PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania resident is suing police in Bucks County and Warminster Township, alleging that they fabricated evidence and intentionally withheld and misrepresented exculpatory evidence, specifically DNA results.
Defendants in Alfonso Sanchez's Dec. 13 lawsuit are Bucks County, Warminster Township, Warminster Township Police Officer Sean Harold, Bucks County Detective Martin McDonough and Warminster Township Detective John Bonagro.
The suit, filed in Philadelphia federal court, alleges malicious prosecution, and deprivation of liberty without due process of law and denial of a fair trial by fabricating evidence, withholding exculpatory material and impeachment evidence, and deliberately failing to conduct a constitutionally adequate investigation, and other counts.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that in 2008, he was wrongfully convicted of murder in the first degree of the shooting deaths of Mendez Thomas and Lisa Diaz and, as a result, served nine years on death row before his conviction was vacated and another one-and-a-half years in county jail while he awaited retrial.
The defendants allegedly performed their unlawful acts under the color of state law, intentionally, with reckless disregard for the truth, and with deliberate indifference to Sanchez's rights.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, costs, attorney's fees, and for any and all other relief to which he may be entitled. He is represented by Michael Pillegi in Philadelphia.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Case No. is 2:18-cv-05381-CMR.