Man who spent 25 years behind bars for crime he didn't commit faces losing $4 million compensation to ex-wife who divorced him while he was in prison
By Paul Thompson
Last updated at 8:24 AM on 15th December 2011
A man who spent 25 years in prison for a crime he did not commit faces losing his $4m compensation to his ex-wife.
Steven Phillips faces a court battle to keep hold of the money he was awarded for his wrongful conviction.
He was released from a life sentence for rape in 2008 after DNA proved he could not have been the attacker.
Innocent: Steven Phillips, pictured, received $4.1 million as compensation for his time in prison for a rape he did not commit. His ex-wife now wants a cut
But now his ex-wife Traci Tucker, who divorced him three years into his life sentence, has taken him to court in a bid to get a share of the $4m compensation.
She claims he owes her money that she would have been entitled to had they divorced and shared their assets.
'Responsible': Police believe Sidney Alvin Goodyear, who had died in prison, actually committed the crimes
But 51-year-old Phillips said he ex has been with another man for over 20 years and has had nothing to do with her.
His lawyer Tim McKenzie described Tucker's claim as more 'like winning the lottery 20 years after a divorce'.
'The overall issue,' McKenzie says, 'is when people come into money, everybody comes out of the walls.'
Phillips said his ex wife rarely visited him in prison and stopped coming altogether after three years.
The couple were divorced in 1991.
Lawyers said Tucker, who has a son with her ex-husband, is attempting to make legal history by going after the compensation paid to a wrongfully convicted person.
Her ex-husband, a roofer, was jailed in 1982 for a two day crime spree involving several sexual assaults.
Investigators later found the DNA matched that of Sidney Alvin Goodyear, who went out to carry a series of further attacks. Goodyear had died by the time Phillips was freed.
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