Alan Dershowitz to Speak After TNC's PEDRO CASTILLO IS INNOCENT, 2/7

Alan Dershowitz, one of the nation's best known attorneys, will speak to the audience of Pedro Castillo is Innocent at Theater for the New City after the Feb. 7 show.

Theater for the New City Executive Director Crystal Field and the Textile Company are presenting "Pedro Castillo is Innocent," a play inspired by the case of Fernando Bermudez.

The production runs Feb. 4-6 and Feb. 11-13 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 7 and 14 at 3 p.m. at TNC, 155 First Ave. Tickets are $15 by clicking the Tix. link.

Mr. Dershowitz will speak to audiences via Skype following the show that begins at 3 p.m. on Feb. 7, Super Bowl Sunday.

He will discuss the legal system as well as circumstances that can lead to the incarceration of innocent people and answer questions.

Dershowitz at age 28 became Harvard University's youngest full professor and then held the school's Felix Frankfurter professorship from 1993 until he retired in December 2013. He has represented many well-known clients as well as taking numerous less publicized cases.

"Too many innocent people remain in prison today, most of them poor and without legal representation," Dershowitz said. "Remedying these injustice is a high priority that must be addressed."

Pedro Castillo is Innocent tells an emotional story about an innocent man's incarceration's affect him and his family.

It also looks at how Fernando Bermudez would have handled a parole hearing, if he had not been exonerated earlier.

Bermudez, a Washington Heights resident, in 1992 was convicted of a homicide that occurred in Greenwich Village. Eyewitnesses recanted soon after, but he remained in prison.

He was exonerated in 2009, after serving nearly 18 years, going on to win the biggest settlement for an exoneree in the history of New York State.

Danielle C.N. Zappa directs the production of the play in which John Torres plays Pedro Castillo, Christine Copley plays his wife Gwen and Samantha Masone plays their daughter Kaela.

Michael J.Shanahan plays a corrections officer; Michael H. Carlin plays fellow inmate Santos, Laura Leigh Carroll plays Angela (an attorney)and Stephanie Sottile plays Liberty.

Bermudez said his " survival story of enduring over 18 years in a six-by-nine-foot prison cell" can help lead to reform.

He also called his story "a cautionary tale against this happening to others as a public safety problem that allows true perpetrators to escape punishment while families are ripped apart."

Bermudez, whose situation prompted this play, was arrested after his photo was picked by witnesses, was not at the scene of the crime, did not know anyone there, had no history of violence and didn't own or use a gun. The witnesses soon recanted, but Bermudez remained in prison for nearly two decades.

Solnik covered the case as a journalist at New York City weeklies The Villager and Downtown Express and then worked to exonerate him.

Bermudez was exonerated in 2009 long after witnesses recanted as a judge declared him "innocent," not simply "not guilty."

"Fernando Bermudez had nothing to do with the homicide that occurred just off Union Square," Solnik said. "People are coming together a few blocks away from that to tell the story of how wrongful incarceration affects individuals and families."

Solnik, a journalist and the playwright in residence for the Textile Company, frequently writes plays inspired by true stories, including one about Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president in the 1860s.

The Textile Co. also presented his "Lady From Limerick" based on the true story of an Irish woman who travels to New York for plastic surgery.

"At its heart, this is a human story," Solnik said of 'Pedro Castillo is Innocent.' "It's about family, friends and cases where the conviction itself can be a kind of crime."

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