‘Nightmare’: Ricky Kidd, wrongly convicted in 1996 murder, sues Kansas City police
Ricky Kidd, a Kansas City man who spent 23 years in prison for a double murder he did not commit, has filed a civil lawsuit in federal court seeking restitution for the time he lost while wrongfully incarcerated.
Defendants in the suit are the City of Kansas City, the Board of Police Commissioners and six police officers involved in the investigation that put Kidd behind bars. In the lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Missouri on Thursday, lawyers representing Kidd wrote that accountability is being sought for those responsible for his wrongful conviction, which allowed the true killers to walk free.
In a statement Thursday, Capt. Leslie Foreman, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Police Department, cited a policy of not commenting on pending litigation “to ensure fairness for all sides involved.”
In March 1997, Kidd was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder with a life sentence for each in the killings of George Bryant and Oscar “Junior” Bridges. Both were fatally shot on Feb. 6, 1996 inside Bryant’s Kansas City home, an act carried out by three men.
On the day of the shooting, Kidd was running errands and babysitting his infant nephew, according to the lawsuit. Kidd also provided an alibi: He and his girlfriend had gone to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in Lake Jacomo to fill out a gun permit application.
A copy of the application dated Feb. 6, 1996, was identified by an officer. No physical evidence linked Kidd to the murders.
Kidd was freed from prison Aug. 14, 2019, following a long legal fight during which he consistently maintained his innocence. Among the evidence presented in court was the sworn testimony of Marcus Merrill, his co-defendant.
Merrill admitted to participating in the killings but swore Kidd was not involved. He confessed that two other men, Gary Goodspeed Jr. and Gary Goodspeed Sr., were actually responsible.
The Midwest Innocence Project has said prosecutors withheld evidence when Kidd was tried. That information included depositions, taken in former assistant prosecutor Amy McGowan’s office, from the Goodspeeds that could have been used in Kidd’s defense.
In a court order, a judge in DeKalb County described Kidd’s innocence as “clear and convincing.” It also said the evidence identifies Merrill and the Goodspeeds as the true perpetrators of the crime.
Over the decades, imprisonment caused Kidd to experience emotional and physical traumas including not being able to watch his four children grow up, his lawyers wrote in court documents. His youngest child was not yet born when he went to jail.
Kidd’s “nightmare experience” was like “standing in a crowded plaza screaming you’re innocent, but no one is listening and keeps passing you by,” according to the lawsuit.
Kansas City officers named in the lawsuit are four detectives and two sergeants who were part of the Homicide Unit during the investigation. The officers are accused in the suit of conspiring with one another to deprive Kidd of his constitutional rights.
During the investigation, the lawsuit contends, Kansas City police failed to collect or test evidence that could have proven Kidd’s innocence. They also failed to investigate other leads that would have put them on the path of arresting the real killers, the lawsuit alleges.
Other errors cited by Kidd and his attorneys include the use of an unreliable witness and improper application of eyewitness identification procedures.
Kidd has not received compensation from Missouri for his 23-year wrongful imprisonment. Under Missouri law, only innocent people exonerated by DNA evidence are entitled to such payments.
Exonerees are eligible for compensation in other states. For example, Kansas paid Lamonte McIntyre $1.55 million for serving 23 years for two murders he did not commit in Kansas City, Kansas.
Kidd’s lawsuit seeks a jury trial to award compensatory damages for Kidd that will deter future wrongful convictions.
The Star’s Katie Moore contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 8:09 PM.
