A federal civil jury on Wednesday unanimously found in favor of an Anaheim detective who was accused of coercing a suspect into falsely confessing to the murder of a state correctional officer 17 years ago.
The eight jurors decided after about three hours of deliberations that Detective Daron Wyatt did not use excessive force to get Rafael Garcia Miranda to falsely admit his role in the killing of Elizabeth Wheat Begaren.
“They found that the allegations are completely untrue,” Wyatt told City News Service following the reading of the verdict in a federal courtroom in Santa Ana. “I’m glad the truth was told, but I don’t think It should have ever gotten to this point.”
At issue in the trial was the destruction of video of Wyatt’s interrogation. Jurors, however, could hear the audio of the questioning.
“The microphone was so sensitive you could hear his gum smacking and swallowing of water,” Wyatt said. “It didn’t add up because it didn’t happen.”
Wyatt said he did not feel “vindicated” by the verdict.
“I don’t think there’s such a thing as vindication,” he said. “I still had my kids having to hear other kids coming up to them at school asking them if I beat suspects. So, vindication? No. But am I happy the truth came out? Yes.”
Miranda and his wife, Olga, had originally named the city of Anaheim, former public information officer Lt. Bob Dunn, former Deputy Chief Craig Hunter and former Chief John Welter as defendants in the civil suit. But everyone but Wyatt was later dropped from the case.
Miranda stuck to his claim that Wyatt was a “crooked cop” in an interview after the verdicts, alleging that the detective “was feeding me all the answers” while forcing him to confess to the murder.
Olga Miranda testified that she and her husband were living in Tucson at the time of the killing, so they knew nothing about it and were not involved.
“I saw it coming,” Rafael Miranda said of the verdict. “I felt it was going to happen.”
Miranda said he did not think an Orange County jury would side with a former gang member over a police officer.
Miranda’s attorney, Mark Eisenberg, said his “only hope is this serves as a wake-up call to Detective Wyatt and all the others that this type of conduct is intolerable.”
Eisenberg argued that Wyatt failed to make copies of the videotaped interrogation so he could conceal the brutality.
Wyatt’s attorney, Moses Johnson of the city of Anaheim, denied that claim and said Miranda had longtime ties to gangs and was acquainted with the prime suspect in the murder.
Miranda did not deny the ties to the street gang, but said he did not know Begaren or any of the other players in the murder. Miranda said he left behind the gang life when he and his wife had their first child.
It’s not clear why Miranda confessed to the crime, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin, who filed the charges against Miranda and then later let him go. He told City News Service that he moved quickly to get Miranda out of custody when two co-defendants confessed to the murder and their details of the crime contradicted with Miranda had told investigators.
“I can only guess as to why” he confessed, Yellin said. “He was never able to explain himself to me as to why.”
The prosecutor praised Wyatt, who has a reputation for solving cold-case murders, as “an excellent cop. He’s a really, really good detective.”
The case revolved around Wyatt’s reopening of the cold-case killing of Begaren on Jan. 17, 1998, along the Riverside (91) Freeway. Begaren’s husband, Nuzzio Begaren, was sentenced in May to 25 years to life for masterminding the contract killing.
While Miranda was questioned in Anaheim, Wyatt warned him that he had better cooperate or he would lose custody of his six children, Eisenberg said.
Wyatt “kicked” Miranda under the table during the videotaped interview and when Miranda continued to “protest his innocence,” the detective pressed the suspect’s head down on a table, Eisenberg said. He said his client ultimately “confessed” because “he was afraid of losing his children.”
Wyatt’s attorney said the detective has had a sterling career as lead detective on 12 to 15 cold-case murders.
This week, co-defendant Rudy Duran pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder in the Bergaren case. He is expected to be sentenced to six years in jail in May.
— City News Service