Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts of California and the U.S.

July 21, 2006

Joseph Shemaria in the news: Judge Drops Murder Charges Over Improperly Obtained Evidence 27-Year-Old Suspect Is Released

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. -- Murder charges have been dropped against a 27-year-old man accused of killing a woman whose charred remains were found in a Manhattan Beach house fire.

A Superior Court judge ruled that Sheriff's Department detectives improperly obtained some evidence against Herbert Orlando Gonzalez.

Superior Court Judge Cary H. Nishimoto dismissed the case against Herbert Orlando Gonzalez, who was charged with murder, residential burglary and residential robbery in connection with the death of the 40-year-old victim, Libia Cabrera.

Her body, bound and gagged, was found by Manhattan Beach police officers and firefighters responding to a residential fire on the 100 block of 20th Street on April 11, 2005.

Nishimoto suppressed what defense attorney Joseph Shemaria called "damaging evidence" implicating his client in the crimes, which Shemaria said was extracted by a pair of "overzealous" detectives who softened his client up before reading him his Miranda rights by promising to release him in exchange for admitting to being the man caught on a surveillance tape at the sight of the fire.

Detectives Katherine Gallagher and Randy Seymour of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Unit "applied third-degree, psychological manipulation interrogation methods and `dirty tricks,' which resulted in an innocent young Hispanic man having to stay in county jail for some 195 days, from Jan. 5 to July 19," Shemaria said.

After his Miranda rights were finally read to him, Gonzalez was interviewed on tape. Detectives later testified that Gonzalez confessed to being the man on the video during the interview, although Gonzalez is inaudible on the tape when asked about his confession, and the transcript corroborates that, Shemaria said.

Without the evidence, prosecutors opted not to proceed with the case, prompting Nishimoto to dismiss it, said Sandi Gibbons, the public information officer for the District Attorney's office.

"At Wednesday's hearing, a courageous judge put an end to my client's nightmare caused by the police incompetence and gross misconduct," Shemaria said in a written statement. "The court's ruling strongly disapproved of the tactics employed by the sheriff's office and determined that my client's statements implicating him, had been obtained involuntarily, hence making them both unreliable and unusable in the court of law," he said.

Gonzalez, who had been held on $1 million bail, recently celebrated his 27th birthday behind bars. He had planned to marry his fiancée, but those plans had to be put on hold in light of his arrest, Shemaria said.

Charges were filed against Gonzalez on Jan. 9.

In April, the city of Manhattan Beach announced it would offer a $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of accomplices to the crime.

An investigation determined that Cabrera, a wife and mother of two from Lawndale who had been employed to clean the home, was raped and died of a stab wound to the neck before the fire was set, authorities said. The home had been burglarized.

Because of the detectives' incompetence, the first house fire fatality in Manhattan Beach in 20 years remains to be solved, Shemaria said.

"Perhaps what's even worse, the real murderers, or murderers, are still out there, perhaps in Manhattan Beach, or perhaps elsewhere," Shemaria said. "Wherever they may be, they pose a clear and present danger to the safety of all communities. With the passage of time, the chances of now catching them are reduced." Source

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CALIFORNIA CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER

JOSEPH SHEMARIA

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Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts of California and the U.S.