The Feinstein Case |
Settlement
reached in false raid case
City of Glendale will
pay $750,000 for police department's 2001 raid of a Sherman Oaks
home. By Ryan
Carter (Published: May 1,
2006) GLENDALE
-- A Sherman Oaks couple has reached a $1.8-million legal settlement with
the city of Glendale and an anti-insurance fraud organization five years
after Glendale Police raided their home using information that turned out
to be unfounded, officials said. Glendale Police
served a search warrant at Rouhel Feinstein's and his wife Marilyn Slome's
home in Feb. 2001, seizing vehicles, jewelry and cash, but nothing was
found that substantiated allegations that Feinstein, was involved in
insurance fraud, his attorney Howard R. Price
said. According to the
settlement, which was finalized in early April, the city of Glendale paid
$750,000 and the National Insurance Crime Bureau -- an organization of
insurance companies created to investigate insurance fraud -- paid out
$1,075,000, Price said. Price said Glendale
Police were led to the Sherman Oaks home much in part because of
information from Scott Shaw, a National Insurance Crime Bureau agent, who
had an office at the time at Glendale Police headquarters, Price said.
Shaw, along with Glendale Police Sgt. Susan Hayn, worked together on a
task force looking into insurance fraud, Price
said. But the information
used to send a SWAT team to Feinstein's home, arrest him and his wife
while she walked her dog and seize his property did not bear fruit in
court. Three months after
the seizure, the couple filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming a
violation of their civil rights. That suit was pending two years later,
when after an investigation into allegations that Feinstein was staging
auto collisions and submitting fraudulent claims, the Los Angeles District
Attorney's Office filed charges against
Feinstein. But a judge dismissed
the charges in 2004 after finding no probable cause for the original
search warrant, Price said. "The sin of the
Glendale Police Department in general, and Hayn in particular, is that
they advocated their responsibility as sworn police officers to monitor
the police investigation and delegated their oversight responsibility to
essentially a private security agent of the insurance companies," Price
said. City of Glendale
Senior Deputy City Atty. Carmen Merino acknowledges that the case was
complex and ultimately based on inaccurate
information. "They had an
investigator who was working at the task force who was known as an
expert," she said. "And the Police
Department -- Susan Hayn in particular -- relied on information provided
by this expert. To that extent, that there were problems in the case, the
city understands that it has some responsibility. That's why the case was
settled."
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