Man once accused in Pawtucket cold case killing reaches $1 million settlement
by BRIAN CRANDALL, NBC 10 NEWS
(WJAR) — A man once accused of the cold-case killing of a Pawtucket girl will get a million dollar payout after he sued police and the city.
Joao Monteiro reached a settlement Tuesday in his lawsuit.
Monteiro was arrested in 2019, and charged with the murder of 10-year-old Christine Cole in 1988.
He denied any involvement with Cole’s disappearance and killing.
The case was later dropped in 2020, when prosecutors said the DNA evidence wasn’t strong enough.
NBC 10 reported at the time the attorney general’s office announced the evidence didn’t rule out Monteiro’s male family members and without stronger evidence, his office could not prosecute.
Monteiro sued Pawtucket police and the city, claiming investigators made up evidence, and framed him.
His lawsuit states, “Defendants fabricated evidence in order to ‘solve’ the 32 years-old ‘cold case’ in order to gain notoriety. In particular, Defendants fabricated false statements from Plaintiff that relied on taking advantage of an obvious language barrier.”
Monteiro’s lawsuit claimed he lost his job, became homeless, his reputation was tarnished, and his life was “forever damaged.”
A man once accused of the cold-case killing of a Pawtucket girl will get a million dollar payout after he sued police and the city. (WJAR)
The case was scheduled to go to trial this week.
Instead, lawyers engaged in settlement talks.
The deal reached Tuesday will pay Monteiro $1 million, his lawyer William Devine told NBC 10.
Another attorney for Monteiro, Mark Loevy-Reyes, told NBC 10 the settlement amount means “Mr. Monteiro feels vindicated,” but “money doesn’t compensate him for what he’s been through.”
Monteiro’s lawyers say the city admits no wrongdoing in the settlement.
A statement sent to NBC10 from city spokeswoman Grace Voll reads, “We have been informed that the City’s insurer, the Interlocal Trust, has reached a tentative agreement with the Plaintiff to settle the case on behalf of the City. However, until the settlement paperwork has been finalized and signed, the City reserves further comment.”