I recently won in a criminal case against me and was found to be totally innocent of all charges and accusations.
My main concerns in all this is the conduct of the police department and the D.A.’s office and if they can or can’t be held liable for allowing this to get out of hand .This is my main question.
This all started over 30-months ago, with a person making false allegations. ( I say this now do to D.A. stating this individual had perjured them self and one of the reasons I won with evidence to support. ) After being arrested on this I was released after 3-days with no charges being filed per the D.A. I hired a criminal defense lawyer incase I had to defend myself . After 6-months of waiting the lawyer suggested and after talking multiple times with the police and D.A.’s office : No investigations were underway and it could die on their desk. It didn’t. A little over a year later the police came to my house with an arrest warrant from the D.A. I had to spend a number of days and forced to bail out this time, by asking for loans and using my rent money.
I find out after my 1st court appearance that the police and D.A. said I made a confession to the allegations on a cassette tape recording and the detective with the statements of the witnesses and victims that the allegations of the offense did occur, endorsed and forward it to the D.A. office for review and prosecution. The Detective booked recorded interviews of me and the alleged victim into evidence. By placing them in to an evidence locker(which I have the locker number in the original police report).
Here is were I start having a major problem with all agencies involved. After a 1-year and 8-months later. The 8-months of asking for all evidence especially the recording of my confession which since finding out I have denied any such thing and wouldn’t that been enough to prosecute in the first place?
The D.A. finally told my lawyer after requesting the tapes and getting the constant excuse of the police department still has the tapes. They tell use the tape that they have are Blank and there’s nothing on them. Major Question: How can there be transcripts of a confession and the tape is Blank? How was a report made from them and isn’t there a chain of evidence regulations to support any and all reports made from them?
Also to mention the same detective added an amendment 4 months later to the original police report which contradicts their statement about everything mainly the alleged assault and confession. How are they allowed to change the events and stories, which caused me to be arrested in the first place and after 30 months, be found total innocent of all charges and allegations. I have a hard time understanding the justice in it?
The recording and the victim’s statement were the main evidence for arresting me and prosecuting me. The D.A. used the police report and tried to press me in to a deal, They offered first a 6-month prison deal. When I said no the words passed to me by my lawyer were they’ll try to give me anything between 17 to 35 years with a jury. I took my chances.
During my lawyers investigation they discover several interesting things such as before the prelim the D.A. gave a copy of the police report to the victim to review before testifying. Which I’m told is a No, No. And even then the D.A. had to lead off the report because the victim could remember a thing, but was able to add to the story which wasn’t in the original report. ( I didn't get to see or get a copy of the report until way after the prelim.) The D.A. even tried to increase my bail, with knowledge of the victim’s story and inconsistency of the events. Thankful the Judge denied her request I couldn’t have afforded any more money lost. And the victim's witnesses also told the D.A. and our investigators that the victim has a history constantly lying and nothing happened.
Then one of the many toppers to my story the D.A. started making references to my lawyer: such as the victims unreliable, they’re all over the place and can’t remember a thing . Story keeps changing. My lawyer brought to the D.A.’s attention that the victim had perjured themselves several times throughout the prelim and the police report, not to mention the lack of any major evidence besides the verbal testimony of the victim and with problems in ect... mentioned above.
The D.A. still went on for another year to prosecute me for these offenses . Yet the last few months of the trial the prosecuting D.A. same one from the beginning tells my lawyer in a meeting that they want this to go away and it disappear. Question: Doesn’t the D.A. have the power to stop a prosecution. Even the arresting detective has mention to my criminal defense lawyer before it ended. They can’t believe the D.A.’s still going after me for this. This is the same Detective indorsed the police report saying it did happen and forward it to the D.A. for prosecution. Question : Are the police departments allowed to say they have evidence of a crime and not have to produce it when asked by legal representatives? In the beginning I denied all wrong doing if they had such evidence why did it take over a year to go after me? Also to mention that shortly after my arrest the same police department was having major evidence problems at least that’s what has been it the local news and paper’s for the last 2-years.
To top things off the D.A. as of yet hasn’t prosecute the alleged victim for perjury that’s on record and I’m told it can be a prosecuting offense. It was made very clear to me that the reason I was in this mess was do to lying and confessing to the crime and why I was looking at so much prison time.
I hope I didn’t ramble on too much , but this has been a very stressful 30-months for me and my family. I still have a hard time trying to understand being a veteran in the U.S. at this day and time where you are guilty until you lose a lot of money and almost become homeless in the process to prove your innocents.
My feelings are that everyone involved in this has made money off me-the police department ,the D.A.’s office, Judge and staff. and of course having to pay for a criminal defense lawyer my God send. Which I still Thank daily.And in the end of it, leave with the feeling that I should be lucky I'm not worse off. Crazy. I hope to find some closer in all this some day. To all who respond Thank you.

