Usually, when activists will hold a protest, the first turnout is relatively large but the numbers decrease steadily over subsequent protests. That has not been the case here. If anything, two years after the verdict, we see more outpouring of support, and by all accounts this may have been their largest protest ever with between 250 and 300 people in attendance.
The family and friends spent countless hours pouring through ten thousand pages of court transcripts. They discussed in great detail a number of examples of what they call lies told by the accuser.
While these lies generally were peripheral to the case, the family argues this reflects a state of mind in which the accuser would tell different stories based on whom she was talking to.
As Terry Easley, Mr. Dev’s sister-in-law, said, “Her story changed repeatedly, and alarmingly so upon the power of suggestion. When she emphatically denied an act in one setting, such as the initial police interview, she would change her story or rather grow her story, upon the suggestion of the other party.
One example that the family highlighted was when she testified that three times she had an abortion. She was asked by the prosecutor, Deputy DA Steve Mount, at the preliminary hearing whether she had sexual relations with anyone other than Mr. Dev. The accuser testified no.
However, during the court trial she described that her first sexual encounter with someone was in December of 2003 with her third boyfriend.
She would then testify that he was the first boyfriend that she had sex with, except that later it came out she had also had sexual relations that included sexual intercourse with her second boyfriend.
She also claimed to have had three abortions, though the medical records indicate otherwise. In fact, the medical records indicate a miscarriage in January of 2003 and an abortion in May of 2003. In November of 2003, she had a negative pregnancy test.
Finally, they showed evidence that claims about Mr. Dev showing his adopted daughter pornography were also false. He was acquitted of these charges because the files did not even exist when the accuser said he showed them to her. It was also found that the files were viewed on the home computer while Ajay was at work and the accuser was the only one at home..
Moreover, she testified that Mr. Dev showed her a pornographic movie in 999 when she was 15, however, the laptop was not even purchased until 2001.
Investigators discovered, further, that the movie did not even exist until January 2000.
These are but three of several examples mentioned by the family of what they called lies told by the accuser.
As Sanjay Dev told the audience, “You heard about five or six lies. I witnessed at least 50 lies inside the courtroom.”
He continued, “Had it not been for Detective Mark Hermann interfering with her, taking her right before lunch, picking her and coaching her, telling her, it’s better to say that you don’t know – because he knew she was lying.”
Mr. Dev told the audience that when she returned from lunch she repeated testified that she did not know or did not remember critical details.
Ajay Dev’s wife, Peggy spoke to the group on what was her 14th wedding anniversary, saying that the accuser lied and explaining the girl’s state of mind as that she was angry and was defying her parents.
Mrs. Dev said that she did not want to stand there and watch her throw her education away with her wild and carefree lifestyle.
“I brought her over here for a better life, I did not want to watch her throw her life away,” she said.
“She lied, she was angry at us, but she tried to retract that,” Mrs. Dev added. She argued that the police’s job is to investigate the facts and decide who is lying and who is telling the truth, “but that didn’t happen here. If you watch the video interview the first time this man speaks to her, she said, I would like to talk to my mom about this. He replied ‘that won’t be good for the case.’ “
“He had already made it a case,” she added.
The DA, in their case, argued that Mr. Dev had raped his adopted daughter between 1999 and 2004.
The victim had been officially adopted by Mr. Dev and his wife in December of 1999 and, according to the victim’s testimony, Mr. Dev began inappropriately touching her within the first couple of weeks of her arrival and later progressed to forced sexual assault and rape on a weekly basis.
The assaults, the DA alleges, continued after the victim turned 18 and was attending Sacramento City College but still lived in the Dev household. The victim moved out of the home in December of 2004, and the prosecution said Mr. Dev continued to try to sexually abuse the victim and even offered to pay her to do so. Mr. Dev threatened to get a gun and shoot himself and the victim if she didn’t allow him to continue to abuse her, which ultimately led to the victim reporting the situation to law enforcement.
The trial lasted for two months. After the jury deliberated for one week, Mr. Dev was convicted of 76 felony counts including 23 counts of forcible rape; 23 counts of forcible sexual assault; 27 counts of lewd acts with a minor; and 3 counts of attempting to dissuade a witness. The jury hung on three of the counts and returned not guilty verdicts on 13 others.
