Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel is suing Connecticut police for 'withholding evidence' that he claims would have spared him 11 years in prison for beating a wealthy neighbor to death when they were teenagers

Kennedy cousin Michael Shakel, whose conviction for murdering a Connecticut teenager in the 1970s was overturned, is suing the lead investigator in the case.

Shakel was found guilty in 2002 of the October 1975 death of Martha Moxley, who lived across the street from the Skakel family in Greenwich.

Both Shakel, a cousin of Robert F. Kennedy's widow Ethel Kennedy, and Moxley were 15 at the time of her death, and her body was found in her family's backyard.

The Connecticut Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2018 after he served more than 11 years in prison, and the murder charge was dropped in 2020.

In a new lawsuit, Shakel is suing lead investigator Frank Garr for alleged malicious prosecution, civil rights violations and other alleged misconduct.

The lawsuit alleges that Garr intended to get Skakel convicted and withheld key evidence about other potential suspects from Skakel's defense.

The defendants in the lawsuit “knew that there were other, more likely suspects and that there was no probable cause to arrest and/or prosecute the plaintiff (Skakel), but continued to do so willfully and maliciously, in order to to convict the suspect. “Kennedy Cousin,” the complaint alleges.

Shakel's attorney Stephan Seeger called the lawsuit a civil rights action against Garr and the city.

“He spent 11 and a half years in prison for a crime he did not commit and was put through every conceivable process until the case was finally dismissed,” Seeger said.

The lawsuit, filed in November in state court in Stamford, seeks unspecified damages of more than $15,000.

The lawsuit alleges that Greenwich police, prosecutors and Garr, who worked for the Greenwich Police Department before becoming an inspector in the district attorney's office, withheld crucial information favorable to Skakel during his defense at trial.

The information, the indictment says, included sketches of a potential suspect who did not resemble Skakel, psychological reports on other suspects and statements from witnesses who said two other men were near Moxley the night of her murder, including someone who made incriminating comments. .

The lawsuit also alleges that Garr had “deep antipathy” toward Skakel and his family, that he wanted to make a profit by collaborating on a book about Skakel's murder of Moxley, and that he threatened witnesses into testifying against Skakel.

Skakel suffered violations of his constitutional rights, loss of liberty from his time in prison, humiliation, shame, “severe emotional distress, terror and fear,” financial losses and damages and “destruction of reputation and family relationships,” the lawsuit said.

On the night of the killing, Martha Moxley and other teens in the Tony Belle Haven neighborhood were pulling pre-Halloween pranks and had visited Skakel's home, police said.

According to friends, Moxley had flirted and kissed Thomas Shakel, Michael's older brother, that evening before the pair were later seen “falling behind the fence together” at the Shakel family pool. according to the Hartford Courant.

Her body was found the next day on her family's property, across the street from the Skakel house, her pants and underwear pulled down around her ankles.

She had been beaten with a Skakel family 6-iron and stabbed in the throat with a piece of the shattered golf club shaft, police said.

Two hairs found near or on her body had African American and Asian features, the suit alleged. Burton Tinsely and Adolph Hasbrouck, who displayed these ethnic characteristics, had been present the night of the murder.

The case attracted attention because of the Kennedy name, Skakel's wealthy family, numerous theories about who killed Moxley and the brutal way she died.

Several other people, including Skakel's brother Tommy Skakel, were named as possible killers. Tommy Skakel denied involvement in the murder.

The murder took place in the exclusive Bell Haven section of Greenwich, where Martha and Skakel were neighbors.

During the trial, prosecutors said Skakel was angry with Martha for rejecting his advances while she was in a sexual relationship with Tommy.

There were also witness statements about incriminating statements that Skakel allegedly made.

Skakel's attorneys later argued that Skakel's trial attorney, Mickey Sherman, made poor decisions, including not focusing on Tommy as a possible suspect and not attempting to contact an alibi witness.

They said Skakel was several miles from the crime scene and watching a Monty Python movie with friends when Moxley was killed on Oct. 30, 1975.

There was no physical evidence and no eyewitness linking Skakel to the killing, his attorneys said.

Skakel's cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now a presidential candidate, was one of his staunchest defenders and wrote a book saying that Skakel had been framed.

Skakel was first arrested in 2000, after new books about the Moxley case reignited the police investigation.

Attorneys for Garr and Greenwich have not yet filed a response to the lawsuit.

Moxley's murder remains unsolved, while her family continues to believe Skakel was the killer.