Wrongfully convicted man seeks $200 million in suit

After serving 37 years in state prison for a double homicide conviction that was overturned in late 2023, Michael Rhynes is now seeking $200 million in a lawsuit alleging Monroe County prosecutors and Rochester police conspired to frame him.

The suit, filed in federal court April 1, alleges that the Rochester Police Department and the Monroe County district attorney’s office knowingly fabricated and presented perjured witness testimony and deceived a jury into wrongfully convicting Rhynes of murdering Enrico Ferrari and Robert Hurysz. Rhynes was sentenced to 52 years to life in prison in 1986.

According to the complaint, Ferrari and Hurysz were shot and killed on Sept. 27, 1984, during an evening robbery by three masked men at Rico’s Bar on Lexington Avenue, now the site of Foodlink’s community farm. 

Eyewitnesses failed to identify the perpetrators, and one claimed they were all at least 6 feet tall, the complaint says. Rhynes, who is 5-foot-6, maintained he was asleep at his mother’s house at the time.

Without any positive suspects, the complaint alleges, RPD Lieutenant William Mayer contacted a confidential informant named Ali Hasan, who was told by Mayer and two subordinate officers to implicate Rhynes in the robbery. Hasan, a paroled felon, was under federal indictment for possessing and distributing counterfeit currency, the complaint states.

The officers allegedly fed Hasan a false story about a meeting he had with the three perpetrators, including Rhynes, at which they discussed the prospective robbery, the complaint claims. The suit further alleges that members of the district attorney’s office also coerced witnesses and presented false testimony to get Rhynes convicted.

In August 2022, Rhynes filed a motion to overturn his conviction. He produced affidavits from two jailhouse informants who said they had lied at his trial. The two informant witnesses testified at an evidentiary hearing in January 2023, saying “they were fed details about the case and told what to say by law enforcement authorities,” Rhynes’ complaint states. 

In early December that year, state Supreme Court Judge Stephen Miller vacated Rhynes’ conviction on the grounds of newly discovered evidence. Rhynes was released on Dec. 19, 2023, and on Jan. 8, 2024, the Monroe County Court dismissed the indictment against him.

Rhynes’ suit includes 11 causes of action, including false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, civil rights conspiracy and negligence.

Justin O’Connor is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer.

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