Man falsely accused of child sex abuse by Sacramento police wins $5-million verdict

A Los Angeles jury awarded $5 million to a man who was wrongly identified by Sacramento police as a child sex abuser, charged and jailed for six months before the criminal case was dismissed.

Federal jurors reached the verdict Monday against Sacramento police after a five-day trial in which the Los Angeles man’s attorney presented evidence that the Police Department ignored proof of his client’s innocence, steered a child witness to identify him as her abuser and violated the man’s civil rights.

The man, identified only as J.N. in court papers, was arrested in August 2011 after he was identified as a suspect in an Internet abuse case in which a man asked a girl to disrobe and then performed sex acts on himself while interacting via webcams.

Attorney Jeff Dominic Price said the detective, in targeting his client, ignored basic computer evidence pointing to the real suspect.

“They should have known that the man who made contact with the victim — a 12-year-old girl — was using a computer in Austria.… This is a willful negligence by a detective,” Price said, noting it took the jury about six hours to reach a verdict. “They had absolutely no evidence against my client.”

The jury awarded $5 million in economic damages and $5,000 in punitive damages. Price said the jury foreman told him that jurors would have awarded more punitive damages but the man sought only $5,000.

Sean D. Richmond, a senior deputy city attorney for Sacramento, said “we are disappointed in the verdict and believe there is no reasonable basis for the size of damage award. We are reviewing all our options including appeal of the decision.”

Price said the police detective, Heather Hendrickson, focused on his client only because his last name matched the one known by the victim — Noster.

According to the lawsuit, the victim met a man in an online chat room associated with Facebook in 2011. The man who contacted the girl went by “Pater Noster,” Latin for “Our father,” court records say.

Hendrickson ran the last name through criminal databases and located Price’s client, the attorney said.

In March 2011, Hendrickson showed a picture of his client and five other photos to the girl. According to court records, the girl pointed to the picture of Price’s client and said “he is too skinny — the guy that I saw was much chunkier.” But shortly afterward she said, “that kind of looks like him.” Hendrickson told her to draw a circle around the picture, court records show. The sequence of events was recorded on video.

Price said Hendrickson omitted the girl’s statement that his client was “too skinny” to be her abuser in submitting a search warrant affidavit. Hedrickson could not be reached for comment.

The detective reported the case to the FBI and a special agent told her the bureau would subpoena Facebook for information on the “Pater Noster” account, according to court papers. A subpoena was issued in April 2011. According to court filings, the FBI determined that the account was accessed from a device in Vienna, Austria.

The Los Angeles man was arrested outside his home in August 2011. He was charged with seven felony counts related to the internet activity with the girl.

Price said that his client insisted to authorities he did not have a Facebook account and that authoritiesfound no evidence of a Facebook account registered on the hard drive or being used when they searched his computer and other devices.

The criminal case came to an end in February 2012, when the girl examined an in-person lineup that included Price’s client. She did not recognize any of the men and prosecutors dismissed the case.

Price’s client then sued the police on allegations of unlawful arrest, malicious prosecution and fabrication of evidence.

Price said his client had a minor criminal history and suffered tremendously because of the sex abuse allegations. He said his client’s name is not part of the court record because of the potential damage it could do going forward.

richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @lacrimes

UPDATES:

4:57 p.m. This article was updated with an addition statement from an attorney for Sacramento City Attorney’s Office