LAWSUITS NEWS & LEGAL INFORMATION
10 Months Lost
Los Angeles, CA: (Apr-23-08) James Ochoa, a 22-year-old Buena Park man, brought a lawsuit against the state, alleging that he was wrongly arrested and convicted for a crime he didn't commit. Court papers reveal that Ochoa spent 10 months in prison for a carjacking he did not commit. Ochoa pleaded guilty on the third day of his trial in 2005 after Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert F. Fitzgerald threatened to sentence him to life in prison if convicted. Sources close to the case stated that Ochoa insisted that he was innocent, but was unwilling to risk life behind bars. The prosecution offered him a deal, and he agreed to plead guilty and serve a two-year prison sentence. The suit stated that the Orange County district attorney's office prosecuted Ochoa despite having DNA evidence and fingerprints linking someone else to the carjacking near a Buena Park nightclub on May 23, 2005.
State officials claimed that prosecutors also relied on a controversial law enforcement tool to identify Ochoa as a suspect, a machine that supposedly lifts human scent from items left at a crime scene. Reports of the incident show that a bloodhound that Buena Park police used supposedly followed the scent from a cap and shirt left by the carjacker two blocks to Ochoa's house, where he was sleeping. Reports indicated that Ochoa's DNA was not found on the items. The suit named the Orange County district attorney's office, Buena Park, its Police Department and a dog handler involved in the investigation as defendants.
As part of a settlement reached, the Orange County district attorney's office recommended that the former Buena Park man be paid $31,700 for spending 10 months in prison. Additionally, Ochoa also received a tentative $550,000 settlement in the suits he filed against Buena Park, its Police Department and the dog handler. [LOS ANGELES TIMES: FALSELY CONVICTED MAN TO BE COMPENSATED]
Published on Apr-25-08
State officials claimed that prosecutors also relied on a controversial law enforcement tool to identify Ochoa as a suspect, a machine that supposedly lifts human scent from items left at a crime scene. Reports of the incident show that a bloodhound that Buena Park police used supposedly followed the scent from a cap and shirt left by the carjacker two blocks to Ochoa's house, where he was sleeping. Reports indicated that Ochoa's DNA was not found on the items. The suit named the Orange County district attorney's office, Buena Park, its Police Department and a dog handler involved in the investigation as defendants.
As part of a settlement reached, the Orange County district attorney's office recommended that the former Buena Park man be paid $31,700 for spending 10 months in prison. Additionally, Ochoa also received a tentative $550,000 settlement in the suits he filed against Buena Park, its Police Department and the dog handler. [
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