Jury awards $3 million in local parents' case

ANN ARBOR (AP) - A federal jury has ruled in favor of an Oakland County couple who were charged in a sex-abuse case involving their autistic daughter before prosecutors dropped it in 2008. The Detroit Free Press reports that the jury in Ann Arbor awarded $3 million last Thursday in the civil lawsuit filed by Julian and Thal Wendrow. They accused former county prosecutors David Gorcyca, Deb Carley and Andrea Dean of malicious prosecution and civil rights violations. The Wendrows, of West Bloomfield, were charged in the case involving their then 14-year-old daughter. The case was developed through a disputed method of communicating through a keyboard with an adult's help. The newspaper says Julian Wendrow was arrested in December 2007 and spent 80 days in jail before prosecutors dropped the charges. Published: Mon, Nov 10, 2014