L.A. Jury Awards Teacher $18 Million For False Arrest

AP ^

[thebaron512]

An sheriff's detective builds a false case and the sheriff's office wonders why they should be not liable? The prosecutor's used the sheriff's detective's information to prosecute, so where is the independent decision at?

They asked for their own troubles for holding false witness against another. Sounds like they need some house cleaning in their sheriff's office.

[Publius6961]

It's hard to identify the point in time when juries lost the sense of proportionality...
And they dragged the judicial system right along with them.

[ExcursionGuy84]

Very possible & likely....but $18,000,000 for what damages????

[doc30]

The only thing that sheriff's department cares about is making arrests in order to look like they are solving crimes. It doesn't matter if who they arrest is the perpetrator or not so long as someone is in jail in order for the crime to be solved. If they get the wrong guy, all effort must be made to protect the department because they cannot appear to have made a mistake. I bet the actual officer will swear to his grave that this teacher is guilty. His police instincts tell him so inspite of the evidence.

[Bommer]

A jury found Ramirez not guilty after he produced ATM receipts and cell phone records showing he was miles from the scene when the crime occurred. A judge later made the rare finding that he was "factually innocent."

Great way of getting away with a crime. Hand my ATM and cell phone over to my wife. Tell her to call me at a certain time, when I'm robbing a convenience store and when she's on the phone, ask her to got to the nearest ATM pull $20 for me.

[magnieye]

I agree that the $18M is excessive, but he did go through a trial, public humiliation, loss of job, presumed guilt no matter what, inability to find another job teaching again, etc.

[Michael.SF.]

It's hard to identify the point in time when juries lost the sense of proportionality...

Lost proportionality?

How much money would consider to be fair compensation for what has occurred to this man because the Police intentionally withheld information that would have exonerated him?

[SkyPilot]

No. They pulled the ATM photo records (you are photographed every time you use the ATM) and had photos of him using the ATM at that time and date.

It was a no brainer after that evidence came forward.

[ClearCase_guy]

Would anyone be interested in accusing me of kidnapping and assaulting them? My odds of winning Powerball are not good, but I sure would like to have millions of dollars. So, if you could help me out, just call the police and say I was the one who did it...

[JamesP81]

The sheriff's dept got what it deserved.

[Michael.SF.]

Great way of getting away with a crime. Hand my ATM and

All ATM's have video cameras.

[taxcontrol]

I have a hard time with this one. According to the article, the victim of the crime identified the suspect as the person who assaulted her. Second, if it is known that the backpack did not have his finger prints, then the backpack was taken into evidence.

So I'm thinking that the officer did what he was supposed to do. For example, person 1 accuses person 2 of a crime. Officer arrests person 1 and collects evidence and turns over to forensics for analysis (fingerprints). If the system works anything like what my cop friends tell me, at that point in time, the DA takes over the case, reviews the evidence and decides to go to trial.

I don't see how an officer can prevent evidence from being turned over to the DA or how he is responsible for the victim incorrectly identifying him as the perp.

Based upon what limited information is in the article... I have a hard time finding fault with the officers actions.

[Frank_2001]

How about ruining someone's good name and reputation??? Guaranteed, this man's in a LOT of computer databases as a crook, and he will be busy for a long time just trying to clear THAT up...to say nothing of his standing in the community!

[JamesP81]

His police instincts tell him so inspite of the evidence.

This is exactly what will happen.

[jazusamo]

That's quite a leap, taking it from one detective to the whole sheriff's department. Would you then expand that to every sheriff's and police department?

[js1138]

I bet the actual officer will swear to his grave that this teacher is guilty. His police instincts tell him so inspite of the evidence.

Frameups are almost as numerous as the Hollywood movies depicting them. I do not mean they are a high percentage of cases, but there's probably at least one going on somewhere at any given moment.

I have personal knowledge of one. My nephew, an attorney, won $750,000 from a city as the result of a frameup. Eighteen million seems a bit high.

[Lancey Howard]

I agree with you. The award should be $180 million. And not only that, the scumbag sheriff and the scumbag prosecutor should do some hard time.

[JamesP81]

I agree with you. The award should be $180 million. And not only that, the scumbag sheriff and the scumbag prosecutor should do some hard time.

At the very least, they should lose their jobs for incompetence. Maybe then they'd know what it's like to walk in Mr Ramirez's shoes.

[Mark was here]

The money should come out of their pension funds. If the retirees get less too bad. Spare the taxpayer.