Officers Denied Immunity After Man Who Served 32 Years is Freed

A pair of San Francisco police officers involved in the wrongful murder conviction of Joaquin Ciria, who spent 32 years in prison before being exonerated, can’t receive qualified immunity, a federal appeals court ruled.

A divided panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said a reasonable jury could conclude the police officers used “false evidence that was deliberately fabricated by the government” by coercing the state’s star witness into identifying Ciria as the murder.

The majority ruling also found that at the time the officers were investigating Ciria in 1990, the law clearly established that their conduct would violate his due process rights.

Ciria was convicted of first degree murder in San Francisco Superior Court in 1990 for the shooting his friend Felix Bastarrica, based in large part on the eye witness account of George Varela.

Ciria, who was 29 at the time, served 32 years in prison before he was exonerated in 2022. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Innocence Commission supported the exoneration, determining that he was factually innocent and Varela had falsely named him as the shooter.

Ciria sued the city and the police officers in federal court that year, alleging they deprived him of his constitutional rights.

The Ninth Circuits majority opinion, authored by Judge Richard Paez, upheld the trial court’s ruling denying the officers qualified immunity. Judge Mary Schroeder joined the majority opinion.

The majority opinion said Ciria presented sufficient evidence to show San Francisco Police Inspectors James Crowley and Arthur Gerrans operated with “tunnel vision” during their investigation. They allegedly threatened to charge Varela, who operated the vehicle for the real shooter, with murder unless he adopted the story they fed to him.

Judge Eric Miller dissented, finding that the officers should received qualified immunity. Miller said that even if Ciria can establish the officers violated his constitutional rights, he failed to show those rights were clearly established at the time of the investigation in 1990.

Norton Law Firm PC represents Ciria. The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office represents the officers.

The case is Ciria v. Gerrans, 9th Cir., No. 24-3308, 6/5/26.