Posted on 02/17/2006 8:42:17 AM PST by thebaron512
A federal jury awarded $18 million to a teacher who claimed a sheriff's detective falsely accused him of kidnapping and assaulting a girl and hid evidence that would have exonerated him.
Wednesday's award was the largest ever against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The jury could decide that plaintiff Raul Ramirez deserves more money when the trial enters its punitive phase Thursday.
Because the county is not insured, the award, if upheld, would be paid by the department at a time when Sheriff Lee Baca is complaining that underfunding is forcing him to release jail inmates early and preventing him from placing enough deputies in jails to improve security.
Ramirez, 29, a teacher at Charles R. Drew Middle School in Compton, was arrested after a student there identified him as the man who kidnapped her at gunpoint in May 2002 as she waited for a bus, drove her to another location and demanded that she perform a sex act. The 16-year-old girl managed to escape.
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."
Ramirez, of Bellflower, then sued the Sheriff's Department, alleging that Detective Frank Bravo built a false case against him.
According to Ramirez's federal complaint, Bravo knew Ramirez did not match the victim's description of her assailant but withheld that information until just before trial. Ramirez's attorney also alleged Bravo did not disclose the existence of the girl's backpack, which did not bear Ramirez's fingerprints.
Bravo "arrested Mr. Ramirez and basically shattered his life based on the unreliable eyewitness identification of a teenage girl who was mistaken," said Ramirez's attorney, Michael Artan. "Then he hid evidence that would have exonerated Mr. Ramirez."
Bravo, a 20-year veteran assigned to the Century Station in Lynwood, could not be reached for comment by the Los Angeles Times.
Assistant County Counsel Roger Granbo said the county was disappointed by the verdict. Sheriff's officials believed they were not liable because prosecutors thought the case against Ramirez had merit, he said.
"The district attorney knew the problems with the case and the positive aspects and made an independent decision to prosecute," Granbo said.
The largest previous award against the sheriff's department was $15.9 million, which a jury ordered paid to 36 people who had been arrested at a Cerritos bridal shower six years earlier.
They asked for their own troubles for holding false witness against another. Sounds like they need some house cleaning in their sheriff's office.
Very possible & likely....but $18,000,000 for what damages????
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.
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.
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.
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?
It was a no brainer after that evidence came forward.
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...
The sheriff's dept got what it deserved.
All ATM's have video cameras.
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!
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?
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.
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.
The money should come out of their pension funds. If the retirees get less too bad. Spare the taxpayer.
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