The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday that a party who asserts that he was wrongly incarcerated for murder, before his conviction was overturned for insufficient evidence, raised a genuine issue of material fact as to his claim that an investigating officer deliberately fabricated evidence, drawing a dissent saying that the detective’s actions did not meet the “stringent test” established for such a constitutional violation.

Joaquin Ciria, who was freed from prison with the support of then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin, has won a federal appeals court's approval to sue San Francisco police after spending 32 years incarcerated for a murder he didn’t commit.

Presiding Justice Teri L. Jackson authored yesterday’s unpublished opinion, joined in by Justices Gordon B. Burns and Danny Y. Chou, saying: “A driver, such as defendant, wearing strong cologne and having red, glossy eyes after completing a day’s work at a construction site, is unremarkable given the multitude of plausible explanations having nothing to do with alcohol impairment.”

(Subscription required) California's state bar previously charged DTLA founder Salar Hendizadeh with professional misconduct for marketing and offering legal services without a license in states as far away as Florida.