Detectives Cleared in Wrongful Arrest Case

A federal court jury found Tuesday that two Los Angeles police detectives did not act improperly last year when they arrested a Shadow Hills woman in her husband’s death--even though charges against her were later dropped.

Mary Kellel-Sophiea, 40, had claimed in her U.S. District Court lawsuit that homicide detectives Woodrow Parks and Gary Milligan had bungled the investigation of her husband’s Jan. 31, 1990, stabbing by immediately focusing on her as a suspect when evidence clearly indicated Gregory Sophiea was killed by a burglar.

During the three-week trial, the detectives testified that they focused on Kellel-Sophiea only after they incorrectly determined that a break-in by the burglar through a bathroom window had actually been “staged.”

Later, bloody fingerprints found at the Orchas Street house were traced to an 18-year-old transient, Tony Moore, who was arrested and confessed to the crime. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

The jury deliberated less than an hour before returning a verdict in favor of the detectives Tuesday evening. Kellel-Sophiea’s attorney, David Romley, said jurors said after the verdict that Kellel-Sophiea “was a victim of circumstances, but the police were doing their job.”

Romley said the verdict will be appealed.