On November 24, 2015, Tehama County Superior Court Judge Matthew McGlynn, after a three-day evidentiary hearing, found NCIP client Larry Pohlschneider factually innocent of the child molestation charges for which he was convicted in 2001, and for which he wrongfully served 15 years in state prison. Mr. Pohlschneider has been an NCIP client for more than six years, and his case has been under active investigation and litigation for three years.
Larry Pohlschneider and NCIP Assistant Legal Director Maitreya Badami stand outside the Tehama County Courthouse in Red Bluff after Pohlschneider was found “factually innocent.”
Source: Record Searchlight
Earlier in the fall of 2015, the same judge granted Mr. Pohlscheider’s petition for writ of habeas corpus after the Tehama County District Attorney’s Office conceded that Mr. Pohlschneider’s trial attorney had been so deficient in his investigation and representation at trial that the verdict was not trustworthy. That ruling resulted in Mr. Pohlschneider’s conviction being overturned, and the district attorney then dismissed the charges with an assertion that there was insufficient evidence to seek to retry him. That meant that Mr. Pohlschneider got out of prison, but he had not yet been found actually innocent by the court. Under Penal Code section 1485.55, he was entitled to put on evidence to prove his innocence, which makes him eligible for state compensation in the amount of $140 per day that he spent wrongfully confined.
In 2000, Mr. Pohlschneider and the children’s mother notified authorities of their concern that the children’s biological father, Albert Harris, had molested them. The police began an investigation of Harris that would ultimately lead to his being charged, pleading guilty and going to prison. However, in the course of that investigation, police ended up focusing wrongfully on Mr. Pohlschneider due to flawed medical evidence suggesting the children were molested at a time when the actual perpetrator had no access to them.
NCIP lawyers and students spent several days in Redding as the guests of a former NCIP student’s family while we prepared for and put on the hearing. Students stayed up until the wee hours, honing the direct cross-examinations they would present, and learned on their feet the amazing experience of courtroom advocacy. Students presented the direct testimony of a renowned child abuse pediatrician who demonstrated that the medical evidence at trial was false, as well as an expert in the proper techniques to use when interviewing children, who demonstrated for the court how police coerced false the accusations in the first place.
The (now adult) children all testified that—as they had sworn at his first trial—Larry Pohlschneider was innocent. When Judge McGlynn announced his ruling, he acknowledged the wreckage inflicted on both Mr. Pohlschneider and the children by the errors of the medical professionals and police.
Although no amount of money can make Mr. Pohlschneider whole for what he has suffered, he is tremendously grateful for the opportunity to obtain some compensation for that traumatic loss. He and his now adult stepchildren are reunited and greatly enjoyed their first holiday season together for many years.
