Two veteran Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were cleared Thursday of charges that they conspired to file a false report about a June 2011 drug arrest.
The Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated about two hours before acquitting Robert G. Lindsey, 33, of one count each of filing a false report, conspiring to file a false report and conspiring to obstruct justice.
Co-defendant Charles G. Rodriguez, 40, was acquitted of one count each of conspiracy to file a false report, conspiracy to obstruct justice and being an accessory after the fact.
“I think that ends the proceedings in this case,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Renee Korn said after the jury’s verdict was read.
Their attorneys said Lindsey and Rodriguez should never have been prosecuted.
“The case shouldn’t have been filed … An unbiased review of the evidence as it developed should have led to a dismissal of the charges,” Lindsey’s attorney, Bradley Brunon, said outside court.
Rodriguez’s attorney, James Blatt, said, “There was never a question of their innocence,” adding that there was a “tremendous lack of credible evidence.”
Deputy District Attorney Gretchen Ford declined to comment.
The charges stemmed from a June 2011 drug-related arrest outside the Durango Bar in Huntington Park in which the prosecution alleged that discrepancies were found after the District Attorney’s Office was provided with videotape from a security camera in the tavern’s parking lot.
Blatt countered that the videotape “supported our position,” saying that it “showed probable cause.”
The two deputies had been on administrative leave while the case was pending.
— City News Service