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Oxley Will File $13M Lawsuit For Wrongful Prosecution

Story Published: May 14, 2012 at 3:33 PM EDT

Story Updated: May 14, 2012 at 6:59 PM EDT

Wayne Oxley, who was found not guilty of murder during his third trial, says he will file a $13 million lawsuit against the state for wrongful prosecution and imprisonment.

Oxley spent nearly five years in state prison and county jail in connection with the August 2005 beating death of his former Ogdensburg neighbor Bernard Trickey Jr.

Nearly three months ago, a St. Lawrence County Court jury acquitted him.

He was convicted of the crime during his first trial in 2007.

Oxley spent several years of a 25 year-to-life sentence in state prison before a state court overturned the jury's guilty verdict and ordered a retrial.

Oxley's second trial ended with a hung jury.

"I'll probably never have closure," he said.

Now that he has been acquitted, Oxley plans to seek upwards of $13 million in damages for lost income, humiliation, personal freedoms and family contact for the time he sat behind bars - all for a crime he repeatedly has said he never committed in the first place.

He says he expects to file the legal action within the next couple of weeks.

Since his acquittal, Oxley has been working with his son on various local construction jobs as he tries to rebuild a part of his life he says was stolen from him.

"I think the sham of the first trial and the wrongdoing by the officials during that trial will show that," he said.

Oxley says he is starting to put his life back together and the lawsuit is a critical piece of that effort as he tries to put the past behind him and get a fresh start on a new future.
Friday, May 24, 2013
, Watertown, NY

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