Speaker 1: This series include sensitive and potentially distressing topics, including sexual
Speaker 1: assault and abuse involving children. Listener discretion is advised. Mark
Speaker 1: Baker was that rarest of brand named lawyers, A delightful
Speaker 1: man who was loved by all who knew him. Baker,
Speaker 1: who died suddenly in a sleep in the summer of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, was a maker of miracles in court.
Speaker 1: His life's work was freeing the wrongly convicted men who
Speaker 1: spent decades drafting appeals from prison while writing to anyone
Speaker 1: they thought might help them. One of those men was
Speaker 1: Anthony to Pippo. In twenty thirteen, after a second conviction
Speaker 1: for the murder of Josette Wright, Anthony reached out to
Speaker 1: Baker through his stepdad. By then Big Larry was once
Speaker 1: again in a position to help his step son. Baker
Speaker 1: wasn't bothered by the two convictions. If anything, they moved
Speaker 1: him to take the case. While reporting the story in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, I'd meet Baker for lunch at his
Speaker 1: favorite watering hole, the Duncan Donuts on Johnson Avenue in Riverdale.
Speaker 1: There over the tune of fish they only made for him.
Speaker 1: He'd spend the first ten minutes cracking punchlines in Yiddish,
Speaker 1: ribbing me for marrying a blonde Chisa, and then he'd
Speaker 1: sit and explain how he'd used a DA's trick to
Speaker 1: win Anthony a third and final trial. In criminal law,
Speaker 1: there's something called Malineau rule. It allows the prosecution to
Speaker 1: bring a prior bad act to show that a defendant
Speaker 1: has a criminal mo What Baker did was flip that
Speaker 1: rule on its head. He went to New York's Court
Speaker 1: of Appeals. He wanted to raise the history of someone
Speaker 1: who wasn't on trial. That's someone, of course, being Howard Gombered.
Speaker 1: This was, to put it mildly, a moonshot plea. It
Speaker 1: had never succeeded in post conviction hearings, not New York,
Speaker 1: at least. Even Baker's partner, Mark Agnifolo, is a skeptic.
Speaker 2: I might even have said this on like, you're wasting
Speaker 2: your time. That's never gonna work. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: a horrible, horrible murder. It's old news. And Baker says, no,
Speaker 2: I'm right, I'm right. This is a sound legal theory.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter that it's never really been done before.
Speaker 2: And he just pushed it and pushed it.
Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, Baker argued his brief before the seven
Speaker 1: panel judge in Albany.
Speaker 3: Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye, as.
Speaker 1: Baker had a half hour to persuade them that the
Speaker 1: judge at Pippo's retrial denied him due process by blocking
Speaker 1: new Gombert proof.
Speaker 4: He knew the deceased, he had a relationship with her.
Speaker 4: He had prior knowledge of all his victims. They were
Speaker 4: also found with clothing stuff down their throat, most were
Speaker 4: threatened with death, and two of them were also taken
Speaker 4: into the woods, just like in this case. Put that together,
Speaker 4: there's a painting.
Speaker 1: The Putnam DA thought so little of Baker's gambit that
Speaker 1: he'd sent a junior assistant to oppose him.
Speaker 3: May it please the court. My name is David Bishop,
Speaker 3: and I represent the people on this matter on appeal.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 1: But as the assistant DA argued against allowing the gombered
Speaker 1: evidence to be heard a trial, a judge on the
Speaker 1: panel cut in.
Speaker 3: He knows her, He's driven in the car with her.
Speaker 5: He calls the the people have been prosecuted for death suckers.
Speaker 3: He's not a murderer, at least said now, as far
Speaker 3: as I know, really well, after.
Speaker 1: Forty five minutes the panel had learned saying that issue
Speaker 1: they're ruling and writing. Anthony waited and waited to see
Speaker 1: if he'd get the chance to argue his case again
Speaker 1: in front of a jury.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's happened, but I mean less than between
Speaker 6: fifty seventy five times. Maybe maybe in the United States,
Speaker 6: you know that somebody's gotten a third chance.
Speaker 1: For months, he woke up every day burning to know
Speaker 1: if the court's ruling had been posted more times a
Speaker 1: day two in the morning, twenty afternoon, I had my
Speaker 1: mom get on the computer, go to the Court of
Speaker 1: Appeals page and let.
