A wrongfully convicted man who spent more than 30 years behind bars will receive $19.1 million as part of a settlement with the city of Baldwin Park, officials said. <\/p>\n
Daniel Saldana, 56, was convicted in connection with a 1989 drive-by shooting outside a Baldwin Park high school football game that left two students injured. But for years Saldana maintained he was innocent, insisting he wasn\u2019t at the shooting. <\/p>\n
Saldana was freed from prison in 2023 after a judge declared him factually innocent. On Friday, the Baldwin Park City Council agreed to pay $19.1 million to settle a wrongful conviction federal lawsuit. <\/p>\n
Attorneys for Saldana argued in the lawsuit that it was the \u201cegregious misconduct\u201d of a Baldwin Park detective that led to the wrongful conviction in 1990. <\/p>\n
Saldana declined to comment through his lawyer, but his attorneys released a statement blaming the detective.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Saldana\u2019s wrongful conviction resulted from the egregious misconduct of a Baldwin Park detective who systematically fabricated evidence and pressured witnesses throughout a fundamentally flawed investigation,\u201d said Amelia Green, one of Saldana\u2019s attorneys. <\/p>\n
The case against Saldana began to unravel when one of the co-defendants, Raul Vidal, told the state parole board in 2017 that Saldana was not present at the shooting. <\/p>\n
A deputy district attorney had been present at Vidal\u2019s parole hearing, but the testimony didn\u2019t spark a review of the case at the time. It was not until 2023 that the state\u2019s parole board turned over transcripts<\/a> of the hearing to the Los Angeles County District Attorney\u2019s Conviction Integrity Unit. <\/p>\n The district attorney\u2019s office then moved to have Saldana\u2019s conviction overturned, and a judge found him factually innocent in May 2023. <\/p>\n In February 2024, Saldana and his attorneys filed a suit against the city and former Baldwin Park Police Det. Michael Donovan, alleging the former detective coerced witnesses and falsified reports to get Saldana convicted. <\/p>\n The suit also names the California Board of Parole Hearings commissioners as defendants, as well as Los Angeles County and the deputy district attorney who attended Vidal\u2019s 2017 hearing, Steve Sowders. <\/p>\n Th suit claims they failed to take action despite Vidal\u2019s testimony vindicating Saldana. <\/p>\n The suit against those defendants is still pending, Green said.<\/p>\n Attorneys for Sowders and Los Angeles County did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An attorney with the California attorney general\u2019s office, which is representing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Board of Parole Hearings commissioners, also did not immediately respond.<\/p>\n Donovan allegedly pressured a teen witness to testify that Saldana was the second shooter in the incident, although the teen originally testified there had been only one shooter, according to the lawsuit. <\/p>\n In a statement, the city of Baldwin Park confirmed the settlement and said the incident did not involve any current city employees. <\/p>\n