Inglewood Finalizes $25M Settlement for Hastings

Maurice Hastings, who spent 38 years behind bars after his 1983 conviction for the sexual assault and murder of Roberta Wydermyer, has accepted a $25 million settlement from the city of Inglewood that his lawyers say is the largest wrongful-conviction payout in California history. The settlement, finalized in August and disclosed this week, resolves Hastings’s federal civil-rights lawsuit alleging that two Inglewood police officers and an L.A. County district attorney investigator framed him. After Hastings filed a claim with the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit in 2021, DNA testing of preserved evidence showed the semen in the sexual-assault kit was not his; prosecutors moved to vacate his conviction in 2022, he was freed in October 2022, and was later found factually innocent. The DNA profile was entered into a state database and matched Kenneth Packnett, who has since been linked to similar crimes. Some settlement terms remain confidential, city and police officials have largely declined to comment, and Hastings, now in his early 70s, said no amount of money can restore the decades taken from him. The federal complaint has been dismissed.