Los Angeles Sexual Assault Lawyer Blog

Investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office are accused of framing a man on false charges of date-rape against a babysitter.

Our Los Angeles Sexual Assault Lawyers understand that the man is claiming in his civil lawsuit that investigators with the agency knew the allegations were false, and yet pushed forward with them anyway - proceeding to arrest and book him and then forcing him to post $100,000 bail in exchange for his freedom.

According to the 53-year-old defendant, he was accused of drugging and raping the 23-year-old babysitter after he returned early from work one day. But he alleges investigators reportedly had evidence early on that he was innocent. Rather than dropping the charges, he says they forged a memo on state department of justice stationary indicating that they had found the defendant's DNA on the alleged victim's body. That letter, according to the claim, was then reportedly used by investigators to try to get the defendant to confess to a crime he didn't commit.

Further, the claimant says that investigators had evidence early on that the level of the drug found in the accuser's system ruled out the possibility that he could have administered the drug to her on the night in question. There was also no evidence of any other date rape drug and nothing else linking him to a crime.

Although the woman initially said she hadn't had sexual conduct in two years, she later retracted that statement to say she indeed had engaged in sexual intercourse, days before the alleged incident.

In the end, the Los Angeles County Superior Court dismissed all criminal charges. Now, the former defendant is seeking $5 million in damages.

But this case brings up another question: Why do police officers lie in the first place? What's in it for them?

Numerous sources seem to indicate the answer is: A lot.

A recent opinion article in The New York Times questioned what incentive police officers had to lie under oath. The answer often lies in the incentive programs that police or police units receive when they make a stop or an arrest. There are federal grant programs that are often based on how many arrests are made versus how many crimes are reported. Agencies that have higher arrests rates can say, "We are doing something about the crime in our city."

However, they are rarely held accountable when those arrests turn out to be false arrests.

It's perhaps more of a common phenomenon in drug cases. In fact, former San Francisco Police Commissioner Peter Keane wrote an editorial two years ago, decrying the widespread practice of officer perjury in justifying illegal drug searches.

Defendants rarely challenge it. Judges hardly ever call them out on it. And prosecutors certainly aren't going to dig a whole lot deeper than they need to when it comes to the officer's word against a defendant's.

But you absolutely do have rights, and one of those is to be protected from unreasonable searches, seizures or arrests based on anything but probable cause. You have the right to remain silent - but not when it comes to police misconduct, fraud or perjury.