Critical to the evidence was Detective Mark Hermann of the Davis Police Department, who, while interviewing the victim, had her call the defendant on the phone. According to the DA’s account, “During the recorded phone call, the victim engaged him in a conversation about the abusive relationship and whether she should tell her school counselor that he, Mr. Dev, was the cause of her three abortions. What ensued was a conversation where Mr. Dev admitted the abuse and ultimately tried to talk the victim out of reporting it.”
The family tells a different story though. They argue that the conversation which meandered between English and Nepalese included numerous emphatic denials by Mr. Dev, and that the so-called admission was in fact a hypothetical taken out of context but mistranslated by the court.
On Wednesday, the family laid out their own version of events.
Terry Easley, sister-in-law to Ajay said that she was not related to either the accused or the accuser and that she had an equal relationship to both.
“What I would like to say today is that now, after two years since Ajay’s conviction, my belief in his innocence is not nearly as strong as it was then—it is in fact infinitely stronger,” she said.
She discussed painstakingly going through the entire 10,000 page court transcript. She said, “What became more apparent with my personal investigation into the evidence and the entire court case was simply astounding. The prosecution’s case was not supported by actual evidence and in fact was proven to be false upon closer examination of the evidence.”
“Their presentation of the evidence to the jury was blatantly inappropriate and misrepresented,” she added.
While noting the lies and inconsistencies, she asked, “Wouldn’t that suggest to a trained investigator, or prosecuting attorney that she may not be telling the truth? Shouldn’t that send up a red flag and warrant further investigation, like talking to those who knew her, and ESPECIALLY the IN-LAWS who would have nothing to gain by supporting a guilty man? “
She pointed out that in hundreds of private email communications between Mr. Dev and the accuser, there was “not ONE, and I mean not ONE insomuch as hinted of any inappropriate act, acts or relationship between the two. Over the course of 4 ½ years, not one reference to anything sexual or untoward between the two of them, in what they believed were private conversations.”
“Ajay IS innocent,” she declared.
There was also anger
As a family friend, Tom Grothe, passionately told the audience, “A crime has been committed and a man sits in jail. But the crime that was committed is not what the man sits in jail for.”
Instead, the crime was committed by the “caretakers of justice” who have “betrayed that justice for the gamesmanship of their political payoff.”
“When you have a justice system when the people that operate in it try to prove their importance to people in the society by committing acts of injustice – then you no longer have a justice system you have a legal system. That’s what you’ve got in Yolo County.”
“You don’t have a justice system when DA’s get promoted based on their convictions,” Mr. Groethe added. “You don’t have a justice system when the way that they pad funding to their department is based on those conviction rates.”
“You’ll never find a better example of cash for convictions than in the case against Ajay Dev,” he said.
In a letter from Ajay Dev, he told family and friends, “My faith carries me forward until I hit my wall of fear. I have been cruelly forced into this horrible situation. But we are paving the way for so many people who have been or someday will be wrongly accused and unjustly convicted.”
“The District Attorneys are so well connected that they feel as if they’re invincible. It is blatantly clear that there is no real oversight for DAs in our judicial system. So the only way to keep justice alive in the community is through the media and public outcry,” he added.
“June 25, 2009, the day of my verdict, I broke down and cried as I was taken away from my wife, my child, my family, friends and all I hold so close to my heart. What happened that day devastated me beyond belief,” he wrote. “I am still trying to lift myself out of a cloud of depression and unhappiness, and crushed hopes and dreams.”
He spoke of longing to hold his small children, including their son that was born after his sentencing had occurred.
Mr. Dev has been moved to Mule Creek State Prison, where he continues to serve his 378 years in prison.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
One of two things appear to be true… either Mr. Dev is righteously serving time for his crime(s), or the accuser needs to be seriously punished for lying. The article appears to support giving a “pass” for both.
Or, if the lying is the result of mental illness, it should be treated…
Thank you for keeping this story in the news. What has happened in this case is such a travesty of justice.
Hang em high .
