Nevest Coleman, a Chicago White Sox groundskeeper, returned to work Monday some 23 years after serving time in prison for a crime he did not commit, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Coleman was embraced by longtime head groundskeeper Roger "The Sodfather" Bossard when Coleman walked into Guaranteed Rate Field, the newspaper said.
"I saved your spot for you," Bossard told Coleman, according to the Tribune. "I knew you'd be back."
Bossard then joked, "Just remember, I'm counting on you to help me with that tarp, too."
"I'm ready," Coleman replied, according to the newspaper.
Coleman was part of the White Sox groundskeeping crew at what was then known as Comiskey Park in 1994 when he was convicted in the rape and murder of Antwinica Bridgeman despite having no criminal history, the Chicago Sun-Times wrote.
Coleman said his confession to the crime was forced after detectives threatened and beat him after maintaining his innocence, the Sun-Times wrote. A 2016 DNA analyses of semen on Bridgeman's body taken then connected another man who had been convicted of multiple rapes to the crime and cleared Coleman, the newspaper said.
State Attorney Kim Foxx's office dropped the charges against Coleman and did not challenge his petitions for certificates of innocence, the Sun-Times wrote.
"I've been telling people I was innocent from day one," Coleman said earlier this month after Chief Cook County Criminal Courts Judge LeRoy K. Martin signed his certificate of innocence, per the Sun-Times. "This here is the proof."
On Monday, he got his old job back.
"I don't like to ask anybody for anything,” Coleman told the Tribune, stressing how he wanted to work again. "I'd wake up in the morning proud to go to work. A lot of times, you get people who get jobs, you go to work, you be like, 'I don't want to go.' Here, I loved it."
After a string of interviews and reconnecting with old friends and coworkers, Coleman changed into a yellow rubber suit and took a power washer to spray the ground clean, the Tribune wrote.
When he was initially released from prison in November, the White Sox learned that Coleman wanted to return and invited him in for an interview, according to the Tribune.
"We're grateful that after more than two decades, justice has been carried out for Nevest," the White Sox said in a statement. "It has been a long time, but we're thrilled that we have the opportunity to welcome him back to the White Sox family. We're looking forward to having Nevest back on Opening Day at home in our ballpark."
The White Sox home opener is April 5 against the Detroit Tigers.
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