A California Innocence Project attorney is accused of offering a convicted murderer millions of dollars in exchange for testimony that helped free another convicted murderer.
Paige Kaneb, the legal director of the Northern California Innocence Project, is alleged to have conspired with attorney Terry Gross to convince Marritte Funches to testify and incriminate herself as they sought to overturn the murder conviction of Maurice Caldwell.
Kaneb and Gross even promised Funches half of any funds Caldwell would win in a 2021 civil lawsuit against the city of San Francisco if he claimed he murdered Judy Acosta in 1990 — and Caldwell was innocent, according to a complaint obtained by The San Francisco Standard.
The alleged deal was subsequently discussed in recorded conversations between Caldwell and Funches in 2023, when Funches was having sexual relations with Kaneb.
He now claims that while Gross settled with the city for $8 million for falsifying evidence, he never received any money. Instead, he filed a lawsuit against the two attorneys.
Paige Kaneb, the legal director of the Northern California Innocence Project, is accused of conspiring with attorney Terry Gross to convince Marritte Funches to testify and incriminate herself
In the complaint he filed with the State Bar of California, he alleges that Gross and Kaneb visited him in 2015 at the Sterling, Colorado, prison, where he was serving a life sentence for a 1990 murder in Las Vegas.
The lawyers then asked him to testify that he was guilty of Acosta’s death and to deny his relationship with Kaneb, Funches alleges.
According to his complaint, Funches initially refused the request, but Kaneb told him she could lose her law license if he didn’t help them because the city “accused her of inappropriate behavior” toward him.
Funches said he subsequently agreed to cooperate, but only on the condition that he receive half of the money Caldwell won and that he receive his own legal representation.
The lawyers apparently agreed, as appears from the complaint.
Text messages obtained by The Standard show that Caldwell also agreed to the terms.
Funches alleges in a complaint to the State Bar of California that the two attorneys promised him half of any funds Maurice Caldwell won in a 2021 civil lawsuit against the city of San Francisco if he claimed he killed Judy Acosta in 1990 — and Caldwell was innocent.
He initially told Funches that he had never offered him anything in exchange for his testimony.
“My lawyers… never said anything” about a deal, Caldwell wrote in a text.
But when Funches responded, “We made a damn deal,” Caldwell replied that his lawyers had made the promise without his knowledge and that he had only been informed of it after the fact.
“Terry and the others have been building some snake pits and getting Paige involved,” he wrote.
In February 2024, Caldwell also appeared to agree to pay Funches’ attorney.
“I will provide the full amount for full legal assistance,” he told Funches, adding that he would leave the details to Kaneb.
In another text, Caldwell said he had spoken to Gross “and he was willing to assist us legally.”
He said he also spoke with the attorney “about me providing full legal and financial representation for your case.”
However, Caldwell has never provided Funches with money or legal assistance and continues to maintain his innocence in Acosta’s murder.
Gross had reached an $8 million settlement with the city for falsifying evidence in Caldwell’s case, but Funches says he was never paid
Caldwell claims he had no knowledge of the deal and that his lawyers made it behind his back
The two lawyers also deny any wrongdoing. In June, Gross told The Standard that Funches’ claims are “completely unbelievable and flatly false, and I categorically deny that.”
He argued that no one had any reason to pay for Funches’ cooperation because he had repeatedly declared his guilt in Acosta’s murder — and Caldwell’s innocence.
Kaneb has also pleaded not guilty. Instead, she accuses Funches of trying to extort $2 million from her by threatening to make a press release about their relationship.
“I have every phone call recorded, every text saved. And copies of every video. You can try to clean it up. But you will never practice law again. Your career is over,” he reportedly wrote in an email to Kaneb obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.
He would later make good on his threat and release their correspondence to the Standard.
Funches said at the time that he helped Kaneb find new witnesses for Caldwell’s retrial in 2010, but that he ended their relationship when she broke her promise not to release their names.
The two reconnected in March last year and reportedly exchanged nearly 9,000 messages over the course of a year.
In one of her letters, Kaneb recounted her first encounter with the killer when she visited his Nevada prison with NCIP founder Linda Starr.
“I remember on that first visit you were staring at Linda the whole time and me pulling my hair out,” she texted.
‘I wanted you to look at me – I’ve never admitted that before.
‘I remember she was gone for a few minutes. It was like my chest was going to explode. And we started talking…. ❤.’
Funches had a sexual relationship with Kaneb in 2023 and 2024
“I’m sorry that things went wrong and that it had such a negative effect on you. I never wanted that,” she wrote last July.
“I love you. Always have. Never stopped. Always will,” he told her in a text message.
“I love you too,” she wrote in response. “Always have, always will.”
She also sent him a number of racy selfies, including two in which she is standing in front of the mirror dressed in a sarong.
Kaneb has since admitted to having a romantic relationship with Funches in 2023 and 2024, a spokesperson said long after Caldwell’s release was secured.
But Funches claims the relationship was merely a ruse to get him to testify in the civil trial.
“She pretended to take a personal interest in me. We began a romantic relationship,” he told the Standard. “It was the art of seduction at its finest. Anything to finally get me to help Mr Caldwell.”
Caldwell continues to maintain his innocence in the 1990 murder of Judy Acosta
The Bar Association is currently investigating Funches’ claims.
The Northern California Innocence Project, based at Santa Clara University, is also investigating Kaneb’s actions.
“As with every department at the university, when we receive allegations of inappropriate conduct by an employee, we refer the matter to the university for investigation,” Executive Director Todd Fries said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the San Francisco city attorney added: “We take this information seriously and will investigate the matter.”