Houston Settles Wrongful Conviction Suit for $3 Million

by Matt Clarke

On November 2, 2012, the City of Houston, Texas agreed to settle a lawsuit arising out of the wrongful conviction for rape and imprisonment for 17 years of George Rodriguez. A federal jury had previously found the City liable and the court had awarded Rodriguez over $9 million, including attorney fees.

Rodriguez was convicted of the rape of a 14-year-old girl. The girl had been abducted by two men whom she described as Latino, one fat and one skinny. They used the name "George” which she felt was made up. She only saw her assailants for 3-4 seconds before she was blindfolded and forced into a car, but was able to reconstruct the route take by the car accurately enough to lead the police to the house of Manuel and Uvaldo Beltran.

Uvaldo said he saw his brother and another man taking the victim through the house that day. Manuel confessed to the abduction and rape and told police the other man was Isidro Yanez. But, because the brothers were acquainted with Rodriguez and his name is George, police focused their investigation on him.

Semen from the victim’s clothing and rape kit were linked to Beltron. Houston Police Department Crime Laboratory (HPDCL) director Jim Bolding testified that the samples did not exclude Rodriguez, but did exclude Yanez. A hair was also "matched" to Rodriguez, who was convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison in October 1987.

The Innocence Project began helping Rodriguez in 2002. By then all of the biological evidence except the hair had been destroyed. DNA testing performed in 2004 excluded Rodriguez, but not Yanez. Further testing by the state showed that HPDCL had mis-typed Yanez and he never should have been excluded.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated the conviction in 2005. Rodriguez then filed a civil rights suit in federal court. This resulted in the over $9 million judgment, including pre-judgment interest and attorney fees. There were also jury findings that Bolding’s misleading and scientifically inaccurate serology report played a substantial part in the wrongful conviction, Houston had a official policy or custom of inadequate supervision or training of Crime Lab personnel, this policy or custom was the moving force behind the violation of Rodriguez’s rights and the City’s policymaker was deliberately indifferent to the substantial risk of wrongful conviction this policy or custom caused. The City appealed.

The Fifth Circuit vacated the judgment for reconsideration in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Connick v. Thompson. The trial court reaffirmed the judgment and the City appealed again.

The second appeal was pending when the settlement was reached. The parties filed a joint motion to withdraw the appeal. The City settled for $3 million, the amount the jury awarded Rodriguez for past pain, suffering and mental anguish.

The settlement included attorney fees. Rodriguez was represented by New York attorney Anna Benvenutti Hoffmann and Houston attorney Mark L. D. Warwro.

Ironically, under the Tim Cole Act, which was enacted since this lawsuit was filed and increased the amount of compensation available to the wrongly convicted in Texas; Rodriguez would have received $1.46 million plus an annuity worth $1.46 million plus free healthcare and free tuition to Texas universities and colleges. That’s about what he received from Houston, including attorney fees, after six years of litigation.

See: Rodriguez v. City of Houston, U.S.D.C.-S.D.Tex. Case No. 4:06-cv-02650.

Additional source: Houston Chronicle, www.exaMiner.com

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