The city of Long Beach has agreed to pay a $1 million settlement to a man who spent nearly four decades in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of a 1982 Long Beach murder.
Samuel Bonner, now 63, was 20 years old when police arrested him in connection with the Nov. 11, 1982, shooting death of 23-year-old Leonard Polk, a flight attendant living in Long Beach, according to court records.
In 2019, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Daniel Lowenthal vacated his conviction, citing prosecutorial misconduct. Lowenthal ordered his release at the time and later declared Bonner factually innocent.
Bonner filed a lawsuit in 2022 against Los Angeles County and the city of Long Beach alleging, in part, that a Long Beach police detective gave false testimony that prevented his case from getting dismissed.
Bonner was considered a suspect in the murder because he had given a ride to alleged co-conspirator Watson Allison from Central Long Beach to the Rose Park neighborhood to meet with Polk, according to court records.
The LBPD detective William Collette falsely testified that Bonner had denied giving Allison a ride, being at 10th and Orizaba on the day of the murder and denied knowing Allison’s name, according to the lawsuit.
Bonner never denied giving Allison a ride that day but insisted that he never got out of his car and drove off after dropping Allison off, according to court records.
An undercover Long Beach police officer who followed Bonner’s car that day backed up Bonner’s story, as did two witnesses at Polk’s apartment building.
During Bonner’s trial the following year, the prosecution called on a jailhouse informant known as Michael Hayes, whose real name was Charles Jones, to testify against Bonner.
Hayes claimed that Bonner had confessed to Polk’s murder while the two were in county jail together awaiting trial, according to court records.
After Hayes agreed to testify in Bonner’s case and two others, one of his homicide charges was reduced to manslaughter, for which he received a four-year prison sentence.
That informant’s true name, complete rap sheet and benefits provided for testifying were never disclosed to Bonner or his defense counsel.
At separate trials for Bonner and Allison, prosecutor Kurt Seifert “created a different evidentiary record” by refusing to use evidence in Allison’s trial that he had used in Bonner’s trial, according to the lawsuit.
At Bonner’s trial, Seifurt claimed that both men had entered the victim’s apartment together and that Bonner had shot the victim, according to court records. At a second trial for Allison, Seifurt claimed that Bonner had just been the driver and had never entered the victim’s apartment.
At Allison’s trial, Seifurt did not use the jailhouse informant’s supposed confession from Bonner.
Both men were convicted of murder and robbery, although jurors concluded that Bonner was not the shooter.
As a result, Allison was sentenced to death while Bonner was sentenced to 25 years to life.
Allison has since been resentenced to 25 years to life.
A new California law that retroactively limited who can be charged with murder to those accused of actually killing or intending to kill allowed Bonner’s case to be re-heard in 2019.
After Bonner spent 37 years in prison, Lowenthal vacated his convictions because, the judge said, prosecutorial misconduct had severely violated his ability to receive a fair trial.
Lowenthal ruled that Seifurt’s failure to provide Hayes’ full rap sheet to Bonner — and his attorney and to inform them that Hayes had perjured himself — constituted a Brady violation, which requires the prosecution to disclose to the defense any evidence it has favorable to a defendant.
In August 2023, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed to pay Bonner $3 million for their part in the mishandling of his murder case.
The Long Beach City Council approved the $1 million settlement payment on Dec. 3.
Bonner’s attorney, Andrew M. Stein, declined an interview request from the Long Beach Post.