A Northern California man’s 378-year sentence for sexual assault has been overturned by a judge who said there was strong evidence that his adopted daughter made up the accusations to punish him and improve her prospects of remaining in the U.S.

Ajay Dev, 58, was released May 23 after 16 years in prison for 76 convictions of sexual assault on a minor and related charges, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.

Superior Court Judge Janene Beronio scheduled a hearing for June 13 for Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig to decide whether to retry Dev. Prosecutors could also appeal the ruling. Reisig’s office declined to comment on the case.

Dev, an immigrant from Nepal who worked as a water engineer, was visiting the South Asian nation with his wife in 1998 when they decided to adopt 15-year-old Sapna Dev, part of their extended family, and bring her to live with them in Davis, California.

Four witnesses who had not been contacted by Dev’s trial lawyers testified at a recent hearing that Sapna Dev had told them that her accusations against him were lies or were motivated by her anger at him, the Chronicle reported.

  • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
    1·
    11 days ago

    If this is true, that has got to be infuriating:

    “We have known from the beginning that Ajay Dev was wrongfully convicted,” Purcell told the Chronicle. “Judge Beronio was the first judge to really look closely at the evidence and read every document.”

    16+ years to get a judge to actually read the documentation, accounts, and listen.

    It seems like there are 2 types of charges in the U.S. Those that spend years in prison before getting someone to review the facts, and those who spend years pushing back trials and staying out of jail until eventually they drop the cases without looking at all the evidence.