Christopher Ellis, who spent 30 years in prison for murder he didn't commit, files wrongful conviction lawsuit against Nassau

A Brooklyn man acquitted in a retrial last year of the 1990 murder of a Hofstra football coach after already serving decades behind bars filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Nassau County and the detectives in his case, claiming authorities deliberately withheld crucial evidence.

Christopher Ellis, 55, said that he brought the case against the county and police because of the toll the prison time and criminal trials took on his life.

"I lost more than 30 years of my life for something I did not do," he said in a news release about the suit. "You can’t give that time back. I missed decades with my family, milestones, and opportunities I will never get again. I’m bringing this case to seek accountability and to help ensure this does not happen to anyone else."

Lawyers for Ellis argue in the civil suit say that the constitutional violations they alleged being practiced by Nassau law enforcement at the time of his arrest and prosecution are not isolated and have surfaced repeatedly in the past.

"Nassau County had a policy or custom ... of using unconstitutional investigative techniques, including coercive interrogation tactics, contaminating identification lineups and coercion of witnesses, the fabrication of inculpatory evidence, and the suppression of exculpatory evidence that must be disclosed," the lawsuit alleges.

Nassau County police and prosecutors declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

A Nassau County jury convicted Ellis of second-degree murder, attempted robbery and weapons charges in 1992 in the fatal shooting of Hofstra Assistant Coach Joseph Healy, 25, outside a Hempstead Arby’s where he and some friends had gone to eat after a night of barhopping.

Police had originally arrested Ellis as part of a sting after they discovered he was planning to rob a Freeport drug dealer, according to court records.

He confessed to the robbery plot, but they continued to press him for information on the shooting, which generated significant media attention, his lawyers say.

"After 12 more hours of interrogation and deprivation of food, sleep, and contact with the outside world, Mr. Ellis signed a coerced false statement admitting to participation in the Healy murder," attorney Eric Abrams, of the firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel, says in the lawsuit.

Ellis later recanted, claiming his confession was made under duress, but prosecutors pressed forward with the case.

He was convicted of the murder, weapons and attempted robbery charges and served more than 30 years in prison until the verdict was overturned by State Supreme Court Justice Patricia Harrington in 2023.

The judge found that a Nassau County detective’s interview with an eyewitness who said Ellis was not at the scene of the crime had been withheld. Harrington called for a retrial.

"In weighing all the factors, the defendant has failed to demonstrate some compelling factor, consideration or circumstance which renders his prosecution unjust," Harrington said in her decision and she called a retrial "appropriate."

The Nassau County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit worked with Ellis to uncover hundreds of files, according to the lawsuit, that he said could have cleared him of the crime.

The court found "in reviewing the voluminous documentation and potential leads contained in the memo pad notes, and weighing that against the evidence presented at trial, this court concludes that had [the detective’s] notes been turned over to the defense in a timely manner, there is a reasonable probability that the outcome would have been different."

The district attorney’s office acknowledged that evidence had been suppressed at trial, but still decided to go forward with a retrial.

"While failure to provide the detective’s notes requires vacatur of Mr. Ellis’ murder conviction, prosecutors have determined, based on a thorough review of the evidence, that retrial is warranted to ensure justice is done," according to a statement issued by the district attorney at the time.

Ellis was eventually paroled in 2021. In January 2025, Nassau County prosecutors brought the case again in a two-week trial, 35 years after the coach’s death. After a day and half of deliberations, the jury acquitted him of the murder.

Former Hofstra student Cristen Baeker, who witnessed the shooting, took the stand to testify that she only saw two men, not three, that night. She said that she heard one of the men say, "Just do him," before the shot was fired on Sept. 29, 1990.

Ellis testified that he was DJ-ing his brother’s party the night that Healy was fatally shot in the face at nearly point-blank range. 

Gary Lawrence, a co-defendant in the Healy murder case whose verdict was also overturned, is scheduled to be retried this year.