Detective framed innocent man as revenge, putting him in prison for 31 years, suit says
One of three detectives accused of framing an innocent man for a 1990 robbery in Tampa, Florida, implicated him for revenge, according to a new federal lawsuit.
Tony Hopps, now 59, repeatedly tried appealing his wrongful conviction while in prison — after having been sentenced to three consecutive life sentences — to no avail, according to civil rights law firm Loevy + Loevy, which is representing him.
Then he petitioned the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office’s Conviction Review Unit to take a closer look at what led to his conviction, his attorneys said in a Dec. 5 news release.
Hopps was exonerated in August 2021 as a result of this review — after he spent 31 years incarcerated in Florida, according to his attorneys.
Now a free man, Hopps is suing the city of Tampa and three now-former detectives accused of pinning the January 1990 robbery on him.
“I hope to get justice for the pain of being away from my family, and the decades being behind bars for something I didn’t do,” Hopps said in a statement to McClatchy News on Dec. 6.
“I hope no one else has to go through what I went through,” he added.
Tampa’s communications director Adam Smith told McClatchy News that the city hasn’t been served with the lawsuit as of Dec. 6 and that the city doesn’t comment on pending litigation
The state dismissed the charges against Hopps following the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office findings that the identification procedures used to support Hopps’ prosecution were faulty and wouldn’t meet today’s standards, or those in 1990 for that matter, according to Loevy + Loevy.
The Tampa Police Department didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
Hopps wasn’t near the Tampa hotel where the robbery occurred, according to the complaint, which says Hopps also didn’t fit a suspect’s description. The state attorney’s office’s conviction review unit acknowledged both of these issues, Loevy + Loevy said.
“There is no valid evidence to suggest Hopps committed the crime and there is substantial evidence to suggest he did not do it,” Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren told the Tampa Bay Times in August 2021.
His alibi
On Jan. 25, 1990, two armed men robbed Ruby and Dunbar Dyches at gunpoint at a inside their hotel room, the complaint says.
The robbery happened at about 3:15 p.m. and “was very brief,” according to the complaint.
Hopps was with a neighbor at the time outside of his home, the complaint says.
Within an hour of the robbery, at 3:49 p.m., Hopps was arrested outside his house by a police officer in connection with a separate investigation, according to the complaint.
While he was detained, he spoke with another officer — one of the detectives accused of framing him — who took his photo, the complaint says.
Meanwhile, the Dycheses told officers investigating the robbery that one of two men, who were both Black, had a mustache without a beard, was muscular and wore camouflage pants with a cap, according to the complaint.
They were unable to describe the second robber, the complaint says.
Hopps didn’t resemble the men they described, according to the complaint, which says he wasn’t wearing camouflage pants or a cap and he had a beard.
A ‘short-circuited’ investigation
The day after the robbery, police found a stolen vehicle with items belonging to Ruby Dyches, guns, three masks, an L.A. Raiders cap and a glove inside, according to the complaint.
“Four men were seen running from the scene where the vehicle was apprehended,” the complaint says.
It wasn’t possible for Hopps to have been in the car — because he was in custody for the unrelated case — and the Tampa police detectives “knew it,” according to the complaint.
One of the detectives “had a history with (Hopps),” the complaint says.
This detective had asked Hopps to help find a suspect in connection with a separate crime, according to the complaint.
Hopps “refused,” and the detective later accused him of robbing the Dycheses in retaliation, the complaint says.
“(The detective) knew Hopps could not have committed the Dyches robbery, but set out to ensure that (he) could be implicated,” the complaint says.
An ‘improper’ photo array
The Tampa police detectives mailed a photo array of six people who had been arrested or were suspected of other robberies to the Dycheses home in Georgia, according to the complaint.
“Nearly everything about this photo array was improper,” according to Loevy + Loevy.
“The detectives deliberately used an old photo of Mr. Hopps, in which he had no beard, instead of one they had taken shortly after the robbery in which he was bearded,” the law firm said in the news release.
When the Dycheses picked him out of the array, Hopps was arrested and went to trial , despite his innocence, according to the complaint.
Six months after the robbery, Hopps was convicted of burglary of a dwelling with a firearm and robbery with a firearm, the complaint says.
The detectives named in the lawsuit are accused of withholding exculpatory evidence that would’ve supported Hopps’ innocence.
“We are pursuing justice for the terrible wrong that was done to him,” attorney Jon Loevy said in a statement to McClatchy News. “They took much of his life, which he cannot get back.”
Hopps, with his lawsuit, wants a jury trial and seeks an unspecified amount in damages, as well as relief to be decided by the court.
“Hopefully this suit will bring some measure of compensation for his suffering, and deter this from happening to others,” Loevy said.
This story was originally published December 6, 2024 at 2:04 PM with the headline "Detective framed innocent man as revenge, putting him in prison for 31 years, suit says."
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