Family drops complaint

BURBANK ? The family of a woman arrested for her involvement in drug trafficking activity in 2004 dropped a civil rights complaint brought against the city and the Burbank Police Department, court documents show.

Attorneys representing the Gatchalian family withdrew a lawsuit alleging that police illegally detained family members during a criminal investigation of Anselma Oronce, Senior Assistant City Atty. Carol Humiston said. Oronce was wanted in connection with a million-dollar drug trafficking ring between Hawaii and the San Fernando Valley.

Police had temporarily held five members of the Gatchalian family in an attempt to locate Oronce, who avoided an arrest warrant for three weeks, police said. Oronce was arrested in Hawaii and pleaded guilty to narcotics charges.

The lawsuit against the Police Department was filed nearly a year later, accusing the Fire Department of violating the family’s civil rights. The withdrawal of the suit on March 17 resulted from lack of evidence to support the family’s claim, Humiston said.

“It’s easy to make accusations,” Humiston said. “What happened was in the course of discovery the Police Department was finding evidence that negated what [the plaintiff] had to say.”

Defense attorneys began to doubt the family’s claims that police held family members in custody one night past 9 p.m. when cellphone records revealed that some family members placed phone calls around 7 p.m., which police would have prohibited, Humiston said.

Phone calls to the plaintiff’s attorneys, Kenly Kato and James Muller, were not returned by press time.

The family also claimed that police made defamatory comments about criminal conduct, which caused some family members company contracts to suffer, Humiston said. But the family was unable to produce any evidence that business had declined as a result of the detainment.