Man wrongfully convicted of murder gets $7M settlement from City of Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The City of Wilmington has reached an agreement with Johnny Michael Small to settle his claim against the City and six WPD officers for $7 million after he served more than 28 years in prison.

The settlement was approved Monday by the Wilmington City Council in a called special session. The agreement will bring an end to Small’s pending federal lawsuit: Johnny Small v. City of Wilmington, et al, 7:17-CV-71-FL.

Small was convicted by a jury during the April 7, 1989, session of New Hanover County Superior Court of the July 13, 1988, robbery and murder of local pet shop owner, Pamela Dreher. Small’s 1989 conviction was vacated on August 16, 2016, by Superior Court Judge Douglas Parsons.

While the court did not make a finding of actual innocence, it did review the case against Small in detail, making findings that: A key prosecution witness, who was Small’s co-defendant at the time of the trial, has now recanted his original trial testimony; and Procedural errors occurred and Brady materials were not properly disclosed.

Citing the lack of physical evidence, the recanted testimony of the co-defendant, and the difficulties related to retrying a 28-year-old homicide, the District Attorney declined to further prosecute the criminal case and filed a dismissal of the charges on September 8, 2016.

“The settlement reached Monday reflects an acknowledgement that WPD detectives made procedural errors in the investigation of this particular case over 30 years ago. However, both the City and the WPD are confident that this is an isolated incident from long ago,” a news release states.

“Every police officer who works at the WPD is very aware that if they do not follow the proper discovery procedures, they risk their cases being overturned and thrown out of court, no matter what the crime is or how much evidence they have against a suspect,” Chief Ralph Evangelous said. “It is common sense and it is the law and this is how the WPD operates in 2018. It has worked this way ever since I have been here.”

The City says there are many processes and procedures in place to ensure that mistakes like those the court noted do not happen again.

“We were disappointed to learn about this situation,” Mayor Bill Saffo said. “This occurred 30 years ago and is not reflective of our current police department. We plan to continue moving forward and ask the community to move forward with us, with the knowledge that our law enforcement personnel are out working every day to protect and serve our citizens.”