Former CHP officers, defense lawyer sue, saying prosecution left them in financial ruin
Two former California Highway Patrol officers and a Modesto defense attorney have filed lawsuits against Stanislaus County and other local agencies, claiming investigators and prosecutors faked some evidence, destroyed other evidence and coerced witnesses in a malicious murder prosecution.
Modesto attorney Frank Carson, acquitted of murder last year, filed a lawsuit in federal court last week against Stanislaus County and other local agencies accused of false arrest and malicious prosecution. That followed a claim Carson filed in December which seeks millions of dollars in damages.
A similar lawsuit was filed by former CHP officers Walter Wells and Scott McFarlane, claiming that the prosecution cost them their jobs and retirement benefits, destroying their reputations and leaving them in financial ruin.
“This was one of the most corrupt and vindictive prosecutions in California history,” Carson’s attorney J. Gary Gwilliam said in a press release. “We intend to hold the Defendants fully accountable for the outrageous conduct that cost Frank Carson and his family their reputation and financial ruin.”
Stanislaus County Counsel Thomas Boze said Thursday he had not yet reviewed the lawsuit and said his office generally doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
In August 2015, Carson, and seven other people including his wife Georgia DeFilippo and stepdaughter Christina DeFilippo and Wells and McFarlane were arrested and charged in the murder of Korey Kauffman.
Kauffman, 26, disappeared in spring 2012 and his remains were found more than a year later in a remote area of Mariposa County.
Only Carson and brothers Baljit Athwal and Daljit Atwal ultimately were held to answer on murder charges and were acquitted in June 2019 at the conclusion of a trial that lasted more than a year.
The lawsuits claim that investigators coerced and intimidated witnesses and faked or destroyed evidence. In one example, the plaintiffs claim that game cameras installed near where Kauffman’s body was found recorded two people who were not charged in the case, but who had made threats against Kauffman, in the area before the location was made public.
The lawsuits claim investigators destroyed that footage.
Carson’s claim partly seeks compensation for health problems attributed to spending 17 months in the county jail.
“He suffers from high blood pressure, went into kidney failure and now has to be on dialysis, and suffers from chronic pain and sciatica due to the conditions of being in jail,” the claim reads.
The claim filed in December said Carson’s legal fees amounted to more than $3 million. The murder charges also cost him years of lost income and damage to the reputation of his law practice, the claim says.
In addition to the county, Carson is suing the cities of Modesto and Ceres, District Attorney Birgit Fladager, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marlisa Ferreira, who prosecuted the case, and law enforcement officers from all of the jurisdictions.
