VENTURA : Judge Dismisses Suit Over Fraud Arrest

A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a civil rights suit filed against Ventura County law enforcement officials by a man who claimed that he was wrongly arrested on fraud charges for promising his heat pump would deliver “free electricity from the air.”

Judge Edward Rafeedie on Monday dismissed the lawsuit filed in April in Los Angeles by Dennis M. Lee against the agencies and agents of the Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office who handled his case.

Lee, 44, was sentenced July 27 to three years and four months in state prison and ordered to pay $4,940 in restitution after pleading guilty to eight felony consumer fraud charges for selling kits on how to market his heat pump. The kits falsely claimed that the heat pump was approved by Underwriters Laboratory, a safety-testing firm, and that Lee’s guarantee to buy back any equipment was backed by a bond placed with Merrill Lynch.

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Soares had offered probation but Lee refused, saying he preferred prison to any restrictions the probation department might impose.

Lee sued the officials in federal court while he was awaiting trial. The suit alleged that sheriff’s deputies searched his Ventura office on Jan. 14, 1988, without a warrant and denied his right to free speech by arresting him June 22, 1988, just before he was to deliver a marketing speech at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport.

It also charged that he was jailed for nine months on an unconstitutionally high bail of $1 million after his arrest, an amount that later was reduced.

Alan E. Wisotsky, the attorney representing the county agencies and officials, said Rafeedie ruled that governmental immunity from litigation protected his clients from Lee’s claims.