Patterico's Pontifications

5/26/2005

Jury Says Cops Who Framed Plaintiff Had Nothing to Do With His Incarceration

Filed under: Crime,Morons — Patterico @ 7:20 pm



This is an outrage:

A man who was falsely imprisoned after being shot and framed by corrupt Rampart gang officers nearly a decade ago was awarded $6.5 million in damages Wednesday by a jury that found his county public defender was negligent for failing to uncover the police misconduct.

Here’s why it’s an outrage:

“We’re shocked at the verdict and do not believe that Ms. Toister committed malpractice or was negligent,” said Chief Deputy Public Defender Robert Kalunian. “We don’t understand how the jury found that the two officers who have publicly admitted that they lied and framed Mr. Ovando were zero percent responsible for his conviction and incarceration. I don’t believe the verdict will stand.”

The public defender was 100% responsible and the cops were 0% responsible?? I’d have to say I agree with Mr. Kalunian: that verdict will not stand. In fact, my guess is that the trial judge won’t wait for the appeal — she’ll substantially cut the award, and may vacate the judgment entirely.

What kind of a jury does this? The story has a hint from a dissenting juror (remember, in California a civil judgment requires only 9 of 12 jurors to vote for the plaintiff):

Juror Teresa Reese, one of three who voted against the payout, said she believed some of her fellow panel members voted to award damages because they were sympathetic to the wheelchair-bound defendant. Others, she said, seemed confused about the judge’s instructions to the jury.

“Some of the jurors were second-guessing [Toister’s] legal strategy instead of following the judge’s instructions to focus on the evidence,” Reese said. “They couldn’t lay the blame on Perez or Durden, so they blamed the public defender instead.”

It is certainly tempting to call this particular jury incredibly stupid. But it might be more accurate to call them incredibly contemptuous of the law.

P.S. For what it’s worth, I know the public defender involved — not well, but I see her around the courthouse often and know her by reputation. She is, to say the least, not someone who is shy about defending her clients — and I believe she had that same reputation during the period of time when she was defending Ovando.

3 Responses to “Jury Says Cops Who Framed Plaintiff Had Nothing to Do With His Incarceration”

  1. Greetings from Galveston County Texas where a jury bought the absurd self-defense claims of NY multi-millionaire and heir Robert Durst, a suspect in at least two other killings including that of his wife.

    Durst in this particluar murder had shot his elderly Galveston neighbor Morris Black full of holes, dismembered Black’s body and tossed it into Galveston Bay.

    With the aid of Houston defense mouthpiece and professional lying scumbag Dick DeGeurin, Durst fooled the jury, but he did not fool State District Judge Susan Criss, who after the verdict set this dangerous killer’s bond on related charges at a record $3 Billion.

    DeGuerin, always with the interests of the public and endangered relatives of Durst in mind, finally found a judge higher up the food chain who declared the bond “excessive.”

    ttyler5 (406c2c)

  2. The crazy thing is that this jury listened to Perez and bought his story– just like all those other criminal juries that sent people to jail based on his lying testimony.

    What is wrong with these people?

    craig henry (a1d15c)

  3. I tried to force cops to do something about the vandalism, heroin, and crack cocaine dealing going on near and off my Stafford Springs, Connecticut, rental properties.

    Connecticut State Police, Troop C, Tolland threatened me with arrest if I didn’t shut my mouth and leave Connecticut.

    I was critical of police in newspapers and proposed Civilian Oversight of Police to elected officials.

    A criminal was given immunity for beating me and trying to rob me after he jumped me in my dark driveway to prosecute me for having used pepper spray to defend myself.

    I was sentenced to a year in prison, 3 years probation, losing everything.

    Try putting “Steven G. Erickson” in a search engine

    Steven G. Erickson (2c31ce)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0768 secs.