Lying should not be given a pass, especially in a criminal investigation or such serious allegations when one’s life hangs in the balance. Lying, story changing and recantation should be illuminators that something is not quite right. This is such an unfortunate situation–there are no winners here. We see more and more of this kind of thing happening. The Anthony case similarly was rampant with lies upon lies. Juries today do not seem to give much weight to this behavior giving these liars a pass, or worse, justifying any such lies as an understandable one considering cirumstances. Lies by definition are not inadvertent. They are told to hide something or gain something that is unearned or unseemly. If you are in the right with a clear conscience, you don’t need to tell lies. Lies should be the calibration by which a case is tested for validity to investigaors, prosecutors, judges, juries and supporters.
The DA alleged in his erroneously press release after the conviction that “Mr. Dev threatened to get a gun and shoot himself and the victim if she didn’t allow him to continue to abuse her,” but Ajay was not convicted of this. It is too bad this keeps showing up still two years later.
In the final analysis, the unspeakable tragedy and searing injustice that continues to plague the wrongful conviction of Ajay Dev; remains Mr. Dev’s unwarranted victimization, at the expense of our legal system’s abject failure to secure and uphold the exoneration of an innocent man.
Consequently, moral outrage impels the family and friends of Mr. Dev to challenge and ultimately vacate this unfathomable violation to human decency with courage, along with their unimpeachable belief in Mr. Dev’s innocence.
The bottom line is the jury rendered a verdict, based on the evidence presented. Now it is up to the appellate courts to determine if there were any irregularities in the trial that would warrant the conviction to be overturned. I am assuming the case is on appeal – is it not? So I really don’t see the point in trying to retry this case via blogs, demonstrations, etc., or am I missing something here?
Elaine I think there is an appeal filed. And I agree it’s up to the appellate courts to decide.
David quoted, “It is blatantly clear that there is no real oversight for DAs in our judicial system. So the only way to keep justice alive in the community is through the media and public outcry,” he added.”
This is probably why they are taking their fight to the public. Didn’t the US Supreme Court recently uphold a decision from a case in Louisiana that Prosecutor there could not be held accountable for some blatant things that happened in his office? I think it was Harry Connick Sr.
Elaine: The bottom line is the jury did not render the verdict based on evidence. If there was evidence that truly showed that Ajay Dev was guilty, all this public outcry would not be happening.
The jurors themselves blogged right after the conviction that they found Ajay guilty based solely on one line from a pretext phone call. The meaning of this one line was twisted by the prosecutor and was contrary to the testimony of the independent translator. The jury overlooked the fact that Ajay denied the allegations 52x during that same phone call.
Unfortunately, I think the jury wanted to believe that the DA’s office must know something to charge so many counts and take this case to trial. In fact, I remember a juror blog where he/she said that the judge/lawyers knew more about the case than they did.
Ajay was not convicted on evidence. He was convicted on the emotional belief that the DA must be telling the truth.
Yes, this case is going to the appeals court but it is a very long process (years). The point of the demonstrations and blogs is that a man has been wrongfully convicted. If it happened to one person, it can happen again. We want to address those issues so that it doesn’t happen again.
Actually, it is naive to think that decisions are based upon evidence. That is not always the case. As an appeal is not about a person’s innocence, rather it is to determine if there were any “irregularities” in the trial that would declare it as unfair, it should concern all of us that innocent people get convicted of crimes they did not commit. We are hearing more and more of people being released from years of imprisonment for crimes they did not commit. Should it surprise us that it could happen in our community? If you or a loved one was falsely convicted, wouldn’t you want to educate people as to what happened and that something should be done to prevent such a travesty of justice? I am pretty certain that most people would. Thank you David for your help in continuing to shed light not only on this case, but other injustices in Yolo County. And, thanks to the many supporters who work tirelessly for their beliefs. We wouldn’t know about flaws in our system and work to correct those flaws if it wasn’t for them bringing it to the public. It isn’t easy to be in the limelight of supporters of a convicted person. It actually takes great courage.
Elaine: Perhaps you should review how people often get exonerated in this country. Often it takes years and it is based on public outcry. The supporters of Mr. Dev are doing the right thing, keeping this a burning issue in this community. Moreover, it is clear that Mr. Dev needs this support to keep his spirits up. His letter was very downbeat, one of the few things keeping him going is his family and friend’s support.
