The city of Austin plans to pay $35 million to three men and the family of a fourth who were wrongly accused in Austin’s yogurt shop murders case, the American-Statesman has confirmed.
The tentative settlement, reached Tuesday, would resolve claims that Austin police misconduct upended the men’s lives for decades and sent one of them to Texas’ death row. The agreement still requires City Council approval.
If approved, the settlement would mark the largest payout in city history and likely require it to borrow money through bonds or loans. It also would rank among the nation’s larger wrongful conviction settlements, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
There is no timeline for finalizing the agreement, but City Council members have met multiple times in recent executive sessions to discuss the city’s strategy. The city also hired prominent Austin attorney Dan Richards to negotiate on its behalf.
Mayor Kirk Watson said in a statement that “there is nothing I can say to undo past wrongs. We can only mitigate our mistakes with action. I hope the exonerations bring some relief and closure. And I hope that this proposed financial settlement agreement also brings some relief and closure.
“This settlement closes the final chapter of a devastating story in Austin’s history,” City Manager T.C. Broadnax said in a statement. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with those who were wrongly accused and wrongly convicted in this case and hope that this settlement brings a sense of closure to everyone affected by this horrific event.”
By resolving the matter, officials hope to avoid a lawsuit expected to be filed by Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn and the family of Maurice Pierce.
Michael Ware, executive director for the Innocence Project of Texas, which is helping represent the men, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
The two city officials who confirmed the tentative settlement to the American-Statesman requested anonymity because of the ongoing confidential discussions.
The proposed restitution comes about three months after a Travis County judge declared the four men innocent in the 1991 murders of Sarah and Jennifer Harbison, Eliza Thomas and Amy Ayers at a North Austin “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt” shop. The ruling came after authorities identified the actual killer last year.
Austin police targeted the four men in 1999 amid mounting public pressure to solve the case. Investigators arrested them after saying Springsteen and Scott had confessed. A Travis County jury sentenced Springsteen to death and spent a decade on Texas’ death row while Scott was sentenced to life without parole.
Charges against Pierce were later dropped after he spent three years in the Travis County Jail awaiting trial. A grand jury declined to indict Welborn.
In subsequent years, courts overturned the convictions of Springsteen and Scott, ruling their confessions had been improperly used. Prosecutors later deemed the confessions coerced.
Police announced in September that DNA and ballistics testing linked Robert Eugene Brashers to the crime scene. Brashers has been connected to multiple other murders across the nation and died by suicide in 1999.
During a February exoneration hearing, the men and their families described how the case derailed their lives, making it difficult to find jobs, housing and maintain relationships.
It is unclear how the three men and Pierce’s estate would divide the settlement money, but Maurice Possley, senior researcher for the National Registry of Exonerations, said factors such as time spent in prison and the extent of pain and suffering typically are considered.
The city operates its own litigation fund for such expenses, but the two officials said the city lacks sufficient money in reserves to resolve the matter. The possible loans would not require voter approval, the officials said. The city does not carry outside insurance coverage for the claims.
Possley said cities generally weigh whether to settle wrongful conviction cases or take them to trial, either of which can result in payouts totaling tens of millions of dollars.
“The key to any settlement or any litigation — as opposed to compensation — is showing there was harm because of bad acts, whether it was failure to disclose evidence or perjury or manufacturing evidence,” he said. “You have to have some evidence to show there were bad acts committed.”
In the early 2000s, Austin paid a combined $14 million to two men wrongfully convicted in the murder of a Pizza Hut manager.
Richard Danziger received $9 million after serving about 12 years of a life sentence. While in prison, he was attacked and suffered a severe brain injury that doctors said would require lifelong care. The city also paid $5.3 million in that case to Chris Ochoa, who also had been convicted in the case.
Separately, the city has paid about $25 million over the past five years to settle claims brought by more than a dozen people injured during the May 2020 racial justice protests.
