A man who officials say was imprisoned for four years in Nevada based on mishandled DNA evidence stands to receive a $1.5 million settlement from the Las Vegas police department, authorities said Thursday.

The payment to Dwayne Jackson, now 28, represents the largest settlement in Las Vegas police history, said Officer Marcus Martin, a department spokesman. It tops a nearly $1.5 million settlement involving allegations of a cover-up in a case involving the wife of a police officer striking and killing a bicyclist in 1994.

The Clark County Fiscal Affairs Committee said they hoped to provide fair compensation to Jackson for his 2001 arrest and 2003 conviction on felony kidnapping and robbery charges.

“That’s a big number,” County Commissioner Steve Sisolak said of the amount he and four other panel members were being asked to approve. He noted it worked out to more than $1,000 a day for the four years Jackson was in prison.
read more