Prosecutors are neither infallible nor incorruptible. (Reference North Carolina DA Mike Nifong)
The indisputable fact remains that the plaintiff lied repeatedly under oath about core and crucial details.
Victims…true victims have no reasonable or rational justification to lie under oath.
THAT’S WHY THEY MARCH!!
It sounds as though Mr. Dev had no legal support before and during this trial. Did he act as his own attorney? Given all the instances of language problems, that doesn’t sound like a good choice. Does he have an attorney to handle his appeal? If he was represented for the trial, does the appeal claim ineffective counsel (inept, alcoholic, sleeping, etc.)?
Did she have language problems too? Two documented pregnancies before “her first sexual encounter with someone” seems more like misunderstanding/miscommunication than lying.
The number of charges seems seems high even though the crimes supposedly occurred weekly over a five-year period. Did the two crimes with 23 guilty findings cover the same acts/instances or more (23+23=46 separate occasions)? If there were multiple charges for the same events, why didn’t the number of “lewd acts” match up too? Does the appeal include the “witness dissuasion” convictions or is the family agreeing that he did do these crimes?
It sounds like the jury carefully weighed two months of proceedings, coming up with 13 not guilty findings and unable to decide on three charges after a week of deliberations. Did they have all of the evidence you’ve listed here to evaluate? Proof of victim’s lies? Corrected translations for the interrogations? Was there any forensic evidence to consider? Does the appeal contend there’s new evidence?
I don’t think the issues raised at the two-year event will help on appeal? Accepting state program grant funds–whether it’s a great program or not–seems weak even when someone decided to label it “cash for convictions.” The “incorrect” translations, although it seems the issue would have been adjudicated at trial, would be fairly straight-forward. Were the translations accurate, and did it make any difference to the outcome, one way or another.
Being an activist for a cause could change the way the state handles “cash for convictions,” but that won’t help Mr. Dev’s situation unless a court rules the practice is unconstitutional or some such. So, what is the appeal based on?
This is a sad story all around for this family. Mr. Dev, stuck in jail for what most people would feel is an unreasonable period, even if he’s truly guilty of everything. An even worse tragedy, of course, if he’s innocent of all charges. And what’s become of his daughter after these two year
Just Saying: “An even worse tragedy, of course, if he’s innocent of all charges” This says it all….it is an even worse tragedy.
I don’t know if I can answer all your questions, but I will try.
1. “Did she have language problems too?”
No her English was fine. In fact, she got A’s and B’s in her English classes in college–unfortunately she did not do so well in some other classes. Also, if she had difficulty with the language, why would the DA allow her to be the translator for the pretext call….of course, why was she allowed to be the translator at all considering she would not be an unbiased translator. The rest of your question asks about the two pregnancies. What might help is to understand the timeline here. The pregnancies, the three boyfriends, doing poorly in school, having difficulty at work all happened within a short time period (18 months). This is when she turned 18 and started hanging around a group of teens that were not good role models. The interesting part of the pregnancies is that she claims she was raped 750x (since the age of 15) yet she never seemed to get pregnant until she was dating other boys….
2. “The number of charges seems high even though the crimes supposedly occurred weekly over a five-year period. Did the two crimes with 23 guilty findings cover the same acts/instances or more (23+23=46 separate occasions”
Many of the charges were grouped together as the same act. The way the charges were set was extremely difficult to understand. I know it took our attorney days to figure out how they did these charges so I am sure the jury was confused also. There are many pages in the transcripts where the judge is trying to explain how the charges were set. I don’t think I can give you an accurate answer to this one.
3. “Did they have all of the evidence you’ve listed here to evaluate? Proof of victim’s lies? Corrected translations for the interrogations? Was there any forensic evidence to consider? Does the appeal contend there’s new evidence?”
