LOCAL : Judge Tosses Out Suit by Man Against LAPD for Minkow Link
A federal judge threw out a civil rights suit today by an Encino financial consultant who claims police illegally searched his home and falsely branded him a suspected money launderer connected to Barry Minkow’s failed ZZZZBest carpet cleaning company.
Maurice Rind, who was a consultant to the carpet firm, sued Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, three detectives and the Police Department for $15 million after the July 8, 1987, search of his house. Rind alleged that his constitutional protection against illegal search and seizure was violated when police obtained a search warrant using false statements made by anonymous or non-existent informants, and that Gates, in a same-day press conference, identified him as a money launderer linked to ZZZZBest.
But U.S. District Judge Laughlin E. Waters dismissed Rind’s lawsuit today, ruling that, because it was filed last July, a one-year statute of limitations on the case had expired.
Rind’s lawyer said he would appeal the dismissal.
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