Speaker 6: Me know it.
Speaker 5: Does it happen yet?
Speaker 6: And woo, man, it must have been solid sixty days
Speaker 6: And on one day there it was.
Speaker 1: In March of sixteen. His mom checked the court's website.
Speaker 1: The judges had just posted their ruling that morning to
Speaker 1: Pippo would get a third trial. The BUTTNADA set a
Speaker 1: date for that September. Baker and his trial partner Mark
Speaker 1: Agnifilo were incensed. There was no way that could prep
Speaker 1: for it in that short a timeline.
Speaker 2: Unless, of course, so I go to see Anthony Depippo
Speaker 2: for the first time, and I go alone. Baker can't
Speaker 2: go forever reason, and I sit down with him, and
Speaker 2: I spend five hours with him.
Speaker 1: That's Baker's partner, Mark Agnifilo. He'd driven up to meet
Speaker 1: his client and assess him face to face.
Speaker 2: And he talks NonStop for five hours. I've been around
Speaker 2: the block. I mean, I worked on the nine to
Speaker 2: eleven investigation. I was a process, I was a federal
Speaker 2: pro I was a state promising I know, bullshit from
Speaker 2: the real thing.
Speaker 7: And this was just as real as real can be.
Speaker 2: And so I sat there humbled, you know, listening to
Speaker 2: Anthony Depippo talked about his life in his case and
Speaker 2: his twenty year quest to vindicate himself, not just in
Speaker 2: hopes and dreams, but in individual pieces of evidence that
Speaker 2: he has meticulously assembled into binders.
Speaker 1: Over the decades. He'd compiled eleven binders of facts, entitled
Speaker 1: them the Gombert Books. Taken together, they told the history
Speaker 1: of a one man crime wave Gombert's a tax on Girls,
Speaker 1: dating back to the early eighties.
Speaker 2: And I sat there, I was like, remember that the
Speaker 2: old Maxell commercial, the guy sits in the chair on
Speaker 2: the you know, the sound of the you know audio
Speaker 2: tape makes his hair blow back.
Speaker 7: That was me with DiPippo.
Speaker 1: Agnifilod barely cracked volume one when he saw he had
Speaker 1: a secret weapon. Sure, his client looked like a hijacked
Speaker 1: tractor trailers, but he was also illegal savant.
Speaker 2: He's been doing eighteen hours a day every day for
Speaker 2: twenty years, and he is an encyclopedia.
Speaker 7: He knows this case better than any other human being
Speaker 7: can know this case.
Speaker 2: And I say to him at the end of that meeting,
Speaker 2: I said, we're gonna try this thing as soon as
Speaker 2: we can, because I have you and they don't. I
Speaker 2: am gonna sit with you every day, and you're just
Speaker 2: gonna teach me this case.
Speaker 8: You my madness, laughter, my sorrows, them are endless valley.
Speaker 5: This is the Devil's Quarry.
Speaker 1: In the run up to Anthony's third trial, his two lawyers,
Speaker 1: Mark Baker and Mark Agnifilo, agreed on the division of labor. Agnifilo,
Speaker 1: the born showman, would do all the talking, while Baker,
Speaker 1: the back room scholar, would take copious notes and strategize
Speaker 1: lines of attack. That first day of trial, Agnifilo surveyed
Speaker 1: the courtroom. He took a deep breath, rubbing his palms together.
Speaker 1: It was about to be showtime.
Speaker 2: There's no greater adventure than a trial. It's it's an adventure.
Speaker 2: It's the best adventure you can have inside, you know,
Speaker 2: it really is. I mean, to have any better adventure,
Speaker 2: you have to be in the mountains. And so if
Speaker 2: you're into it, and this is exhilarating and fun, and
Speaker 2: it's going to be so exciting. Yeah, I know it's
Speaker 2: a murder case, you know, but just come with me
Speaker 2: and we'll get there.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: That's that's how.
Speaker 2: You engage a jury. They're really responsive to that. And
Speaker 2: if you're their tour guide, they're Therein.
Speaker 1: Robert Tendy, the DA went first. He stuck to the
Speaker 1: button and playbook in nineteen ninety seven, pending all the
Speaker 1: county's hopes on a single witness, Denise Rose. She was
Speaker 1: the only one who hadn't recanted her story. Here's that
Speaker 1: Nilo's summing up Tendee's statement.
