MO- Jury awards man from Aurora $16 million for false sex abuse case

8-30-2008 Missouri:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A federal jury awarded a man who was acquitted of molesting his adopted daughter $16 million on Friday. The verdict came in Theodore W. White Jr.’s lawsuit against his ex-wife and a Lee's Summit police officer.

White, who now lives in Aurora, spent more than five years in prison after a jury convicted him in 1999 of molesting the girl between 1995 and 1998. He got a new trial on appeal in 2002 after prosecutors revealed the lead detective, Richard McKinley, was dating White’s wife during the investigation. The ex-wife, Tina, is the mother of the girl and is now married to McKinley.

White’s second trial ended with a hung jury, which was split 11-1 in White’s favor. His acquittal in his third trial came in February 2005, and White left jail and moved to Aurora to be near his family, who supported him and raised money for his defense.

A month after returning to Aurora, family and friends held a party for him. Some of the jurors from the second trial attended the party. Those jurors sat through the third trial to show their support, and even travelled around Missouri to lobby on White's behalf.

White sued the McKinleys, the City of Lee’s Summit, and the city’s former police chief a month after his acquittal. He sought $100 million in damages.

The lawsuit charged McKinley made up the molestation charges and violated White’s rights. White says McKinley destroyed evidence and covered up and lied about having an affair with White’s wife, who was estranged from him at the time.

The jury awarded White $14 million in actual damages and $2 million in punitive damages. A judge dropped the city and the ex-chief from the lawsuit when the city agreed to pay any damages resulting from the lawsuit. McKinley now is a patrol officer in the Lee’s Summit Police Department. ..News Source.. by Ky3.com