A lawsuit filed by a Washington oyster farmer accuses a former county deputy of falsifying an arrest report and encouraging a person to lie during a domestic-violence investigation settled for $250,000.
Gerardo Rodarte, the owner of Samish Gold Seafoods, sued Skagit County and former deputy Joseph Gutierrez in 2020, after a jury acquitted Rodarte of domestic-violence assault charges, The Seattle Times reported .
The charges are based on sworn statements and deputy reports. Court documents show that Gutierrez, who was fired in 2018 over allegations of having sex while on duty and failing to help other officers during a prison break, refused to testify at the trial.
Rodarte’s lawsuit alleges that Gutierrez conspired with Rodarte’s nephew, who is also an oyster farm employee, to falsely accuse his uncle of assaulting him in exchange for help with his immigration status.
The nephew called the Sheriff’s Office on June 7, 2017, and claimed that he had been assaulted by Rodarte. Gutierrez responded and arrested Rodarte, despite his claims and statements from his wife that the nephew attacked him, biting his thumb and hitting him in the head with a phone handset, according to the lawsuit and others. documents filed in US District Court.
Rodarte claimed in his lawsuit that, while he was being taken to jail, Gutierrez met his nephew and told him that “they have to change their story because it doesn’t fit the evidence, and they have to fix it so it can be seen.” which is true,” according to the documents.
He admitted that Gutierrez took pictures of the nephew’s neck, which showed bruises and marks that were not there before. US District Judge Barbara Rothstein in a 2021 ruling denied Gutierrez’s motion to dismiss the perjury claim and ordered the trial to continue.
Rodarte’s wife, Fabiola Higareda Hernandez, also signed a sworn affidavit claiming that Gutierrez falsified the statements attributed to him in his arrest report.
Gutierrez appealed Rothstein’s decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. An appeals court panel in January upheld Rothstein’s trial decision.
Regarding damages, the appellate judges wrote, “We hold that it is ‘self-evident’ that ‘there is a clearly established constitutional right not to be subject to criminal charges based on false evidence that deliberately done by the government. ‘”
Rodarte’s lawsuit alleges that a clam harvest worth $500,000 that he was farming on the day of his arrest was damaged while he was incarcerated.
The Skagit County Attorney’s Office, which represents Gutierrez, did not respond to a phone message from the newspaper seeking comment on the settlement.
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