Speaker 2: This is an easy case. We have an eyewitness. It
Speaker 2: happened in a van. There was an eyewitness to all
Speaker 2: of these events. She's going to tell you what she saw.
Speaker 1: Two decades had passed since Rose first signed a statement
Speaker 1: accusing Anthony of killing Josette, taking the DA's prompts Now,
Speaker 1: she rehashed the old narrative, the impromptu party at the
Speaker 1: Sigo station, the game of spin the bottle gone horribly
Speaker 1: wrong in the van, the rape of Josette by first
Speaker 1: Andy an Anthony. Then the boys disappear into the dark
Speaker 1: with Josette's body in return without her. Then it was
Speaker 1: Agnifilo's turn with Rose. Of all the criminal lawyers I've
Speaker 1: watched in action, Agnifilo is easily the most relaxed. His
Speaker 1: cross examinations are like dinner party chats, warm and convivial,
Speaker 1: even little aimless, just two folks getting to know each other.
Speaker 1: As he crossed Denise, he shocked everyone, including her, by
Speaker 1: gliding past the details of the crime. Instead, he delve
Speaker 1: deeply into her actions after the fact. Did she call
Speaker 1: the cops that night after she got home? No, well,
Speaker 1: what about calling in an anonymous tip?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 1: Did she tell her parents about what she just witnessed?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Did you wake up the following morning and do any
Speaker 1: of those things? No, said Denise, I didn't.
Speaker 2: One of the things that you have to figure out
Speaker 2: as a lawyer, What does this person really want to say,
Speaker 2: and what she wanted to say she wanted to talk
Speaker 2: about when she was younger and she was in love
Speaker 2: with Di Pippo, and Pippo was, you know, maybe in
Speaker 2: love with her.
Speaker 1: So Agniffolo asked Denise what it was like dating Anthony,
Speaker 1: about how much fun they'd had together, And.
Speaker 2: I'm asking that she doesn't know where I'm going. I'm
Speaker 2: just like, and so you would be happy. It's I'm
Speaker 2: sure happiness because you guys had fun together. If you
Speaker 2: have a great sense of humor, I do, and so
Speaker 2: does he, does you know? And this one, this is
Speaker 2: seven months after you're saying you saw him kill a
Speaker 2: twelve year old, right, yeah about that? And I think
Speaker 2: that the Drews just looking at her like this is
Speaker 2: just crazy.
Speaker 1: Nanny asked Denise if she and Anthony had had sex
Speaker 1: after the night of Josette's murder. Yes, Denise admitted. And
Speaker 1: you wanted to have sex with him, he asked her. Yes,
Speaker 1: she admitted, And in fact, you said the day after
Speaker 1: the murder you went to Anthony's house to hang out. Yes,
Speaker 1: Denise admitted.
Speaker 2: So she wanted to tell the truth and this is
Speaker 2: the truth. But the truth is just absolutely inconsistent with
Speaker 2: having seen him kill a twelve year old.
Speaker 1: Then Agnifolo asked her about pack Costaldo, the cop who
Speaker 1: dragged her down to the station over and over without
Speaker 1: a parent or a lawyer present. On the stand, now,
Speaker 1: Denise admitted that Castaldo would just pop over to her
Speaker 1: house on weekends.
Speaker 2: Why why is Detective Castaldo coming to your house? Did
Speaker 2: you always talk about police business?
Speaker 9: No?
Speaker 7: Okay, well, now we're off and running.
Speaker 1: Agniffolo faced the jury when he asked her about those visits.
Speaker 7: This kind of culture of pressure.
Speaker 2: You know, bad things happening in small police interrogation rooms.
Speaker 2: You know in Putnam County. You know these are young
Speaker 2: ne'er do well kids. You know they can make their
Speaker 2: lives a lot easier if they're friends with the cops,
Speaker 2: or they can make their lives a lot harder if
Speaker 2: they're not.
Speaker 1: But Castaldo had done more than just pop by for
Speaker 1: his little chats with Denise. He'd also threaten her was
Speaker 1: twenty five to life, and now, having gutted roses credibility,
Speaker 1: it was time for the main event. How we're Gombert.
