COLUMBUS, Ohio— State officials have approved multimillion-dollar payments to two Northeast Ohio men who served years in prison for crimes they did not commit.
The agreements are the most recent in a string of payments from the state of Ohio to people who spent years, if not decades, in prison for crimes they were wrongfully convicted of committing.
Joel Covender of Amherst, who served 11 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted in 1996 of molesting two children, will receive slightly more than $1.9 million from the state, according to an agreement approved by the Ohio Controlling Board on Monday without discussion or dissent.
Michael Buehner, a Lorain resident who spent 20 years in prison for a 2001 murder he did not commit, will receive an initial payment of $1.85 million from the state, according to a separate agreement approved by the board.
In addition to that money, the state will pay $450,000 to Buehner’s attorneys and $247,200 to Covender’s lawyers, according to the agreements.
The Ohio Court of Claims and Attorney General Dave Yost approved each of the deals last month.
According to state law, the state of Ohio pays $68,808.38 per year to people who have been wrongfully imprisoned for each year they have been in prison. Buehner and Covender were also compensated for lost wages and, in Covender’s case, for prison fees he incurred while incarcerated.
Buehner was sentenced to life in 2002 for shooting 18-year-old Jerry Saunders during a drug deal on Marah Avenue near East 93rd Street in May 2001.
However, Buehner was acquitted during a second trial in 2023, which was ordered after he discovered that, during his first trial, Cleveland police withheld a statement from a witness claiming the shooter was Black (Buehner is white) and failed to follow up on leads on other potential suspects.
Buehner is currently suing Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, claiming that police “framed” him and that prosecutors should have dropped the charges rather than pursuing a second trial.
Under his agreement with the state, if Buehner receives any money from the federal lawsuit, he must reimburse the state in the same amount.
Covender was sentenced to 15–50 years in prison for sexually abusing a 4-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl.
When Covender was released in 2007, he discovered that both of the children had recanted their accusations and requested his release, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations website, he was acquitted in 2014 after Covender’s attorney presented evidence that called the girl’s testimony into question and argued that people manipulated both children into testifying against Covender because he is a Jehovah’s Witness.
The Ohio Controlling Board, a seven-member panel comprised primarily of state legislators who make state spending adjustments, has approved similar payments to other Ohioans wrongfully imprisoned.
They include:
- $131,000 last April to Aaron Culbertson of Canton, who was released after four years in prison after new information showed he wasn’t involved in a 2018 armed robbery.
- $3 million in 2023 to the estate of Isaiah Andrews of Cuyahoga County, who spent more than 45 years in prison for the murder of his wife
- $1 million in 2021 to ex-Death Row inmate Joe D’Ambrosio of North Royalton, who, after more than two decades behind bars, was released in 2010 because of prosecutorial misconduct
- $1.8 million in 2021 to Anthony Lemons of Cleveland, who was acquitted of murder charges in 2014 after 18 years in prison
