26-03-2025
Final member of Fairbanks Four in wrongful conviction lawsuit against city settles for $11.5 million
Mar. 26—The last plaintiff in a wrongful conviction lawsuit brought by the Fairbanks Four against city officials and police has settled for $11.5 million.
Marvin Roberts, Kevin Pease, George Frese and Eugene Vent were convicted of killing 15-year-old John Hartman in Fairbanks in 1997. The four each spent nearly 20 years behind bars before their convictions were vacated in 2015 following a weekslong hearing in which evidence was presented that other people killed Hartman.
Roberts was the only man of the four not to settle a civil lawsuit against Fairbanks officials in 2023. The settlement came following a mediation session last weekend.
In a statement released this week, Roberts said no amount of money could "be enough to justify what I endured as an innocent man in prison. This settlement, however, gives me freedom with my life, and most importantly, more time with my daughter and my parents, who supported me throughout this nightmare."
[Previous coverage: After 18 years in prison, the Fairbanks Four settle into life as free men]
The men sued the city and four police officers in 2017 for wrongful imprisonment. They had signed an agreement granting their release that said they would not file a lawsuit, but later argued the document was not legally binding because they were coerced.
A lower court judge dismissed the case but an appeals panel overturned that decision in 2020.
Pease, Frese and Vent in 2023 reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit against the city for $1.59 million each, officials said at the time. The city did not admit liability or fault when agreeing to the settlement.
Roberts, who is from the Yukon River village of Tanana, chose not to settle, according to his lawyer, Fairbanks attorney Mike Kramer.
"He decided that is a wholly insufficient sum to come close to even compensating him for what he went through," Kramer said Wednesday. "He wanted his day in court. That's where we were headed."
His federal case was scheduled for trial in December. The attorney representing all four police officers withdrew from the case last month, citing a conflict of interest, according to court filings. A judge approved the withdrawal earlier this month. The case remained on schedule for trial.
The parties involved in the lawsuit met for mediation on Saturday before reaching the settlement agreement, according to Kramer.
The office of the Fairbanks city attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The law firms involved in the civil case were Fairbanks-based Kramer and Cosgrove and New York City-based civil rights firm Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger, LLP.
