Modesto shells out nearly half-million dollar settlement tied to Frank Carson murder case
The city of Modesto spent over $1 million to settle a lawsuit over the investigation and prosecution of a former high-profile defense attorney accused of murder.
Frank Carson and seven others were accused in the 2012 killing of Korey Kauffman, who last was seen alive near a property owned by Carson. The case grabbed national attention because of its details. All the defendants were acquitted.
Carson was arrested in 2015. But even before then, in 2014, his attorneys filed a civil lawsuit alleging a violation of civil rights, false imprisonment, false arrest and defamation during the Modesto Police Department’s homicide investigation. They demanded the city pay damages.
Late last year, the city paid out $400,000 to the estate of Frank Carson; Carson’s wife, Georgia DeFilippo; his stepdaughter, Christina DeFilippo; brothers Daljit Atwal and Baljit Athwal; and former CHP officers Eduardo Quintanar Jr., Walter Wells and Scott McFarlane. The money was split equally among them.
The city spent over $600,000 in legal fees. It tried multiple times over the years to block the civil case, according to attorneys representing the former defendants.
“This case is a travesty of justice and shows an abuse of power so frightening that any citizen who hears these facts should be fearful of the power of law enforcement and the ways in which the defendants in this case abused that power to exact revenge on an outspoken critic,” reads a statement from attorneys representing Carson, written before he died in 2020.
MPD was involved in the homicide investigation, but the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office led it. Spearheading the criminal proceedings was former Stanislaus County District Attorney Bridget Fladager.
Carson had few friends in law enforcement and in the DA’s Office. He had a reputation of being mean, ruthless and bullish as a defense attorney, according to sources in past reports. However, his tactics brought many victories over prosecutors — including the case against a former Modesto mayor accused of corruption.
Carson had accused the DA’s Office and law enforcement of corruption countless times. He and his attorneys assert that because of his successes against law enforcement, he was framed for the murder. They also say the trial, one of the longest in California’s history, was intentionally prolonged to bleed Carson dry of his money, his health and his resolve.
Kauffman went missing in spring 2012. His remains were found more than a year later by hunters in a heavily wooded area of the Stanislaus National Forest. Prosecutors accused Carson of conspiring with two local liquor store owners, the three CHP officers and his family to murder Kauffman and dispose of his body. The prosecution claimed that Carson was angry at Kauffman for trying to steal irrigation pipes from his Turlock-area property. Kauffman was a known drug addict and thief, according to previous reports.
During preliminary hearings the charges were dropped against all defendants except Carson and the brothers Athwal and Atwal.
The prosecution’s case fell apart mainly because it hinged on the testimony of a meth addict, Robert Woody, who claimed he was ordered by Carson to kill Kauffman. According to the presiding judge, Woody’s testimony had over 200 inconsistencies.
Carson and his attorneys alleged Woody’s testimony was coerced by investigators and the prosecution when he was threatened with the death penalty or life in prison. Woody was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to over seven years. He’s the only person to be convicted in Kauffman’s death.
The settlement the city paid to the former defendants was based on MPD Detective Jon Evers’ involvement in the investigation. Jayme Walker, one of the attorneys representing the former defendants in the murder trial, said Evers was not the “driving force” behind the investigation but played a part in ruining the lives of her clients. Evers was “not the type of man to question the direction this investigation and prosecution of Frank Carson... no matter how faulty the facts became,” read a prepared statement from Carson’s widow, Georgia DeFilippo.
“The glacial speed of the prosecution case makes me believe personal destruction was always her [DA Fladager’s] goal and a guilty verdict, while nice, wouldn’t be necessary when the damage they did to Frank was already done,” wrote DeFilippo in a prepared statement. “Jon Evers was a willing participant to all this, just doing his job, just following orders.”
DeFilippo and Walker said Evers’ contributions contributed “the endless amount” of evidence presented at trial that directed the investigation toward “people who had nothing at all to do with the murder while ignoring the people who actually may have committed murder.”
Walker asserted the lengthy trial and jail time Carson endured led to his premature death. Georgia DeFilippo spent 50 days in jail, Wells and McFarlane never returned to their jobs with the CHP. Quintanar lost his job but eventually was granted a return by an arbitrator. Athwal and Atwal spent over a year of their lives in prison before they were acquitted.
“It is difficult to put a number on the damage that was done to every single innocent person that got caught up in the DA’s vendetta against Frank Carson,” Walker wrote in a prepared statement.
The city of Modesto stated that it “does not admit any fault or liability regarding the arrests or prosecutions of any of the individuals involved.”
The former murder trial defendants also are suing Stanislaus County, Fladager, prosecutor Marlissa Ferreira and several others, seeking a multimillion-dollar payment. The trial judge denied Stanislaus County’s motion for summary judgment on Jan. 15, the case is set for a civil jury trial in April.
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 4:15 PM.
