Ex-lawyer sues after alibi exonerates him in girlfriend's fire injuries
A former defense lawyer in Minnesota has filed a civil-rights suit claiming police and prosecutors kept him in jail on charges of setting his girlfriend on fire though the agencies knew he was innocent.
Lawyer David Gherity claims Burnsville police and the Dakota County Attorney’s office hid evidence and manipulated witness statements in the 2014 case against him, the Pioneer Press reports. Gherity was held in jail for nearly two months on charges of first-degree assault and first-degree arson. An alibi led to dropped charges about two weeks after he made bail.
Gherity, who was suspended from law practice in 2004, filed the federal lawsuit last week. His suspension stemmed from previous convictions for fifth-degree assault and disorderly conduct.
Gherity says he told police on the day of his jailing that he was working at a St. Paul landscaping and snow-removal company on the day of the incident, and video evidence would back up his claim. Police issued a warrant to get the time-stamped video five days later, but didn’t complete the analysis until June 12, 2014, the day before charges were dropped.
Police had alleged Gherity put alcohol, lotion and possibly hair spray and fingernail polish remover on his girlfriend before setting her on fire. Gherity’s suit said his girlfriend had been drinking throughout the day and she was very confused when firefighters arrived. Tests at the hospital showed she had a blood alcohol level exceeding 0.27, the suit says.
At one point the girlfriend told medical personnel “the bastard tried to burn my house down,” prosecutors had said. But the girlfriend appeared very confused and also told firefighters, “I burned my house down,” Gherity says in the suit.
One of the initial investigating officers was involved in a 2005 incident with Gherity in which Gherity was charged with interfering with police. Gheritiy was later acquitted of the charge.
Updated to restore an inadvertently deleted word at 11:05 a.m.