Speaker 2: When you took it all together, there was just this
Speaker 2: mountain of evidence as to what had happened, and how
Speaker 2: they could get something so wrong because all the indications
Speaker 2: are that Gombert's guilty of this crime, and he was
Speaker 2: never called to account, And so he called.
Speaker 1: Gombert's victims to the stand. For complex reasons, only two
Speaker 1: were permitted to testify. First, up with Sarah Linley, who
Speaker 1: was seven when Gombert attacked her in the woods off
Speaker 1: Squats Pond.
Speaker 10: My biggest thing with telling my story is I don't
Speaker 10: like upsetting other people. And it's hard because it's a
Speaker 10: hard story to tell.
Speaker 1: In a voice that wobbled and sometimes broke. She told
Speaker 1: the jury what Gumbert had done to her.
Speaker 10: So as I was telling it, I remember looking over
Speaker 10: and there was a woman who was crying, and it
Speaker 10: hurt me in that moment more seeing her crying because
Speaker 10: of what she was hearing than what I was saying,
Speaker 10: because I'm numb at that point to it. And then
Speaker 10: looking over and seeing Anthony and it just felt so
Speaker 10: fucking heavy, like is this even going to work? Am
Speaker 10: I helping?
Speaker 2: The courtroom changed? You know when they testified, there was
Speaker 2: just a shift in the kind of emotion coming from
Speaker 2: the jury, and the emotion fell in the courtroom.
Speaker 1: After Sarah left the stand. Rachel went up next. She'd
Speaker 1: been dreading this day for weeks and months. Actually, she'd
Speaker 1: been dreading it for decades.
Speaker 7: Anthony's trial was rough. They went in deep with the
Speaker 7: abuse with Howard.
Speaker 10: They were just very deep.
Speaker 1: Sobbing as she spoke. She told the jury what she'd
Speaker 1: suffered at Gomber's hands as a child, the rapes and
Speaker 1: the beatings, and the death threats he'd levied that secret
Speaker 1: spotty take her in those woods. And then Rachel told
Speaker 1: them about Gombert and Josette. How we'd met the child
Speaker 1: at Rachel's mother's place, how we'd threaten Rachel that if
Speaker 1: she ever left Carmel, he'd replace her with Josette and
Speaker 1: start by asking her to babysit his daughter, and how
Speaker 1: she Rachel stood up to him that day, ordering him
Speaker 1: to stay away from the girl. From his seat beside Agnifilo,
Speaker 1: Anthony could barely watch. Even the jurors averted their gaze.
Speaker 1: A few were openly weeping. I do remember.
Speaker 6: Trying to disassociate, and I was just listening for the key,
Speaker 6: the keystoff.
Speaker 1: It was about this point that Josette's mom jumped up
Speaker 1: and stormed out of the room, up.
Speaker 6: And left slammed the door in front of the jury
Speaker 6: as she did not listen to a single thing, and
Speaker 6: that really made it worse for her because another jury
Speaker 6: is like, this is the mom not listening, Maybe we
Speaker 6: should listen.
Speaker 1: And then those jurors heard from the original witness, the
Speaker 1: one who told the first big lie and in doing so,
Speaker 1: ruined the lives of two of his friends. Domin Neglia,
Speaker 1: you recall, was the oversized kid who'd been busted in
Speaker 1: the car with Anthony and Andy, the kid who'd fit
Speaker 1: Putnam cops story after story to get them off his back.
Speaker 1: He tried once before now to take it all back,
Speaker 1: but the judge at Anthony's first trial blocked him from testifying. Now,
Speaker 1: facing threats of perjury from Buttnam prosecutors, he took the
Speaker 1: stand and finally told his truth about being stalked and
Speaker 1: brutalized by Pat Castaldo, about getting fired from his job
Speaker 1: because of their pressure, and how he fed those two
Speaker 1: cops lie after lie so they would quote leave me
Speaker 1: alone and stop bullying me, stop coming to my school,
Speaker 1: stopped coming to my work, then stop hitting me. Several
Speaker 1: of the jurors were sobbing when Big Dom left the stand.
Speaker 1: One of them turned to Anthony with a look.
Speaker 5: We're with you.
Speaker 1: Stay strong, you're going home. But neither Anthony nor Agnifilo
Speaker 1: allowed themselves to trust it.
