‘WRONG GUY’ GETS $1.6M

Bruce Godschalk, a 44 year old landscaper who served 15 years in prison before DNA testing cleared him of two rapes, will get a $1.6 million settlement from Upper Merion Township, whose detectives had elicited a false confession.  He filed his lawsuit in September 2002, seven months after he left prison, alleging in part that two detectives tricked and coerced him into confessing.  Godschalk was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison in 1987.  He was freed in February 2002 after being exonerated by DNA tests.

(King of Prussia, Pennsylvania)