After Calvin Harris had twice been convicted of murder, and had had both convictions vacated, Barket Epstein took over his criminal defense representation and, after two more trials, secured his ultimate acquittal. The firm is now representing Mr. Harris in a pending civil rights lawsuit against agents of the State Police, the former District Attorney, and others, alleging that evidence marshalled against him had been fabricated, that he was the victim of a malicious prosecution, and that a series of parties conspired in order to target him in lieu of other suspects against whom there was a growing body of evidence.
Facing applications from all defendants to avoid a trial, on March 23, 2023 the United States District Court sitting in the Northern District of New York issued a 63-page decision denying the defendants’ motions on virtually all claims that remained contested. Finding sufficient evidence to proceed to trial, the Court sustained Mr. Harris’s claim of evidence-fabrication, malicious prosecution, and conspiracy—and did so as against agents of the State Police, a “state actor” witness, the District Attorney, and Tioga County itself.
Alexander Klein, who wrote the motion papers for Barket Epstein and argued the case in federal court, noted that “Calvin Harris twice stood convicted of this crime. He has now sued the people responsible for that conviction. Upon review of an extensive presentation of the evidence, a neutral and detached federal judge has agreed with him that there is sufficient evidence of law enforcement wrongdoing to proceed to trial. How the tides have turned.”