Speaker 7: You thought he was just gonna sit in jail until
Speaker 7: became an old man.
Speaker 1: And so Agnifilo pulled out every stop, even turning to superstition.
Speaker 2: Every day we had a tuna fish sandwich on toasted
Speaker 2: rye with letton tomato, like it's a it's a you know, superstition,
Speaker 2: Like once you do it and like oh wow, Like
Speaker 2: I had the tune of sandwich and today was a
Speaker 2: pretty good day.
Speaker 7: Then you have to have it the next day and
Speaker 7: that that's a pretty good day. Then you're done. You
Speaker 7: having tune fish sandwich to latrialins. So that's what we did.
Speaker 1: So each day Agnifilo ate his tuna fish sandwich, then
Speaker 1: went back to court and dismantled the DA's case until
Speaker 1: the sixth of October twenty sixteen, when he called upon
Speaker 1: the very last witness in the month long trial. The
Speaker 1: oft mentioned pack Castaldo.
Speaker 2: So that night I prepped for my Castaldo cross and
Speaker 2: I say to myself, it's possible. I sum up tomorrow,
Speaker 2: I go no it won't happen. He's not going to
Speaker 2: make me some up. I mean, I'm going to Castaldo's
Speaker 2: going to be on the stand all day, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to sum up tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Agniffolo launched into his cross of Castaldo. Most of it
Speaker 1: concerned his treatment of the witnesses and the case. The
Speaker 1: jury had just heard. Those witnesses described Castaldo's coercion and trickery,
Speaker 1: but under oath, Castaldo denied all of it.
Speaker 7: He denied it, it didn't happen.
Speaker 2: Castaldo came across as just, you know, not honest, not
Speaker 2: a good police official, you know, not someone that the
Speaker 2: jury trusted.
Speaker 7: He was withholding he was cagey, and.
Speaker 2: That's the case detective, Like, that's the lead case detective
Speaker 2: doing these things, and that's how the evidence in the
Speaker 2: case ends. And so I thought that was really what
Speaker 2: I think the jury was left with that this is
Speaker 2: this is not the court of this case is I
Speaker 2: was gonna say corrupt. It's such a strong word, but
Speaker 2: is corrupted. You know, the core of the case is corrupted.
Speaker 1: It took six hours and every ounce of Agnifilo's energy
Speaker 1: to crack Castaldo's credibility.
Speaker 6: When he sat down I said, how you feel his
Speaker 6: hair is standing up like I can get my car
Speaker 6: and crossed into a tree.
Speaker 1: And just as Agnifilo is catching his breath and the
Speaker 1: judge turns to Agnifilo and says, all right, you could
Speaker 1: do your closing.
Speaker 6: Now, and Agniffhilo is like, what I just cross examined
Speaker 6: the biggest witness in this case.
Speaker 5: His hair is standing up. No break, judges, you're up.
Speaker 1: That was late in the day and Agnifilo hadn't prepped.
Speaker 1: He had to close his case now to the jury, you.
Speaker 2: Know, oh, man, like this is this is all, this
Speaker 2: is for all the marbles, you know, this is not
Speaker 2: just one of those things like I have to win.
Speaker 7: So I stand up and I just start talking.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's like he's such a prawl that he
Speaker 6: got it.
Speaker 7: He got it.
Speaker 1: Agniffolo got up and talked for an hour. The next morning,
Speaker 1: the DA gave his clothes and then the jury retired.
Speaker 1: Aweigh the facts.
Speaker 2: It was just so emotional and so just intense, like
Speaker 2: now I'm done. I don't talk to the jury ever again.
Speaker 2: If you had to say to me in thirty five
Speaker 2: years of doing this, what's the tired?
Speaker 7: Isn't the right words.
Speaker 2: What's the most beaten up you've ever been as trial lawyer?
Speaker 2: It's actually that moment.
Speaker 1: Thankfully, no one was so tired they hit a tree.
Speaker 1: All right, it's time to deliberate. So, because now I'm
Speaker 1: in custody, I have to go through the door with
Speaker 1: the guards, and so I had to sit in this room.
Speaker 1: In this room again, had that steel toilet, stainless steel toilet,
Speaker 1: stainless steel mirror, stainless steel sinc. The water tasted like
Speaker 1: something that was like really disgusting.
