February 4, 2015 3:58PM # Police Misconduct — The Worst Case in January By [Tim Lynch](https://www.cato.org/people/tim-lynch) --- SHARE Over at Cato’s [Police Misconduct web site](http://www.policemisconduct.net/), we have identified the worst case for January. It comes from Miramar, Florida. The misconduct took place in the 1980s, but it took some time for it to be exposed. A federal appeals court recently upheld a $7,000,000 judgment against two now-former police officers In 1983, the officers coerced a mentally challenged 15-year-old boy, Anthony Caravella, to confess to rape and murder. From the [Florida Sun-Sentinel](http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/crime/fl-anthony-caravella-dna-7-million-20150122-story.html): > Caravella was arrested by Mantesta and Pierson on Dec. 28, 1983, on a juvenile case that alleged he stole a bicycle and didn’t show up for court. > > > Over the next week, while in juvenile custody, Caravella gave a series of statements to the officers that culminated in him confessing to the murder. > > > Heyer said Caravella trusted Mantesta and the officers, who spent hours alone with him, fed him information about the crime scene and got him to repeat it back to them. > > > Caravella and his childhood friend, Dawn Simone Herron, testified in the 2013 civil trial that the officers coerced Caravella into falsely incriminating himself by telling him that if he gave a statement they would free the 16-year-old girl who was with him when he was arrested. After that “police work,” prosecutors actually sought the death penalty against the teen, but the jury opted for a life sentence instead. The man who was actually responsible for the rape and murder remained free, endangering other members of the community. He never faced justice for this crime. ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).