Woodland, California — A court overturned a Northern California man’s 378-year sentence for sexual assault, citing compelling evidence that his adopted daughter made up the claims to punish him and better her chances of living in the United States.
Ajay Dev, 58, was freed from jail on May 23 after serving 16 years for 76 convictions of sexual assault on a juvenile and associated offenses, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Superior Court Judge Janene Beronio has scheduled a hearing on June 13 for Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig to decide whether to retry Dev. Prosecutors may also appeal the decision. Reisig’s office declined to comment on the case Wednesday.
Jennifer Mouzis, who represented Ajay Dev in his appeal, filed the habeas corpus petition demanding his release in 2018.
Dev, a Nepalese immigrant and water engineer, was visiting the South Asian country with his wife in 1998 when they decided to adopt 15-year-old Sapna Dev, a member of their extended family, and bring her to Davis, California.
Sapna Dev’s partner ended their relationship in early 2004, and she blamed Ajay Dev for the split, according to Beronio’s verdict. Later, she told police that Ajay Dev had intercourse with her twice or three times each week for three or four years before she moved out of his house, according to the judge.
Four witnesses who had not been contacted by Dev’s trial lawyers stated at a recent hearing that Sapna Dev informed them that her claims against him were false or driven by her rage at him, according to the Chronicle.
According to one of the witnesses, Sapna Dev informed him she manufactured the claims because she “was determined to return to the United States and needed to use the criminal charges to do that,” Beronio stated.
It was unclear whether Sapna Dev had an attorney who could speak on her behalf, and attempts to contact her were not immediately successful.
During a hearing last week, Deputy District Attorney Adrienne Chin-Perez argued that Ajay Dev remains a flight risk and a danger to the community, according to the Davis Enterprise. She also read a statement from Sapna Dev, who said she is “deeply afraid that Ajay will harm me.”
The judge’s ruling “dismantles the DA’s case,” said to Patricia Pursell, a member of an advocacy organization that has held pro-Dev demonstrations.
“We have known from the beginning that Ajay Dev was wrongfully convicted,” she told the Chronicle. “Judge Beronio was the first judge to really look closely at the evidence and read every document.”
Mouzis said that much of the prosecution’s evidence was based on racial and ethnic bias, which would be prohibited today under California’s Racial Justice Act, a 2021 legislation that prohibits testimony that appeals to prejudice.
