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Jury awards almost $60M to former police…
Felony Justice
Jury awards almost $60M to former police officer for wrongful prosecution in intercourse assault case
By Debra Cassens Weiss
August 15, 2025, 9:39 am CDT
Federal jurors in Detroit awarded about $58.5 million Tuesday to a person who was a police officer in Duval County, Florida, when he stated he was wrongly charged with sexually abusing a baby in Michigan. (Picture from Shutterstock)
Federal jurors in Detroit awarded about $58.5 million Tuesday to a person who was a police officer in Duval County, Florida, when he stated he was wrongly charged with sexually abusing a baby in Michigan.
Jurors awarded Sean MacMaster $33 million in compensatory damages towards David Busacca, a Michigan State Police officer, and Brian Kolodziej, a former Michigan assistant legal professional basic, report the Detroit Free Press, the Related Press and WXYZ. Jurors additionally awarded punitive damages of $10 million towards Busacca and $15 million towards Kolodziej.
Jurors stated the defendants acted “deliberately, intentionally or with reckless disregard for the reality” in pursuing the fees.
Legal professionals for MacMaster had alleged that Kolodziej pursued the fees to impress a girl near MacMaster’s ex-wife, who was engaged in a custody battle with MacMaster, in response to the AP.
Michigan Legal professional Common Dana Nessel dropped the felony sexual conduct cost towards MacMaster in 2021. At about that point, Kolodziej resigned from Nessel’s workplace amid proof that he was in a romantic relationship with a unique girl in a sexual assault case that he oversaw. In keeping with the AP, he pleaded no contest to willful neglect of obligation and gave up his legislation license.
Representing himself at trial, Kolodziej stated his resignation from the legal professional basic’s workplace “has completely nothing to do with the information of this case supporting possible trigger for an arrest warrant and a search warrant,” the AP experiences.
Busacca’s lawyer stated his consumer was a street patrol trooper supervised by others, and he was “not going out on a limb right here to assist Brian Kolodziej get a girlfriend.”
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