BLH Files Lawsuit on Behalf of Renay Lynch, Exonerated after 27 Years Wrongfully Imprisoned and On Parole
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
BUFFALO, NEW YORK - Today, Fisher & Byrialsen LLP, Beldock Levine Hoffman LLP, and Newirth Linehan PLLC announced the filing of a federal lawsuit on behalf of Renay Lynch, who was exonerated in January 2024 after spending 27 years wrongfully imprisoned and on parole for the 1998 murder of Louise Cicelsky. The lawsuit seeks accountability for the egregious misconduct that led to Ms. Lynch’s wrongful conviction and decades-long incarceration.
“I suffered in prison for over 25 years, but the pain of what was taken from me will last a lifetime,” said Plaintiff Renay Lynch, “My freedom was hard-won, and now I hope that I can get some justice, for me, for my family, and for everyone else who has been in my situation.”
In 1998, Plaintiff Renay Lynch was wrongfully convicted for the 1996 murder of local landlord Louise Cicelsky. The suit, filed against the Town of Amherst, the County of Erie, and specific members of the Amherst Police Department (APD), alleges a decades-long pattern of official misconduct including coercion of a confession, fabrication of evidence, and the withholding of critical exculpatory evidence.
“Every day that Renay Lynch spent in prison was a day justice was denied,” said her attorney Jane Fisher-Byrialsen. “Her wrongful conviction was the result of blatant misconduct by law enforcement and prosecutors who have, until now, flouted state and federal law with impunity. This lawsuit is a step toward holding them accountable for the decades stolen from Ms. Lynch and her family.”
Coerced False Confession
The lawsuit alleges that APD officers, including individual Defendant APD Investigators Joseph LaCorte and Raymond Klimczak, harassed, stalked, and ultimately coerced Ms. Lynch into giving a false confession which implicated Ms. Lynch and a man named Kareem Walker. According to the suit, APD Investigators showed Ms. Lynch unreleased photos of the crime scene and provided her with information of the murder not yet known to the public while attempting to elicit her confession.
Fabricated Testimony and Suppression of Key Evidence
During the investigation, APD Detectives and the Erie County District Attorney’s Office learned that Kareem Walker was in Florida at the time of the murder and therefore could not have committed the crime. The lawsuit alleges that investigators illegally withheld this information, allowing Ms. Lynch to ultimately be convicted on the basis of a demonstrably false confession, while Mr. Walker was never charged. The suit also alleges that Ms. Lynch’s conviction relied upon the testimony of an incentivized jailhouse informant, Raquel Hunter, who later recanted her testimony.
Critical fingerprinting evidence from the crime scene was also withheld from the defense. According to the suit, reinvestigation revealed that fingerprints recovered from “probative locations” inside the victim’s apartment did not match Ms. Lynch but instead implicated another individual who had both a motive and a violent history. Captain Melton of the APD falsely testified at trial that there were no usable fingerprints from the crime scene, despite internal knowledge to the contrary, the lawsuit alleges.
"Renay Lynch’s wrongful conviction was not an accident—it was the result of deliberate actions by law enforcement and prosecutors who ignored the law and manipulated the system to secure a false conviction,” said attorney Karen Newirth, “This lawsuit is our effort to correct that injustice and hold those responsible to account."
“The evidence is clear: Renay was coerced into a false confession, critical exculpatory evidence was suppressed, and false testimony was used to convict her. The law cannot allow this to go unpunished. We are taking legal action today to demand justice for Renay Lynch,” said attorney Luna Droubi.
The case is Renay Lynch vs. the Town of Amherst, Michael J. Melton, Joseph LaCorte, Raymond Klimczak, and the County of Erie, No.25-CV-75, filed in the Western District of New York.
Contact:
Jane Byrialsen: jane@fblaw.org
Karen Newirth: karen@newirthlinehan.com
Luna Droubi: ldroubi@blhny.com
