Man Jailed in Valley Molester Case Files Suit

An anti-drug activist who was arrested as a suspected child molester--but then released as innocent--has filed a federal court lawsuit alleging that Los Angeles police violated his civil rights and smeared his reputation.

James Elliott Singletary of Encino, who was jailed for four days last year amid mounting public furor over attacks on children by the so-called Valley molester, was arrested mainly because he is black, said attorney Marion R. Yagman, who filed the suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Yagman said that other than his race, Singletary only vaguely matched the description of the molester.

During his stay in the Van Nuys Jail, Singletary was denied needed medication, according to the suit, which named as defendants unknown jailers and nurses as well as former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, current Chief Willie Williams, 22 former and current City Council members, and 100 unknown police officers.

The suit contends that while he was incarcerated, Singletary was repeatedly identified in news reports, which quoted police officers, as the prime suspect in a series of attacks that frightened schoolchildren and parents across the San Fernando Valley. The Valley molester was blamed for 32 attacks, including the rape of a schoolgirl.

The release of Singletary’s name, the suit said, “caused plaintiff to be stigmatized as a serial child molester, to have his privacy invaded, and caused him great mental and emotional distress, humiliation and suffering, and injured his reputation and dignity.”

No charges were filed and when Singletary was released--collapsing near tears into the arms of family members--police acknowledged they had arrested the wrong man. At least four other African American men had been detained and questioned in connection with the attacks.

Singletary, now 46, was stopped last Dec. 3 near Victory and Balboa boulevards for alleged traffic offenses. Although his burgundy Chevrolet matched descriptions given by some of the molester’s victims, Singletary--unlike descriptions of the molester--wears glasses and is partially walleyed.

Singletary described himself as a born-again Christian who would never harm a child. He owned a business that made shirts and other items bearing anti-drug slogans.

The molester cases remain unsolved and police have yet to link one person to all the crimes, which occurred throughout the course of the year as children walked to or from school. “We haven’t identified one individual as the Valley molester,” Los Angeles Police Lt. Fred Tuller said Tuesday.

Tuller, who declined to comment on the lawsuit, added that no attack similar to those blamed on the Valley molester has been reported “in quite some time.”