For Robert Dewey, a big check comes with big responsibilities.
The $100,000 check was mailed to Dewey this week by the state of Colorado, said his attorney, Danyel Joffe. The money gives the wrongly accused 52-year-old Dewey opportunities to travel to visit family in Kansas and California. It gives him the chance to spend some money on family members and to pay back some who have helped him since he was released from prison 16 months ago after serving 17 years for a rape and murder he didn’t commit.
It allows him to possibly get in the business of fixing up and selling used cars. It puts his behind-bars dream of owning a fancy motorcycle within reach.
The reimbursement, made possible by a new state law, also requires Dewey to stay out of any serious trouble: If he is convicted of a Class 1 or 2 felony he forfeits the remainder of the $1.2 million he is to receive in yearly increments.
He must go through the complexities of finding medical insurance. He has to complete a money- management class.
“I have to do everything proper and legal-like. I have to be walking the straight and narrow,” Dewey said.
Dewey was 33 when he started serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after a jury found him guilty of raping and murdering a Palisade woman in1994.
In April 2012, Dewey was freed after new DNA testing of evidence exonerated him and led to charges against a new suspect.
