Temecula Man Wrongly Convicted For Murder Sues Riverside County

TEMECULA, CA — A Temecula man who was convicted of murder and spent 20 years in prison before being exonerated on DNA evidence last year is suing Riverside County and officers from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. He is accusing them of suppressing evidence that would have exonerated him, the Associated Press reported.

Horace Roberts, 61, was convicted in July 1999 of second-degree murder in the April 1998 death of Terry Cheek — a co-worker of Roberts' with whom he had been in a romantic relationship. Cheek was strangled, and her body was found near Lake Corona.

Imprisoned since 1999, Roberts was exonerated and freed in October 2018 after DNA testing of crime scene evidence implicated Googie Harris and Joaquin Leal in Cheek's murder. Harris was Cheek's estranged ex-husband and Leal is Harris's nephew. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

According to Roberts' federal lawsuit, filed Oct. 1, Harris framed Roberts as the killer despite no evidence at the scene linking Roberts to the killing.

Roberts' lawsuit alleges that evidence including a watch and a segment of rope found near Cheek's body were suppressed from prosecutors. DNA on that watch was eventually matched to Leal in March 2018.

An attorney for Roberts claimed that detectives questioned him extensively while interviewing Harris only once. They also didn't consider statements by one of Cheek's friends, who told police at the time that Harris had abused his estranged wife prior to the murder, the lawsuit alleges.

Roberts is demanding a jury trial and unspecified compensatory damages, the AP reported.

“I hope this lawsuit will bring to light the injustice that I suffered and cause officials and lawmakers to look carefully at reforming our criminal justice system,” Roberts told the AP in a statement.