The final member of the Fairbanks Four has settled his wrongful conviction suit with the City of Fairbanks.
The agreement comes more than seven years after the Fairbanks Four sued the city in federal court, claiming Fairbanks police had manufactured evidence to convict them for a murder they didn’t commit. The city will pay Marvin Roberts $11.5 million, said Fairbanks City Attorney Thomas Chard.
“The city is going to make installment payments, kind of in a structured payment, for that amount. And they’re working on finalizing the agreement,” he said.
Chard advises city officials and oversees the third-party lawyer representing the city in the case. He said attorneys recently reached a dollar figure through mediation, though he declined to name the mediator.
“It was a pretty intense negotiation. And it involved a very experienced mediator that helped parties come to that number,” Chard said.
The settlement means Roberts’ claims against the city and four of its police officers won’t go to a jury for trial, which was scheduled for December.
Once all the settlement terms are finalized, Chard says it will close out the lawsuit, which has been ongoing since late 2017.
That’s when the four Indigenous men, coined the Fairbanks Four, first filed the civil rights lawsuit. They were convicted for the 1997 murder of teenager John Hartman. The four were released in late 2015 after another man, William Holmes, confessed that he and a group of men had killed Hartman.
Multiple witnesses corroborated that confession, and one, Arlo Olson, said Fairbanks Police Department officers had coerced him to give a false statement against the Fairbanks Four, according to court records. Former FPD officers James Geier, Clifford Aaron Ring, Dave Kendrick and Chris Nolan are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Each member of the Fairbanks Four spent at least 15 years in prison, maintaining their innocence throughout. Roberts was imprisoned for nearly 18 years.
“It’s just – happy to see Marvin finally get justice,” Mike Kramer, Roberts’ lawyer, told KUAC Tuesday.
“That’s all he’s been asking for since he was first wrongfully arrested and accused back in 1997,” he said. “It’s been a long hard journey for him. And I’m just very happy to have helped him get to this point in his life where he can see that the justice system can actually work.”
Roberts couldn’t be reached directly for comment Tuesday, but he said through a press release from his lawyer’s office that no amount of money can make up for his time in prison.
He added, “This settlement, however, gives me freedom with my life, and most importantly, more time with my daughter and my parents, who supported me throughout this nightmare.”
The other three members of the Fairbanks Four – George Frese, Kevin Pease and Eugene Vent – settled with the City of Fairbanks’ insurer in 2023. They agreed to drop their portion of the federal civil rights lawsuit for about $1.6 million apiece.
Neither settlement required the city to admit fault or issue a formal apology.