ROUNDUP: Latinos Sue Over Arrest in Questionable Case : Latinos Sue Over Arrests in Poway Rape Roundup

Charging a “gross violation of civil rights,” some of the Latinos arrested by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department last year in the purported rape of a 15-year-old Poway girl have filed companion multimillion-dollar federal lawsuits against the department, a number of deputies and the county.

Among those also named as defendants in one of the suits are the girl, now 16, her stepmother and her natural parents--a longtime San Diego police officer and his ex-wife, who is now a sheriff’s deputy.

The civil suits, filed last month in U. S. District Court in San Diego, represent the latest development in a still-sensitive episode that included a roundup by deputies of more than 80 Latino “suspects” in the Poway area after the reporting of the crime. Critics see the roundup as one of the most flagrant recent examples of racial abuse by law enforcement authorities in the county.

“It was a massive violation of civil rights, on a scale which we fortunately do not see very often,” said Betty Wheeler, director of the area chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Officials in the office of Sheriff John Duffy have defended deputies’ actions--including the sweeps--as appropriate. A spokesman for Duffy declined to comment Thursday on the lawsuits.

The massive dragnet came at a time when tensions had been increasing throughout northern San Diego County between area homeowners, generally white and middle class, and the mostly Mexican migrant workers who live a kind of shadow existence, often in crude dwellings amid the brush.

All criminal charges in the case were eventually dropped, although the San Diego County district attorney’s office has never explained precisely why. The six suspects accused of participating in the attack were freed after spending up to two months in jail. They eventually returned to the Poway area.

Both lawsuits essentially allege wrongful detentions and arrests of the suspects, and violations of the civil rights of those taken into custody. The U. S. Border Patrol, which also participated in the sweeps, may be added as a defendant, said Edmundo Espinoza, the San Diego attorney representing the plaintiffs.

Pursuing ‘Baseless Claims’

Those suing include the six Mexican citizens who were jailed after being charged with participating in the purported attack and rape. They are also suing the reported rape victim and her family, contending that the Sheriff’s Department pursued “baseless claims” against them “to protect the family of fellow law enforcement officers.” The six are seeking $12 million in damages.

Also filing suit are a father and son--also Mexican nationals--who were among the scores of Latinos detained during the roundup, which occurred on April 25, 1988, the day after the alleged rape took place. They are suing on behalf of all of those arrested during the roundup, and hope to have the lawsuit certified as a class action, meaning anyone arrested could be entitled to some award. They are seeking $4 million.

Episode Unfolded

The suits were announced at a news conference Thursday attended by 7 of the plaintiffs, their attorney, and several rights activists, including Wheeler of the ACLU.

“No ethnic group should be subjected to the kind of racist sweep of people as the people of Mexican ancestry in Poway were a year ago last month,” said Roberto Martinez, co-chairman of the Coalition for Law & Justice, a rights group, who also attended the session. “The kind of mindless police action that occurred that day should never be allowed to happen again.”

The episode began when the girl reported to her parents that a group of Latinos attacked her on the evening of April 24, 1988, while she was riding her horse along a dirt track in the Poway area. She said that they dragged her from her horse, pinned her down and held her as one raped her.

Authorities have never backed down from the claim that she was raped. The charges were dropped after it was disclosed in court that the girl was pregnant and the alleged rapist had agreed to give a blood sample to determine if he was the father.

Five of the six charged with the crime acknowledged that they had seen the woman on the evening of the alleged rape, but they maintained that they exchanged a few words and went on their separate ways.

Those detained said they still feel humiliated by the experience.

“We don’t want anything like this to happen to anyone again,” said Jorge Garibay Contreras, a 47-year-old upholstery worker and father of eight who lives in San Diego.

On the afternoon of the roundups, Garibay said, he and his son, Jorge Jr., then 18, were handcuffed near their workplaces in Poway and thrown into a sheriff’s van without explanation. The two, both legal residents under the amnesty program, said they spent about eight hours driving around in vehicles of the Sheriff’s Department and the U. S. Border Patrol before being released.

Those actually charged with the rape and attack--five men and one woman, ages 17 to 23 at the time--said they feared the episode could harm their efforts to become permanent, legal U.S. residents as well as hurt them in applying for jobs. They said they would like the matter expunged from their records.

“We want to clear up what happened that day,” said Leonardo Martinez Cedillo, at 24 the oldest of the six, and the one actually accused of having raped the girl. “I still feel bad about it.”