Speaker 6: The walls were.
Speaker 9: Painted a light light light, light blue white. Instead of
Speaker 9: a steel bench, it was concrete, and the door is
Speaker 9: like seven feet tall.
Speaker 6: And it's solid steel. It's just so dramatic. During the verdict,
Speaker 6: I'm not going back to the jail.
Speaker 9: I'm in this room. I'm eating in this room. I'm
Speaker 9: sitting in this room. So every time the jury has
Speaker 9: a question, this big door opens with this big key,
Speaker 9: and my door opens. My heart drops because this could
Speaker 9: be the verdict. But no, it's a jury question again.
Speaker 9: All right, Judge brings the jury out. Jury asked the question.
Speaker 9: The first question was does she have to be killed
Speaker 9: on October third?
Speaker 1: It's hard to overstate how heavy that question was. If
Speaker 1: the jury harbored doubts that Josette died on October third,
Speaker 1: the state's whole case collapsed, because that was the day
Speaker 1: Denise Rose claims she saw the murder in the van.
Speaker 1: Any question about when Josette died could nuke the timeline
Speaker 1: of Denise's story.
Speaker 6: I'm like, well, that's not the worst question. I go
Speaker 6: back in. They do this like four or five times.
Speaker 6: I forget how many times I'd have to.
Speaker 7: Go back, and the question started to get worse. So
Speaker 7: I'm at the table.
Speaker 6: And I look at Mark Igniffolo and I say to him,
Speaker 6: I said.
Speaker 1: Losing Anthony was the only one sweating through his shirt.
Speaker 1: Mark Baker was furiously scribbling notes to himself, sketching out
Speaker 1: the basis for another appeal and a fourth jury trial
Speaker 1: for Anthony. The next morning, the jury reached a verdict.
Speaker 1: Anthony and his lawyers were summoned back in. So there's
Speaker 1: a fine line between massive anxiety and exhilaration.
Speaker 6: It's just a state of mind. So I'm having both
Speaker 6: states of mind, and you know, I faced this before,
Speaker 6: you know, and I'm just confident in my fight. I'm
Speaker 6: scared because of the questions and the judges like how
Speaker 6: do you find and defend it on a rape ben
Speaker 6: a first degree not guilty, and everybody with applause. People
Speaker 6: were hugging me and like it's over. Yes, it was over.
Speaker 6: That you wouldn't have known it by Anthony's reaction. Over
Speaker 6: the course of five years, I've asked him countless times
Speaker 6: what he felt when he heard those words spoken, and
Speaker 6: each time I've gotten a response like the one you
Speaker 6: just heard. To this day, it says, though he doesn't
Speaker 6: trust that it's real, that he's been truly and finally cleared.
Speaker 1: Of this injustice. There's also the hardshell he built to
Speaker 1: survive prison, emotional armory he can't dressed, unbuckle and store
Speaker 1: in his garage. Still, the fact remained Anthony was finally
Speaker 1: a free man and could now go anywhere he wanted.
Speaker 1: The first he had to go retrieve his belongings at
Speaker 1: the jailhouse. Agnifolo meanwhile slipped out of the courthouse, ducking
Speaker 1: the scrum of reporters on the steps.
Speaker 2: When you leave the courthouse, there's a row of trees
Speaker 2: between like the grass of the courthouse and the parking lot.
Speaker 2: And for whatever reason, I go and I just go
Speaker 2: stand in the trees. Could have gone differently, you know,
Speaker 2: but it didn't. It went this way, and I just
Speaker 2: needed a second, you know, just to be by myself
Speaker 2: and take it all in.
Speaker 1: Do you remember when you were finally alone with Anthony.
Speaker 2: Yes, afterwards, Yeah, you really appreciate how big and strong
Speaker 2: a man he is when he hugs you. After being acquitted,
Speaker 2: he said, you realize, you know, I'm five ten and
Speaker 2: he's six six. Just he came out and he hugged me,
Speaker 2: and he's like, you know, we did it. You know
Speaker 2: we did it.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 7: I'm like, you did it, man, you did it, You
Speaker 7: did it.
Speaker 2: I said, I was your co pilot. I said, I
Speaker 2: just listened to you a day to.
Speaker 7: Come to this decision. And Anthony is actually righting.
