Buffalo attorney Wayne C. Felle said the jury found that a former Buffalo Police Department detective had manufactured a confession in the case against his client, Josue Ortiz, and used the false evidence to maliciously prosecute Ortiz, who was arrested, charged and ultimately convicted in the fatal shooting of brothers Nelson and Miguel Camacho in their West Side Buffalo apartment on Nov. 11, 2004.

"Today is a celebration of justice," Felle said as he stood on the steps outside the Robert H. Jackson U.S. Courthouse on Wednesday with Ortiz, his wife and stepdaughters.

"This civil rights case challenged the veracity of that confession and the federal court jury found that the detective who took that confession did so in fabrication – in other words, he fabricated the evidence," Felle said. "Just to be clear, the only evidence of guilt against my client at that time was the confession."

Felle said the jury on Monday found that the arresting officer in the case, now retired Buffalo Police Detective Mark Stambach, had violated Ortiz's Fifth Amendment rights to be free from self-incrimination. The jury went on to find that Stambach, as an official of the Buffalo Police Department and the City of Buffalo, has to pay Ortiz $5 million in compensatory damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages.   

Ortiz, who was 23 years old at the time of his arrest, spent 10 years and 22 days in prison.

Years after his conviction and sentencing, the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force reopened the murder investigation, and prosecutors eventually charged three other men – Brandon Jonas, Efrain “Cheko” Hidalgo and Misael Montalvo – with the two murders. They were tried and eventually convicted.

"Now a lot of people would ask, why did Mr. Ortiz plead guilty to the crime back then? It was asked during the trial. Mr. Ortiz was facing murder counts as a 23-year-old young man and he was told that he would be sentenced to life in jail. He was told by his old lawyers back then that the confession was so detailed that it would assuredly mean his conviction," Felle said.

"Imagine the decision to make as an innocent person. He was forced to take a plea that meant only 25 years of his life in jail," said Felle. "I don't know if any of us can imagine that," he added.

Felle said the jury's decision represented a huge step towards justice.

"But that step was one that was taken only after multiple steps over multiple years had occurred," he added.

More than being a case about "a bad detective," Felle said, "this case was about all the law enforcement officers who stepped up to shine the light on the truth in this case since they discovered in this investigation that my client was innocent."

Ortiz said that, like him, there are other innocent people in people in prison who need outside help.

"All I've got to tell to those people is to stay strong and just think that one day justice will be served," Ortiz said.