Lawyer Sued: City Of Worcester Countersues For Wrongly Imprisoned Woman

The City of Worcester is suing a lawyer for a woman who was wrongfully imprisoned.

Edward Ryan, a lawyer whose client spent nearly three years in jail, is now being sued by the City of Worcester. The young woman, Nga Truong, was wrongfully imprisoned after being coerced into saying she suffocated her infant child.

Nga Truong, 21, a Vietnamese-American from Worcester, Massachusetts, was released after her confession was proven false. The judge eventually threw out her confession and let her go.

At the time of her interrogation, Nga Truong was a minor at 16 years old, with no parents or lawyers present. The video of her confession, now on YouTube (“anatomy of a bad confession”), shows police convincing her of what she should say. Prosecutors admitted that there was no evidence of her crime other than the confession she was pushed into offering.

Nga Truong eventually attacked the City of Worcester via a federal lawsuit. The lawsuit stated that she was coerced into a false confession, she was prosecuted unfairly, and her jail time was all set up against her.

The City of Worcester is now claiming that her lawyer Edward Ryan took to long to file the paperwork throwing out her coerced confession. According to the Telegram, the City stated:

“Ryan’s breach of his duty was a direct and proximate cause of [Truong’s] alleged injuries and damages.”

According to the Huffington Post, Edward Ryan countered the claim, saying:

“Their complaint is absurd. This is a desperate attempt to apparently try to cast the blame for themselves onto me. And there is simply no factual basis for it and no legal basis for it.”

Nga Truong’s child died November 30, 2008, and the stated cause of death was “suffocation.” but the official autopsy stated the cause of death was undetermined. Her boyfriend Edward Vasquez said it was impossible for her to have killed her child, seeing as he was in the same room and he hadn’t heard anything.

What do you think about the City of Worcester suing a woman’s lawyer for her wrongful imprisonment?

Lawyer For Nga Truong, Woman Who Was Wrongfully Imprisoned For Years, Sued By City Of Worcester huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/01/law… via @huffingtonpost

— carltonbanks43 (@carltonbanks43) March 2, 2013