Law360 (May 21, 2026, 5:15 PM EDT) -- A Connecticut man who was exonerated of sex crimes is seeking compensation after at least one rape kit that the New Haven Police Department had long claimed was destroyed was located and tested, ruling him out as a suspect, nearly 38 years after he was locked up.

In a complaint filed Tuesday, Charles Coleman Jr. said he had been seeking DNA testing of a sexual assault kit taken from one victim since at least 1993, but that the New Haven Police Department repeatedly told him it had been destroyed. When the kit was located and tested in 2024, he was ruled out as a suspect, and retesting of a kit in another attack exonerated him of that crime as well, his complaint said.

"The investigation, arrest, and prosecution of Mr. Coleman rested almost entirely on purported identifications of latent fingerprints and palm prints," his complaint said, calling the identification "at minimum erroneous, if not fabricated."

In addition to these two crimes for which he was exonerated, Coleman was also convicted of attacking another woman based only on fingerprint evidence that he said was false. In that case, the woman feigned an asthma attack to escape, so there was no rape and no DNA, the complaint says.

The attacks Coleman was accused of perpetrating took place in 1986 and were home invasions where single women were attacked, the complaint says.

Because the attacks followed a common scheme, police believed they were likely carried out by the same person. Another suspect named Allen Hudson was stopped shortly after the attack on the woman who had feigned asthma, and he was carrying suspicious items, according to the complaint.

He matched the description of the suspect given by the victim and "was in possession of a television antenna box, a bracelet and a gold ring, and headphones marked 'Yale Language Lab,'" said the complaint, adding that he refused to explain why he had the items. He was arrested on active warrants and had a history of "at least 30 prior arrests and prior convictions for burglary, assault, and robbery," the complaint said.

He was also "wanted for escape from custody from the Whiting Forensic Division of the Connecticut Valley Hospital, which treats mentally ill prisoners and conducts competency evaluations of criminal defendants awaiting trial," the complaint said.

Regardless of who the East Rock Rapist actually is, Coleman said it clearly was not him.

Still, Coleman entered an Alford plea, saying "he felt he had no choice but to accept the plea because he was facing an effective life sentence and the state claimed to have his fingerprints at the crime scenes," the complaint said.

The plea was vacated in 1992, when it was found not to be voluntary, but Coleman was retried and convicted of all three crimes and sentenced to a total of 170 years in prison.

During his time in prison, Coleman endured more than 14 years in solitary confinement and was "subject to extreme measures of control, including the frequent use of four- and five-point restraints and the regular use of tasers or stun guns as a means of discipline," he said in the complaint.

One of the supermax facilities where Coleman was held "was closed in 2021 after multiple lawsuits relating to the exceptionally cruel conditions of confinement there," the complaint said.

Coleman, now around 70, says he missed his father's last moments and funeral, and his own health declined while he was in prison.

The lawsuit blames the city of New Haven for preventing Coleman's liberty by denying him access to the rape kits he needed to prove his innocence, alleging the city had a pattern of not testing kits and destroying evidence. It also accuses the city of negligence for the widespread failure of the police investigation concerning the crimes for which Coleman was accused.

Coleman accuses New Haven detectives James Stephenson and Christopher Grice of negligence and of denying him a fair trial by withholding exculpatory information and said the city was to blame as well, because the police habit "of suppressing information favorable to the accused in serious felony cases … constituted a municipal custom or usage."

The suit demands compensation for what Coleman endured.

Representatives for Coleman declined to comment, and representatives for the city did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Coleman is represented by Douglas E. Lieb of Kaufman Lieb Lebowitz & Frick LLP and David S. Keenan of the Law Office of David Keenan.

Counsel information for the city of New Haven, Stephenson and Grice was not listed in the complaint.

The case is Coleman v. City of New Haven et al., case number 3:26-cv-00770, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.

--Editing by Linda Voorhis.

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