The city of Louisville has paid more than $566,000 to nine law firms to fight Kerry Porter’s claim for compensation for the 14 years spent behind bars for a murder he did not commit.

Porter was exonerated in 2011 by former Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Stengel for the 1996 killing of truck driver Tyrone Camp. In 2012 he sued the city and 10 police officers, alleging a conspiracy to unlawfully arrest and convict him.

Unlike 27 other states, Kentucky has no law requiring compensation of wrongfully incarcerated prisoners. Their only chance of recovery is through litigation.

Documents obtained by Courier Journal through the state public records law show Metro Government has paid lawyers $480,707 in fees plus $86,007 in costs since July 2011.

Linda A. Smith, director of the Kentucky Innocence Project, which fought for Porter’s exoneration, said that is outrageous.

Stengel, who is now retired, called the case a “tragedy.”

Porter called the fight a waste of taxpayer money.

“They are fighting a battle they know they are going to lose,”  said Porter, 55, who lives in Louisville.

Jerome Camp, whose twin brother was gunned down in the parking lot of Active Transportation Co., said “there is no doubt in my mind” Porter was innocent and that it’s “ridiculous the city has spent so much time and money to avoid paying him.”

The latest: Husband and wife named ‘persons of interest’ in murder

From 2014: Police question Kerry Porter’s innocence 

But Josh Abner, a county attorney’s office spokesman, noted most defendants originally named in Porter’s suit have been dismissed, and the plaintiff’s decision to include them is “a significant factor in the cost of the litigation.”

Abner also said the officers accused in the suit had conflicting interests so multiple outside law firms had to be hired to represent them.

“The office of the Jefferson County Attorney has a statutory obligation to serve as the legal representative for Louisville Metro Government,” Abner said in an email. “We do not get to pick and choose the claims that are made against our client as we meet our duties … and offer a defense.”

Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Simpson III in May dismissed multiple counts against the city, including Porter’s claim for malicious prosecution and conspiracy to deprive him of his constitutional rights. The only remaining count against the city is for negligent supervision. Three officers — Julius Clark, Rodney Kidd and Gene Sherrard — remain accused of suppressing exculpatory evidence. Kidd alone is also accused of malicious prosecution and fabrication of evidence. All deny wrongdoing.

Porter’s lawyers — and Camp’s family — have repeatedly asserted that Tyrone Camp’s wife, Cecilia Sanders, had her boyfriend — now husband — Juan Sanders kill Camp so they could share in his life insurance.

A Louisville homicide detective earlier this year testified the two are “persons of interest” in Camp’s murder. Cecilia Sanders has twice cited her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions about it.

She has denied any role in the crime, while Sanders has declined comment. He was released from prison in 2015 after serving 17 years for manslaughter and assault —shooting three people, one fatally, a few months after Camp’s murder.

Porter was exonerated after Courier Journal reported that a witness had told authorities that Sanders had admitted the crime, and Porter was innocent. Prosecutors tried to keep the statement secret to protect their case against Ricky Kelly, whom the witness had implicated in several other murders. Kelly pleaded guilty to manslaughterMonday and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in an unrelated case.

 In exonerating Porter, Stengel cited the statement, which “clearly implicates a different person,” as well as DNA from someone other than Porter found on a homemade silencer left at the murder scene. That person has never been identified.

In his lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Louisville, Porter alleged that officers used improperly suggestive identification procedures and concealed other evidence that showed he was innocent.

Trial in the case is set for July.

Background:  Porter says city is thwarting his wrongful-conviction suit 

Records show that through March of this year Metro Government made 200 payments to various law firms involved in the defense: Conliffe, Sandmann & Sullivan; Benson, Risch & Lange; Dressman Benzinger & LaVelle; Kaplan and Partners; Miller & Wells; Mark Osbourn; Reed Wicker; Schiller Osbourn Barnes & Maloney; and Sitlinger McGlincy.

Porter’s civil lawyer, Elliot Slosar, declined comment on the payments. If Porter prevails, Slosar’s firm, Loevy & Loevy, will be entitled to attorney fees that may far exceed the city’s attorney fees paid to date.

Courier Journal has reported that Porter’s wrongful conviction was set in motion by Ken Brown, another truck driver who saw the fleeing shooter but told Clark he didn’t see the man’s face and could never identify him.

But Jerome Camp later showed Brown a photo of Porter – provided by Cecilia Camp – and passed along her suggestion that Porter was the man.

Knowing that showing a witness a single photo is improperly suggestive, and that subsequent identifications would be tainted, detectives nevertheless arranged for Brown to view a photo lineup two days later, Porter’s lawsuit says. “Unsurprisingly” he picked Porter.

The suit also says police knew Cecilia Camp was secretly dating Sanders, who had a history of violence and had taken out a large life insurance policy on her husband.

Metro Police reopened the case after Porter’s release, but nobody has been charged.

Jerome Camp has asked Police Chief Steve Conrad to allow another agency to investigate, saying police have a conflict because charging someone else would enhance Porter’s damage claim.

More: He’s one of Louisville’s most notorious accused killers. Now, his own life is on the line

Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine, who tried the case when he was a circuit court judge, has stepped aside and Hardin Commonwealth’s Attorney Shane Young was appointed as a special prosecutor.

Young told Courier Journal he lacks enough evidence to take the case to a grand jury, though Metro Police have “done everything I asked them to.”

The city paid a $3.9 million settlement in 2007 to William Gregory, who was imprisoned for seven years for two rapes before he was exonerated by DNA evidence, and $8.5 million in 2012 to Edwin Chandler, who spent nine years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

Smith, the Innocence Project lawyer, said the city appears “quite comfortable spending millions of taxpayer dollars in attorney’s fees and settlement awards in wrongful conviction cases” instead of trying to stop “systemic, pervasive and detestable police misconduct that continues to this day.”

Read this:  A look at wrongful convictions in Louisville 

Kentucky and Indiana are two of the 23 states that do not offer compensation to the exonerated, according to the Innocence Project at Cardozo School of Law.

The Innocence Project endorses model legislation that would provide a minimum of $50,000 per year of wrongful imprisonment. Five states explicitly provide that amount. Ohio allows a maximum award of $40,030 per year, or an amount determined by the state auditor, plus lost wages, costs and attorney’s fees. Tennessee gives its Board of Claims the option of awarding up to $1 million.

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; [email protected]; Twitter: @adwolfson.  Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/andreww