The jury did not get all the evidence. For example, the prosecutor was able to keep the Nepal trial records of the accuser’s conviction of passport and perjury out of the trial–even though these records were approved with all the signatures and seals required. The victim’s lies were demonstrated by her own contradicting testimony, prosecutor and defense witness. Again, the juror’s commented in blogs that her testimony was hard to swallow. As far as a correct translation—this was a huge issue. The only forensic evidence was on the computers and was enough to find Ajay not guilty on all charges related–pornography. And finally, I can’t comment on any new information for the appeal since we are still in that process.
I hope this helps your understanding.
I mean, what’s become of the daughter/victim since the trial?
David, your comment about “how people often get exonerated in this country…based on public outcry” makes it sound as though you’ve come up with a routine, successful alternative to the established appeal process. What cases are these where public outcry is the basis for overturning convictions? Maybe we just define things differently, but this sounds a little like anarchy to me.
I think it’s fine to be “keeping this a burning issue in this community” by demonstrating, letter-writing and conducting programs. I just don’t see any potential for such activity impacting Mr. Dev’s situation (which is about as far from the public square’s influence as anything can be, now that there’s no longer a potential jury pool out there).
However, it certainly provides helpful moral support for a convicted man, as you pointed out, and for his family as they are forced to look forward to him spending the rest of his life in prison.
Just Saying: As to your question,”I mean, what’s become of the daughter/victim since the trial?”
We don’t know other than she is living in the U.S.
F.A.I., are you saying the DA used the victim as the “official” trial translator to tell the jury what her father is saying on the pretext call and in the interrogation? As you say, that just doesn’t seem proper. And, it seems that an attorney would have objected successfully and provided expert testimony identifying the errors in translation.
From your wording, I gather you are a member of Mr. Dev’s family. I appreciate you being courteous enough to take the time to answer the questions I’d submitted for David’s consideration. I’m sorry you and your relatives have this heavy burden, and I don’t want to add to your load with our philosophical, “bigger picture” chats. (You’re fortunate to have him and his fighting spirit on your side.) So, I’ll sign off for now with my best wishes for your family’s future.
Perhaps the biggest issue is that there is no oversight of the District Attorney’s office and no accountability. He is unstoppable. His office has been uneffected by economy. He is still handed a blank check. The irony is that he can prosecute and convict a dept head for lying about stats to draw down money but his office manipulating the system to get convictions for the same reason. Innocent people are going to prison.
Matt Rexroad has a fair synopsis ([url]http://www.rexroad.com/?p=402[/url]) of the evidence in this case.
How can Matt Rexroad have a “fair synopsis” was he in the trial? Was he a juror? Has he done an independent investigation? Has he talked to all parties? This looks like a re-release of a DA’s press release. Matt didn’t even write it as he states at the top of his post, “This summary was put together for me”
I’d like to see a little more independent review of facts before shutting the door. Isn’t that what we expect of our elected officials?
Matt must have learned his reporting skills from the Daily democrat, take a DA’s press release and post it without any fact checking. His duty is to take requests from the public seriously and to investigate them without bias. He is no better than the detective of this case who listen to one side of a story, and that is what it was a story of “she said”. Speaking of “she said” you say that Matt has a “fair synopsis” of the evidence, what evidence? It is all “she said”. Why is it that someone can take the “she said” of an accuser and not that of a medical doctor or social worker who examined the accuser during the claimed rapes or her friends or counselors? These are people who have nothing to gain while the accuser has everything to gain yet people take her word, why? People need to take emotion out and need to investigate this themselves and then they can write a “fair synopsis” of the case.
[quote]Perhaps the biggest issue is that there is no oversight of the District Attorney’s office and no accountability. He is unstoppable. His office has been uneffected by economy. He is still handed a blank check. [/quote]
The DA’s Office has very much been effected by the economy… he is not handed a blank check…
It sure would be interesting to read the transcript of the phone call between Dev and the victim that cetainly appears to be a very large reason why Dev was convicted. I would imagine that it is public record. Maybe the Vanguard could post it…
Unfortunately it is not a public record – as every Judge will tell you in court, the evidence is the recording not the transcript of the recording.
I have never been able to get a hold of it. The other problem would be the translation of the Nepali parts. Believe me, I have tried to get this for two years because according to the jurors it was the key to the conviction and if it is based on an out of context and bad translation then the family has a point, if it is what is it appears at face value, then the DA has a point.