Speaker 10: He just walked out of jail.
Speaker 8: Freeman, Anthony tells, how.
Speaker 7: You're feeling right now.
Speaker 5: I'm a little bit of shock right now. I feel unbelievable.
Speaker 5: This is like the greatest moment of my life. I'm
Speaker 5: fucking going home.
Speaker 7: Holy shit.
Speaker 9: I was really just overstimulated by the color of the vehicle,
Speaker 9: the colors outside, because like prison, every cell is the
Speaker 9: same color. I'm driving where I grew up, past all
Speaker 9: these places. It was so green, the greenest I ever
Speaker 9: seen in the world. And this the smells like I
Speaker 9: hadn't been on grass, being near trees, you know, just
Speaker 9: the smells in the air.
Speaker 5: Animals.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I got the call. I slept in a soft bed.
Speaker 11: It was so soft, and the comforter was so soft.
Speaker 1: But in his first years of free, Tom Anthony felt unfree,
Speaker 1: afraid to leave the safety of his mother's house for
Speaker 1: fear that those cops were lurking. He couldn't run out
Speaker 1: for coffee without looking around corners or flinching each time
Speaker 1: he heard a siren. And then there were the looks
Speaker 1: he drew at the diner, the stairs of those mothers
Speaker 1: and their daughters. He might have just cleared his name
Speaker 1: in court, but not in the eyes of his neighbors. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the real struggle lay ahead. He recruited new lawyers to
Speaker 1: handle his civil suits, the ones he'd filed against the
Speaker 1: state in Butnam County for his twenty plus years of
Speaker 1: wrongful imprisonment.
Speaker 6: They took my energy years, they took my youth, They
Speaker 6: took I mean, they took twenty years. But I mean,
Speaker 6: if I were to just say I'm sit and be
Speaker 6: mad about that. I'm living in the past. You know,
Speaker 6: I want to live now and I want to live
Speaker 6: for the future.
Speaker 1: The States settled quickly and on reasonable terms. They cut
Speaker 1: him a check for five million. The money was nice,
Speaker 1: but it came with no acknowledgment, no apology from the
Speaker 1: governor or the Attorney general, no offer of treatment for
Speaker 1: his severe PTSD, or a counselor to help him map
Speaker 1: out a future, the future that seemed unfathomable without first
Speaker 1: addressing the past and what did that look like? Well,
Speaker 1: for starters, a backo went big enough to dig out
Speaker 1: the Putnam Sheriff's Office and expose the moral rotten its footings.
Speaker 1: What he and his lawyers found and went beyond their
Speaker 1: expectations corruptions so calcified you couldn't just carve it out.
Speaker 1: What you needed was an exorcist. That's next on the
Speaker 1: season finale of The Devil's Quarry. Devil's Quarry is a
Speaker 1: production of Lava for Good in association with Rolling Stone
Speaker 1: Films and Signal Company Number One. I'm your creator and
Speaker 1: host Paul Soltarov. Executive producers are Jason Flomm, Jeff Kempler,
Speaker 1: Kevin Wardis and Gilbert King from Rolling Stone Films. Our
Speaker 1: executive producers are Alexandra Dale and Sean Woods. Our producers
Speaker 1: are Garakornhaber, Hannah Beale, Jackie Pawley, Austin Smith and Kathleen Horne.
Speaker 1: Our editor is Joel Lovell, fact checking by Lucy Croning,
Speaker 1: Our sound designer is Brit Spangler, and our engineer is
Speaker 1: Austin Smith. Additional reporting by Kathleen Horrant. Original music arranged
Speaker 1: and produced by Alexis Quadrado at the Plaza Rojas Studio
Speaker 1: at a marketing and operations Jeff Cleiburn, publisist Nathaniel Baruch,
Speaker 1: art director Andrew Nelson, Social media manager Sarah Gibbons. Legal
Speaker 1: review provided by Claris Law and Gibson Dunn. Our theme song,
Speaker 1: The One Who's Holding the Stars, is performed by Alexis
Speaker 1: Quadrado at the Plaza Rojas Studio, vocals by Rob Reddy
Speaker 1: of California. Corns written by Leo Schofield and Kevin Harrick
Speaker 1: at the Florida Department of Corrections Party Correctional Facility