OJAI : Wrongly Charged Man Files Claim

A man who was wrongly charged with committing a string of sexual assaults in the Ojai Valley filed a $10-million claim against Ventura County on Thursday, saying sheriff’s officials had no reason to arrest him.

In a statement he read after the claim was filed, Jason Hawthorne said he is struggling to overcome the ordeal of being incarcerated for seven days before he was cleared of responsibility in the crimes.

“Every day was frightening,” said Hawthorne, 22.

“I knew I was innocent of any wrongdoing, but I was petrified that I could be wrongfully convicted of the crimes and spend the remainder of my life behind bars.”

The action paves the way for Hawthorne to file a lawsuit against the county if the claim is rejected.

County supervisors have 45 days to act on it.

Prosecutors filed 24 felony charges against Hawthorne on Jan. 18 after sheriff’s officials said they had “an overwhelming amount of evidence” to show he was responsible for attacks on four women between March and September of last year.

But the case fell apart two days later when genetic testing at one crime scene did not point to Hawthorne. He was released from jail immediately but remained accused of the crimes pending a court hearing Feb. 1, when a judge declared him factually innocent.

A former Ojai resident, Kevin Malone, has since pleaded guilty to the assaults and is awaiting sentencing.

Hawthorne’s claim says the Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office were at fault for arresting and charging him before conducting the genetic tests.

Hawthorne would not answer questions after reading his statement. But his attorneys, David J. Follin of Ventura and David L. Shain of Oxnard, said Hawthorne will need therapy for several years to get over his experience.

“His life was ruined,” Follin said. “ . . . Nothing will ever make Jason’s life whole again.”

Hawthorne was working as the manager of an El Rio print shop at the time of the arrest. He returned to that job when he was released from jail, Follin said, but he is now unemployed.

Hawthorne’s attorneys said sheriff’s investigators overlooked several factors pointing to his innocence when they decided to arrest him.

“The overwhelming evidence was in essence underwhelming,” Follin said. “There was nothing to really link Jason to these crimes.”

That was disputed by Alan Wisotsky, the attorney for the Sheriff’s Department, who said investigators relied on witness identifications of Hawthorne, as well as voice and vehicle identifications, in deciding to arrest him.

The arrest “was based on the best information that was available at the time, and that’s all the law requires,” Wisotsky said. “It’s unfortunate that he was mistakenly identified, but at the time these officers had a plethora of information to support probable cause.”