# Judge Throws Out Molestation Charges Against California Officer



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*JOHN F. BERRY*
_The Press Enterprise_









SAN BERNARDINO
A Redlands police officer said he won a partial victory in court Thursday after a judge dismissed a four-count sexual molestation case against him because of prosecutorial misconduct.
Justin Jimenez, in his first public comments since his 2003 arrest, said he wanted jurors to find him not guilty in February, rather than a judge declaring a mistrial.
"A not-guilty stamp would have been ideal," Jimenez said after leaving a downtown San Bernardino courtroom. "That would have given me the ultimate vindication."
Jimenez, 32, was accused of committing lewd acts from January 1997 to December 1998 on two girls, then aged 5 and 7, related to him through marriage.
San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Michael Welch declared a mistrial Feb. 14 after four days of testimony, court records show.
On Thursday, Welch said that Jimenez could no longer receive a fair trial because San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Laura Robles had committed "intentional prosecutorial misconduct."
Attorney John Barnett, defending Jimenez, said that Robles intentionally caused a mistrial because she wanted to retry a case gone bad.
Robles did not attend the Thursday hearing and deferred calls to Susan Mickey, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County district attorney's office.
"We respect the decision of the court," Mickey said. "But we do not believe Ms. Robles did anything to create a mistrial."
Mickey said her office would review the transcripts.
Deputy District Attorney Grover Merritt argued with Welch that there was no proof that Robles intentionally misbehaved.
"Is this misconduct so severe that it entitles Mr. Jimenez a get-out-of-jail-free card?" Merritt said. "We think not."
Jimenez, a Redlands native, has been on administrative leave since his arrest while serving as a patrol officer. He said he wants to go back to work.
"I've been a police officer for 10 years now," Jimenez said. "It's what I do."
The Redlands Police Department needs to review the case, spokesman Carl Baker said.
"No decision have been made about his returning to work," Baker said. "We just got word of the court decision."
Welch said he gave Robles the benefit of the doubt on two instances involving her behavior during the trial.
But the third, in which Robles questioned a witness about Jimenez's sex life, was clearly intentional, he said.
The questioning came moments after he huddled privately with attorneys and told Robles not to discuss Jimenez's sex life, Welch said.
Welch said jurors needed to decide the case.
"She had to know the case was not going well," Welch said. "Could (Jimenez) have been acquitted? Yes."
Irv Prager, a University of La Verne law professor and former prosecutor, said Thursday that judges rarely make such rulings. He said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a retrial would amount to double jeopardy, a violation of a defendant's Fifth Amendment rights.
Charles Doskow, also a University of La Verne law professor, said breaches of conduct rarely reach the State Bar of California for review. He said punishments could range from reprimand to disbarment.
State Bar records list no record of public discipline against Robles.

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