Man framed for murder gets $13.1M in settlement
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $13.1-million settlement for a man who spent six years in prison after police officers framed him for murder.
Jamal Trulove was convicted in the 2007 killing of his friend, but a state appeals court overturned the conviction in 2014 and he was acquitted in a retrial in 2015.
A federal jury last year awarded Trulove $14.5 million in damages, according to the Associated Press. At the time, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that jurors found the two lead homicide inspectors on the case had violated Trulove’s rights by fabricating evidence against him and withholding evidence that might have helped him.
The settlement was on the board of supervisors’ consent calendar and was approved unanimously without comment, the Associated Press reported.
Alex Reisman, one of Trulove’s lawyers, told the AP that Trulove spent six years in maximum security prisons hundreds of miles from family and that he also was stabbed.
After the settlement was approved Tuesday, Trulove wrote on Instagram, “And trust me I’m not done with them by a long shot!!”
Trulove was an aspiring actor before he was sent to prison and has returned to his profession since his acquittal.
He appears in the film “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival this year. afternoon, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department confirmed Wednesday evening.
Rescue workers spent the last four days searching for Matilda Ortiz, who was swept away in the fast-moving, deep river after she slipped off a rock near the 330-foot Knights Ferry covered bridge, which overlooks the river.
Her father jumped into the water to save her but was unable to reach her because of the fastmoving current.
Hikers and other bystanders also tried to rescue the girl, with one man briefly able to grab her clothing before the river’s current ripped her from his hands.
“It doesn’t feel real,” her father told Sacramento’s CBS 13 channel earlier this week. “It feels like a nightmare I just want to wake up from. I want to hug my baby.”
Trained volunteer divers found Matilda’s body near the Knights Ferry Campground about 4:45 p.m. Wednesday.
Since Monday, county officials worked with state agencies to slow the flow of the water from the New Melones Dam to try to lower the river level. Water releases at the dam resumed after the girl’s body was found, and the river’s levels were expected to rise throughout the evening.
The Stanislaus River – which plunges out of the High Sierra through rapids and canyons toward the San Joaquin Valley – was flowing at a rate of about 4,200 cubic feet on Sunday in the area where Matilda fell in, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Knights Ferry, once a gold rush town, sits next to the river and is a popular site for families and outdoors enthusiasts. Along with hiking trails, thousands of visitors take rafting trips in the summer.
On Sunday afternoon, as visitors flocked to the site to enjoy the clear weather, the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District was called to the site for a water rescue. There were reports of nine people in the river, unable to get out.
The first boat to arrive recovered one man in a tree. Seven other people got out of the river with help, or on their own. The only person still missing was Matilda.
– Appeal-democrat news services