A Kennedy family member is suing the town of Greenwich, Connecticut, and a criminal investigator for malicious prosecution, among other charges, after his murder conviction was overturned.
Michael Skakel, the nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, has filed suit against the wealthy Connecticut enclave and the lead police investigator, who he claims deliberately withheld evidence in the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley.
Skakel, then 15, was convicted of Moxley's murder in 2002. In 2013, Connecticut Judge Thomas A. Bishop freed Skakel, pending appeal, on the grounds that he did not receive a fair trial due to inadequate counsel. Five years later, the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned his conviction. In 2020, state prosecutors, who had the power to call for a new trial, declined to do so, concluding that the state couldn't prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
People Magazine continues:
Now, Skakel is suing the lead police investigator in the case, Frank Garr, as well as the town of Greenwich for alleged malicious prosecution and civil rights violations, according to court records obtained by CBS.
The lawsuit contends that Garr was intent on convicting Skakel out of financial interest, and thus ignored key evidence about other suspects in Moxley's murder, Greenwich Time reports.
According to the complaint, the defendants “knew that there were other more likely suspects and that there was no probable cause to arrest and/or maintain a prosecution against the Plaintiff (Skakel), but continued to do so intentionally and maliciously, in order to convict a ‘Kennedy Cousin,'” per CBS.
The complaint also alleges that the state's primary witness, Gregory Coleman — who allegedly heard Skakel's murder confession — was “mentally unstable and was a complete liar who could not be trusted,” per Greenwich Time. (Coleman has since died.)
Coleman, a classmate of Skakel's after Moxley's murder, testified that Michael had bragged, “I'm going to get away with murder. I'm a Kennedy.”
On the night of her murder, friends saw Moxley, 15, kissing Thomas Skakel, Michael's older brother, in the Skakel family's backyard. Moxley's family found her mangled body in their backyard the following morning. An autopsy found she had been bludgeoned and stabbed to death with a broken six-iron golf club. Detectives traced the club back to the Skakel residence.
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has long maintained his cousin's innocence, arguing that investigators ignored evidence implicating Kenneth Littleton, the Skakels live-in tutor.
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