SAN DIEGO (CN) – Two men have sued the city of San Diego, claiming they were detained for months under an obscure California gang conspiracy law and charged with murders they didn’t commit.
Brandon Duncan and Aaron Harvey sued the city on civil rights violations related to their arrests and seven-month detention following a gang investigation by San Diego Police detectives Rudy Castro and Scott Henderson. The detectives investigated a series of shootings between May 2013 and February 2014 in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, about 15 minutes southeast of downtown.
The men claim in their 23-page lawsuit, filed Jan. 10, that they were wrongfully charged under state penal code section 182.5. According to the statute, anyone who is part of a gang and is promoted by or benefits from any felony acts committed by members of the gang can be charged with conspiracy to commit that crime.
Duncan, a rapper who goes by the name Tiny Doo and raps about the Lincoln Park neighborhood where he grew up, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder based on lyrics from his album “No Safety.” The district attorney said Duncan benefitted from gang crimes because he had “status” to rap about what prosecutors claimed were gang activities.
Duncan rebuffed the characterization he gained “status” from selling the album, however, telling Courthouse News that “No Safety” was a free downloadable album anyone could get off the internet.
Harvey was studying to become a real estate agent when he was arrested based off Facebook posts and photos that prosecutors said tied him to the Lincoln Park gang.
The morning of June 19, 2014, Duncan heard voices outside his home as he was getting ready for work. He opened his front door to a group of armed San Diego Police officers, who arrested him.
Duncan was detained for hours in a police car outside his home while his home was “searched and ransacked” by officers who did not have a warrant, the complaint states.
After bringing Duncan to the police station, detectives Castro and Henderson told the rapper he was being arrested because of his music lyrics.
Duncan was unable to post the $1 million bond – later dropped to $500,000 – and he remained behind bars while awaiting trial.
Harvey was living in Las Vegas when he was swarmed by armed agents from the U.S. Marshals Service. The officers told him he was being arrested for “a number of murders in San Diego.”
Harvey claims he “had no idea what the marshals were referring to.”
He spent three weeks in a Las Vegas jail before being picked up by Castro and Henderson on July 30 and driven to San Diego, where he was held on $1.1 million bail.
The men say they were arrested and jailed over their free speech activities, protected by the First Amendment.
At a preliminary hearing in November 2014, a San Diego Superior Court judge expressed “significant reservations” but initially found probable cause existed to charge Duncan, Harvey and others under section 182.5
Both Duncan and Harvey pleaded not guilty to multiple charges at their arraignment the following month, according to the complaint.
At a later preliminary hearing for other defendants charged in the same case, the court found there was no probable cause for the section 182.5 charges against the other individuals.