Report: Judge Improperly Delayed Ruling on Man Deserving Retrial for Toluca Lake Murder

A federal judge in Los Angeles allowed reports indicating inmates may have been wrongly convicted to languish for years, including the case of a man convicted of strangling his mother-in-law to death in Toluca Lake in 1972, according to a report in the Daily Journal. (The Daily Journal and AP News story misidentified the location of the murder, the 4300 block of E. Cahunega Blvd, as being in North Hollywood.)

In at least three cases, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson had the opportunity to rule on evidence could exonerate the inmates, but he failed to do so, according to the report, which also said in cases that did not involve a request for release or retrial, he acted in a more swift manner.

According to the Huffington Post, there is no set time frame in which a judge must rule, but legal experts interviewed by the Daily Journal found no other judge who had delayed such rulings for that long.

In the case of Omer Gallion, who was serving a life sentence for strangling his mother-in-law to death in 1972 in Toluca Lake, Anderson dismissed his case only after he found out that Gallion had died. Anderson did not make a decision in Gallion's case for more than five years after a magistrate judge recommended the prisoner be released or retried, according to the Daily Journal.

Gallion was convicted in 1995 of the cold-case murder, which was reopened by the LAPD North Hollywood Division in 1992, according to the Los Angeles Times. The article about his conviction stated that the case hinged on the testimony of Gallion's daughter, who said her father had confessed the crime to her.

But Catherine Gallion waited 23 years to come forward, and her father maintained his innocence all along, saying he was at a country-Western club in Norwalk with his brother. The daughter had a history of mental illness, including schizophrenia, that Gallion's lawyer never raised, according to the report. This and a lack of physical evidence at the scene other than some of Gallion's fingerprints is what caused the magistrate judge to recommend a retrial or release.

At least two other inmates have waited more than five years for Anderson to rule on magistrate judge reports recommending their release, the Daily Journal reported.