County Agrees to Pay $550,000 to Settle False Arrest Lawsuit in Downey

By City News Service

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors signed off Tuesday on a $550,000 settlement for a couple who alleged that sheriff's deputies falsely arrested and framed them.

Deputy Francisco Enriquez, one the deputies involved in the arrest of Tatiana Lopez and Miguel Amarillas, was charged July 17 with lying about finding nine bindles of methamphetamine in a patrol car.

Citing the "risks and uncertainties of litigation,'' county attorneys recommended settling with plaintiffs, who alleged false arrest and malicious prosecution in violation of their civil rights.

On Oct. 7, 2009, sheriff's deputies made a traffic stop in Downey and arrested Lopez and Amarillas, her fiance, on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance and took them to a sheriff's station in separate patrol cars.

Enriquez reported that he found a plastic bag containing nine bindles of meth in the patrol car Lopez was put into. She was charged with possession of the drug for sale, according to a synopsis of the case given to the Board of Supervisors.

Plaintiffs' attorney Thomas Beck said Lopez wasn't charged at all until she filed a complaint against the Sheriff's Department claiming there was no reason for her arrest. In an attempt to get her to withdraw that complaint, officials threatened felony charges and eventually made good on their threat, Beck alleged.

The attorney said deputies had been told by an informant that there were drugs in Amarillas' car and had been tailing him. When they couldn't find any drugs, despite tearing the car apart and searching Amarillas' apartment, "this ... deputy planted narcotics on both of my clients,'' Beck alleged. 

Amarillas was on parole for a prior offense, giving detectives the right to search his apartment, Beck said. But only Lopez was charged with felony possession.

All criminal charges against the couple were eventually dismissed. In their lawsuit against the county, Lopez and Amarillas named Enriquez, along with Deputy Javier Martinez, Detective Scott Kalassay and Lt. Chris Branuel as co-defendants.

Beck said Kalassay claimed to have elicited a confession of drug possession from Lopez and Amarillas although, according to the attorney, "he never talked to either of them.''

Almost three years after the couple's arrest and about eight months after they sued the county, prosecutors in the District Attorney's Office charged Enriquez with filing a false report and perjury related to the arrest.

None of the other sheriff's personnel cited in the civil suit were charged, which rankles Beck.

"They were all in on this,'' the defense attorney alleged. "They never brought the hammer down on everyone involved.''

The Sheriff's Department has begun termination proceedings against Enriquez, according to sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

"You cannot have cops lying,'' Whitmore said.

Free on bail, Enriquez is awaiting a preliminary hearing. If convicted, he could face up to four years and eight months in prison.

The county spent more than $320,000 on lawyers in connection with the lawsuit before agreeing to a settlement, according to documents provided to the Board of Supervisors.