San Jose will pay $12 million to a man who was jailed for 17 years for a drive-by shooting he did not commit, the largest settlement paid by the city in a police misconduct case.
The settlement, approved Tuesday by the City Council, came after a federal judge rejected the city's arguments to dismiss a federal lawsuit brought by Lionel Rubalcava, who was convicted in a 2002 gang shooting.
Council members approved the deal but did not issue a statement or comment on the payment.
Rubalcava had been identified by three witnesses, but was released and exonerated in May 2019 after they recanted and cell phone tracking evidence suggested he was driving toward Hollister at the time of the shooting.
In the lawsuit, Rubalcava's attorneys argued that police officers Topui Fonua, Joe Perez and Steven Spillman ignored evidence that exonerated Rubalcava and “deliberately misrepresented witness statements” that led to the conviction.
In her ruling against the city's request to dismiss the case, Judge Beth Labson Freeman wrote that a jury could infer that three San Jose officers “falsified police reports in order to deprive them [Lionel] Rubalcava of constitutional rights.”
The case was due to go to trial in August.
“Given the clear evidence of serious police misconduct that we would have presented at trial, the city of San José made the right decision today,” said Amelia Green, one of Rubalcava's attorneys. “Not only should our client never have been prosecuted, but the city should have long ago accepted responsibility for Lionel's wrongful conviction.”
After his release from Pleasant Valley State Prison, Rubalcava sued the city, arguing that detectives violated his civil and due process rights after they ignored evidence pointing to his innocence.
“We are supposed to be able to trust police officers for our protection and safety,” Rubalcava said in a statement. “In my case, the San José Police Department singled me out and accused me of a crime that I did not commit.”
Rubalcava was arrested three days after the April 5, 2002, shooting of 19-year-old Raymond Rodriguez, who was left partially paralyzed.
Police and prosecutors argued during the trial that the shooting was sparked by gang rivalry.
But one of the witnesses recanted his testimony at trial, and Rubalcava's lawyers argued that the motive police suggested for the shooting didn't make sense because he and Rodríguez allegedly belonged to separate Norteño street gangs and were not rivals.
Rodríguez and his mother told a detective that they did not believe Rubalcava had been the shooter and that Rodríguez had been attacked by members of the rival Sureño gang.
Rubalcava was released after the Northern Innocence Project at Santa Clara University School of Law took up his case. The Santa Clara district attorney's office then ordered its conviction integrity unit to reexamine the case, and the other witnesses recanted his testimony. The office asked the high court to overturn Rubalcava's 2019 conviction.
Rubalcava was represented by attorneys from Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger.
“Neither Lionel nor the victims benefited from the corrupt police work that led to an innocent man being prosecuted and the real shooter going free,” said attorney Nick Brustin. “Lionel's case is yet another example of how racism infects the criminal legal system, where police are too often willing to prosecute any available young man of color.”
