Award Follows False Conviction in Wife’s Death

San Diego social worker Chester Holliday and his children were awarded $929,173 Monday by a Superior Court judge who ruled that Holliday was inadequately defended by his attorney in 1981 during a trial that resulted in a manslaughter conviction for the death of his wife.

After an appeal of the conviction, Holliday was found innocent of all charges in a retrial in August, 1984.

Superior Court Judge Michael I. Greer ordered attorneys Otis L. Jones and Douglas Oden to pay the damages as a result of legal malpractice by Jones, who represented Holliday during the 1981 trial. Oden was held liable for damages because he was Jones’ partner at the time.

Greer said Jones “failed to practice (law) up to the level of skill and standard of care for a criminal defense lawyer that could be expected to be practiced by other attorneys under the same circumstances.”

Jones is currently an attorney in San Bernardino County.

The long-running effort by Holliday to exonerate himself began shortly after he reported to police that he had found the body of his wife, Rose, shortly after midnight March 13, 1980, about 16 hours after the time the coroner later estimated that she had died.

In March, 1981, the San Diego County Grand Jury refused to indict Holliday after a lengthy investigation. But a month later the district attorney’s office charged him with second-degree murder. A jury convicted Holliday of that charge in September, 1981. The conviction was reduced in February, 1982, to involuntary manslaughter by Superior Court Judge Raul Rosado, who had heard the case.

A state appeal court in January, 1984, overturned Holliday’s manslaughter conviction, commenting that “the evidence of Holliday’s guilt was entirely circumstantial” and his attorney at the time was “incompetent and inept.”

In May, 1984, a Municipal Court judge ordered Holliday to stand trial a second time, and Rosado presided over the new trial, in which the jury found Holliday innocent.

Holliday subsequently filed the malpractice charges against Jones.

Tom Fiorello, Holliday’s attorney in the suit, said Monday after the verdict that Jones ignored fingerprints and footprints taken from the scene of the killing that were not those of Holliday.

Fiorello also said that Jones did not hire a private investigator to help Holliday’s defense until two weeks before the first trial began.

“I think it showed great courage and bravery on Mr. Holliday’s part to go after Mr. Jones, who was asleep at the switch in his defense,” Fiorello said. “Mr. Holliday was battling great odds in going up against Mr. Jones in a criminal malpractice suit.”

Holliday said Monday that he “was just glad it’s over. It (the money) never makes up for the loss of a family member, especially the loss of my wife to myself and a mother to my children.”

Holliday has steadily maintained his innocence, saying he never knew who killed his wife or why.

The award specifies $400,000 to Holliday for general damages and $229,173 in special damages for the legal costs of the criminal prosecution. Holliday’s children, Chester Jr. and Ester, are to receive $150,000 each. Holliday had asked for a total damage award of $1.9 million.