ECBAWM Defeats Richmond, California Detectives’ Motion to Dismiss Wrongful Conviction Suit

  • August 27, 2025

On August 18, 2025, District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco denied the Richmond Police Department Detectives’ motion to dismiss Ricky Godfrey’s federal civil rights suit related to his 1993 wrongful conviction for murder and sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  The court held that Mr. Godfrey’s case, which includes constitutional claims related to the Detective Defendants’ fabrication of evidence and suppression of exculpatory information, must proceed to discovery, and the Defendant Detectives are not entitled to qualified immunity.

Mr. Godfrey’s conviction was vacated in 2023 after the prosecution’s key witness recanted his statement that Mr. Godfrey was the shooter. The suit alleges that the witness’s statement was fabricated by Defendants Detectives Denis Browne and Dennis Trujillo, who, among other things, threatened to send the witness to prison for life if he did not name the shooter and then suppressed any evidence of their coercion and evidence fabrication.

“Before filing this suit, Mr. Godfrey’s only experience in the court system was as a wrongfully accused criminal defendant, ECBAWM attorney Nick Bourland noted. “The Court’s ruling recognizes that, as alleged, the Defendant Detectives violated Mr. Godfrey’s clearly established constitutional rights and ensures that he will be able to use the justice system—now as a civil rights plaintiff—to hold the Defendants accountable for depriving him of many years of freedom.”

Mr. Godfrey is represented by ECBAWM attorneys Earl S. Ward, Nick Bourland, and Rachael Wyant.