murder and set free
"It's bad enough that the police ignored, fabricated, and manipulated evidence to convict the wrong person 25 years ago," Charlie Nelson Keever, a professor at University of San Francisco School of Law and one of Benson and Bunch's attorneys, said in a statement, "but their refusal to bring Kasey's true killer to justice today ― in the face of a growing mountain of evidence exonerating Leon and pointing to the person responsible ― is deeply troubling."
IMPD detective accused of making false statements
Benson was freed after a joint investigation by lawyers from the University of San Francisco and the Marion County Conviction Integrity Unit.
IMPD's Unsolved Case Unit began reviewing Schoen's murder after Benson's conviction was vacated. But the lawsuit accuses IMPD detectives ― Sgt. Columbus Ricks and Lt. Eli McAllister ― of trying to bury evidence of police misconduct by attacking the investigation that led to Benson's release.
According to the 50-page complaint, Ricks tried to convince Bunch that the Conviction Integrity Unit's investigation was a sham, and police had arrested the real killer ― Benson ― 25 years ago.
"I'm going to be honest with you, I still don't understand why they let him out," Ricks told Bunch, according to the complaint.
Ricks, who emphasized multiple times that he was expressing a personal opinion and not speaking on behalf of IMPD, went on to tell Bunch he does not trust the judgment of the prosecutor's office, which he accused of exonerating Benson for political purposes.
"This prosecution has been pushing this Integrity Unit of theirs that didn't have any wins," Ricks said, according to the complaint. "They thought that this would be a case that they could get a win, and they went for it. I don't think that this is a good case at all. I don't think that they ― I don't think they presented the case honestly to the judge."
A murder. A conviction. An exoneration: Was evidence of another suspect ignored — or hidden?
Benson's case was the Conviction Integrity Unit's first exoneration since it was created in 2021 by the prosecutor's office to "identify, remedy and prevent wrongful convictions."
The lawsuit calls Ricks' statements to Bunch "false and defamatory."
Kasey Schoen's death
Schoen was shot five times while sitting in his truck near downtown Indianapolis in the early morning hours of Aug. 8, 1998. Benson was arrested and tried twice. The first ended in a mistrial after six of 12 jurors voted not guilty. He was convicted after he was retried in July 1999 and was sentenced to 61 years in prison.
Lara Bazelon, a lawyer from the University of San Francisco School of Law and one of Benson's attorneys who re-investigated the case, said Benson's conviction relied on the questionable eyewitness identification of a woman who gave police only vague descriptions of a Black man in dark clothing she saw while standing 150 feet away in near darkness.
Detectives knew of another possible suspect, Joseph Webster, but the complaint alleges police "fabricated and manipulated" evidence to hide his culpability and failed to disclose pieces of evidence pointing to Webster.
These include another eyewitness who told police he recognized the shooter as someone he had seen from the neighborhood. That witness, who identified Webster in a photo array, also told police that hours before Schoen was killed, he ran into Webster who showed him a .380 handgun ― the same kind used to kill Schoen.
Another detective learned from his confidential informant that Webster had bragged about the shooting to his ex-girlfriend. The informant said a man named "Eddie" witnessed the shooting and said Webster "shot white guy in head," according to the detective's handwritten note to Jones.
The jury that convicted Benson did not hear any of these pieces of evidence.
Webster, a known drug dealer in the Indianapolis area, was never charged. Over the next two decades, he continued to commit crimes until he got caught with drugs in 2017. That's when he became an informant to avoid jail time, according to documents, helping the FBI finally bring down the drug ring led by Richard Grundy III. Police had alleged the Grundy Crew sold large quantities of marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin in Indianapolis and had ties to as many as 10 killings.
"Defendants' decision not to investigate Webster had the added benefit of protecting convictions that were gained through law enforcement's use of Webster as an informant," the lawsuit alleges.
Two other detectives, Leslie VanBuskirk and Steven Garner, are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.
"Tragically, Leon's wrongful conviction was not an accident, but rather, the result of Defendants' intentional misconduct," Elliot Slosar, one of Benson and Bunch's attorneys, said in a statement. "While Leon's wrongful conviction is a travesty of justice, it did not occur in isolation and caused untold damage upon both Leon and Kasey's families."
Contact IndyStar reporter Kristine Phillips at (317) 444-3026 or at kphillips@indystar.com.
