True justice in the Los Angeles County criminal system has led District Attorney George Gascón to exonerate two new individuals: Charlotte Pleytez and Lombardo Palacios, who spent 17 years in prison for a murder they did not commit.
Both are awaiting official exoneration, after a hearing scheduled for today.
False statements from circumstantial witnesses and the acceptance of guilt caused by pressure from police detectives to incriminate a person are part of the injustices that have prevailed for decades in the criminal justice system, particularly under the administrations of former prosecutors Steve Cooley. and Jackie Lacey.
Identification problems
Problems with the identifications were as follows: The surviving victim of the criminal case was shown photos of alleged members of the gang believed responsible for the murder.
Cross-racial identification by at least two of the three witnesses, which is scientifically approved to know when someone belongs to a race, sometimes fails and individuals of other races cannot be well identified.
None of the witnesses against Pleytez and Lombardo had a relationship with them and therefore did not know them.
Two of three identifications were not definitive and used ambiguous phrases such as “this person stands out more than that one,” “or “that person looks like the suspect.”
Reevaluating convictions and correcting errors
Pleytez never accepted having committed any crime and Lombardo, who was barely 15 years old when he was forced to accept a murder he did not commit, was finally convicted, without being truly guilty.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit determined that Pleitez and Lombardo were not part of the 2007 murder of Hector Flores in East Hollywood.
“We must continually reevaluate past questionable convictions in the interest of justice,” said District Attorney Gascón. “In doing so, we recognize that the system has failed at times, and when it does, the consequences are life-changing. The families of Ms. Pleytez and Mr. Palacios have lost almost two decades with their loved ones and have suffered deeply.”
“This process tries to correct those errors and restore their dignity,” added the prosecutor. “Our hearts also go out to the family of Héctor Luis Flores, who tragically lost his life. “While we believe this case has revealed deep flaws in the legal process, we will never forget the immense loss the Flores family has experienced.”
The crime
On March 28, 2007, at approximately 10:20 p.m., Hector Flores was shot after a verbal altercation in the parking lot of a shopping center located in the 5200 block of Sunset Boulevard in East Hollywood. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died.
In 2007, identifications made by witnesses who were at the scene were later determined to be inaccurate, but led police to the arrests of Pleytez and Palacios.
Coercive interrogations, worrying police tactics
Videos of the interrogation shown to the press by prosecutor Gascón could exonerate Palacios of the murder of Héctor Flores and for which he unjustly spent 17 years behind bars.
In fact, in a clip captured in an interrogation room he is seen crying out to God for his innocence. He didn’t know they were recording him.
“Although the interrogation video was never shown to the jury, it is important to consider because it shows the troubling police tactics used to secure this conviction and the lack of forensic evidence to corroborate the identifications,” George Gascón said.
But, the conclusion of the more than two-year investigation to seek the exoneration of Pleytez and Lombardo showed that there were many warning signs of injustice, even before the case was presented to the jury.
“In 2007 we already knew that science said that cross-race eye identifications are less reliable,” the prosecutor stressed.
Authorities were aware of the prevalence of false confessions and that the techniques used by police in showing photos to witnesses were not best investigative practices and could lead to wrongful conviction.
“From the beginning of the case there were many signs and warnings that were ignored.” said Gascón, for whom “it is our duty in the pursuit of justice, not only to secure convictions, but to ensure that justice is always served with integrity, transparency and fairness.”
Guilty no matter what
“We have evidence that you did it.” [asesinar a Héctor Flores]”, a detective tells Lombardo.
“There is evidence from a video that shows that you are the murderer,” he falsely stated in a part of the video shown to the press.
In fact, when Lombardo was asked to describe the crime, he says it occurred during the day. The murder took place at night.
Initially, that teenager says that he approached the victim and that they were running. The truth was that the victim was inside a car.
He also said he used a revolver. In the crime, the real murderer had used a gun.
Lombardo, furthermore, did not even know how many bullets he had fired.
But, among all the serious mistakes made in the murder investigation, the interrogation of the 15-year-old boy occurred approximately 8 weeks after the murder.
A team of honest lawyers
Prosecutor Gascón stated that, during his administration, “gone are those days when we ignored unethical police practices” and the days when there was a reliance on cross-racial identifications that did not corroborate a suspect’s guilt or were inconsistent.
He stated that the work of the conviction integrity unit “is at the heart” of the pending exoneration of Charlotte Pleytez and Lombardo Palacios.
On October 6, 2009, a jury convicted Palacios and Pleytez of first-degree murder. Each was sentenced to between 50 years and life in prison.
The district attorney’s office was invited to work with lead attorney Ellen Eggers, Pleytez’s attorney; Matt Lombard, Palacios’ lawyer; Nicolas Tomas and California Innocence Advocates to ensure justice for innocent defendants.
Nicolas Tomas, then the sole lawyer for Pleytez and Palacios, submitted the initial request for investigation to the Conviction Integrity Unit in November 2022.
New alleged suspects identified
While still in law school, Tomas had discovered that Pleytez and Palacios’ claims of innocence were credible and began working to exonerate both.
Separately, attorney Rob Scroggie and private investigator John Brown investigated the case at the request of Pleytez’s mother.
Over time, Tomas, Brown, Lombard and Eggers combined efforts and eventually joined forces with Megan Baca of California Innocence Advocates.
The Conviction Integrity Unit (UIC) not only established that Palacios and Pleytez were innocent, but that they were not at the scene nor were they involved at all with the murder of Héctor Flores. The collective investigation yielded new evidence that points to new suspects, presumably already identified.
With lawyers for Pleytez and Palacios, the UIC filed a petition to vacate the convictions and declare both innocent. A hearing on the petition will be held on November 1 at 1:30 pm in Department 56 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center before Judge William C. Ryan.