Imprisoned by lie, Dad gets $520k and daughter
- KOIN.COM
- Jan 29, 2016
- 2 min read
Amy Frazier and KOIN 6 News Staff Published: 2014 -- Updated: September 2014, 5:38 pm
LONGVIEW, Wash. (KOIN 6) — Thomas Kennedy spent 10 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Now, he intends to start a business with a half-million dollars he was awarded for the wrongful conviction.
A Cowlitz County judge ordered the state of Washington to pay him $520,000 under their new Wrongful Conviction Compensation Act.
THE CASE
Thomas Kennedy and his wife were divorced when his daughter, then 11, accused him of raping her three times in a bathroom at his home. He was arrested in 2001 and convicted on July 8, 2002. Kennedy was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In January 2012, his daughter — at that time, 22 — came forward and said she made up the story and knew what to tell police by watching movies or seeing adults have sex. She also said she had been sexually active with a boy at the time she accused her father, and that boy confirmed her story. He was convicted of rape, but was released two years ago after his daughter admitted she lied.
HIS RELEASE
Four years ago, a guard walked up to him in prison. “It’s been nice knowing you, Kennedy. I know you don’t belong here,” he said the guard told him. He had a hard time adjusting to life on the outside, and always looked over his shoulder. He’s taken work wherever he can find it, but he said he doesn’t feel safe. “I’m always watching my back, always got my back somewhere to where I feel like nobody’s going to come up to attack me,” he told KOIN 6 News. Overall, his release proved to him there was a higher power. “It means there is a justice system. It means that God is great, because none of this was available.”
TK plans to take the money awarded to him for his wrongful conviction and invest in his grandson’s future as well as starting a business for pallets, storage and RV spots. “To me,” he told KOIN 6 News, “the money is great and I’m very thankful for that. But moreso I’m thankful for the justice system doing what they can, admitting that they did wrong. --- “And that, to me, is priceless.”
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