DETROIT – A jury has awarded a Michigan family $3 million in their lawsuit on claims their rights were violated when the father was accused of raping their 14-year-old autistic daughter.
In 2007, Julian and Thal Wendrow were charged when their daughter, who is mute and mentally disabled, typed out a message at school with a teacher's aide guiding her hand that said she had been assaulted by her father and that her mother had allowed the assault to happen.
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Julian spent 80 days in jail, but the case crumbled for lack of evidence.
The family sued West Bloomfield police, the state and Walled Lake Schools saying their lives had been permanently damaged. The West Bloomfield Police Department settled with the family for $1.8 million,the state settled for $850,000 and Walled Lake Schools agreed to pay the family $1.1million.
The only hold-out defendantwas the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office -- former Prosecutor David Gorcyca; his former chief assistant Deborah Carley and Andrea Dean, a former judicial candidate.
A trial for went before U.S. District Judge Corbett O'Meara and a jury on Thursday made their decision.