October 13, 1999
Web posted at: 5:22 a.m. EDT (0922 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Javier Ovando, who was allegedly framed by Los Angeles Police Department officers in a shooting for which he spent three years in prison, has filed a lawsuit in California State court.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday against officers involved in the shooting, the City of Los Angeles, and LAPD Police Chief Bernard Parks, among others, seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages.

Ovando's attorney, Gregory Moreno, says the suit seeks damages for the "false arrest, the wrongful shooting, the violation of Mr. Ovando's constitutional rights for [the officers] having intentionally shot him, attempting to kill him...murder him...After shooting him in the body, they actually shot him in the head, which left him mentally and physically incapacitated."

Ovando, 22, was freed from prison last month after a jailed ex-police officer, Rafael Perez, told prosecutors he and his partner framed Ovando by planting a gun on him in a shooting which left Ovando paralyzed from the waist down and sent him to prison for a crime he apparently did not commit.

Officer Perez described the alleged frame-up as part of a plea agreement on drug charges he entered into with the district attorney.

Perez's allegations have led to a widespead investigation of corruption within the LAPD, which so far has resulted in several officers being relieved of field duty, and the termination of another.

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