Wife Slandered By Husband Arrested By Police: Undoubtedly And Now Receiving State Compensation

Police believed in a vengeful wife

When spouses go through a relationship crisis, the decision to take different paths and not agree on how to share ownership often leads to a wide variety of allegations, not necessarily substantiated. With the intervention of law enforcement, such dramas often take the form of pre-trial investigations, and these sometimes end unexpectedly.

One such case is the story of Jonas, a 61-year-old Jonas resident who works as a construction worker. A man accused of abusing his wife, threatening to kill her with a knife, was arrested and banned from living in his home for some time.

Finally, the pre-trial investigation against him ended and the state would have to pay for the illegal detention for deprivation of liberty. This decision by the Kaunas District Court was confirmed this week by the Kaunas Regional Court, which rejected the complaint by prosecutors and the police.

The main character in this story, the worker who won the case against Lithuania, asked not to mention his name. He admitted, after a bitter experience, that he did not want to be bothered by the actions of other police officers, his fellow police officers who had illegally detained him.

John’s name is also not mentioned because there are statements in this story about other people whose veracity cannot be verified.

“I did not think I would have to experience it in my life. My vengeful wife slandered me, the police trusted her and I, as the greatest culprit, was taken into custody, unable to return to my home for almost two months, where they left me medication and everything else. Finally, after a year and a half, it was all over, “said Delfi Jonas, a 61-year-old citizen and a 61-year-old citizen who had won a case against the state, representing the police and the prosecutor’s office.

They denounced food thefts, received charges of violence

Jonas didn’t hide: Before Kaunas County police officers intervened, his relationship with his wife was as lax as necessary. The couple intended to divorce but did not agree on how to share the property. As the environment warmed, the spouses lived on different floors of a large private house.

Jonas, who decided to divorce his wife and his wife, arrived on the night of December 7, 2018. The man showered and officers asked him to get dressed and go with them. According to Kristina Česnauskienė, a lawyer who represented him, the man was not informed that he was going to be detained and the man with health problems did not take any necessary medicine or hygiene measures.

Officials arrived at Garliaviškis’s house and detained him not only for themselves. A statement was received from his wife that her husband had been violent and threatened to kill her. Here an eloquent detail is important: the statement was written four days ago, during which time the woman did not resort to any service, did not call the emergency number.

“His wife worked as a chef in the National Defense System, stole from the workplace, and brought food home. I called and told their employers everything, took a picture of what was in the fridge. Apparently, after finding out and consulting at the workplace, he found a way to get even with me. In a statement to the police, he wrote that he had beaten her and threatened to cut her with a knife. Probably someone advised him that after writing this way, the police would really take me home, “Jonas said.

Memorable sarcasm by officials of shame on men

In telling his story, the man did not hide; I really didn’t expect a visit to the police station to be the beginning of a long suffering. Especially since he said before his wife that he was not violent, and even more so that he did not threaten to cut her with a knife.

John says that plainclothes officers were brought to the police station directly from the shower, sober. Officials also did not notice any signs of violence on his wife’s body.

The man recalled that these circumstances were a bit confusing for officers, so he received a rather strange comment from law enforcement officers.

“They told me that I had embarrassed all the men. That other men were brought to them with high praise, brutally beat their wives. And I am a sober woman, with no signs of violence … I asked her how long it would take, I said what about three hours. It all ended with being closed for two days. They stripped him naked, photographed him near the “prisoner’s table” and took fingerprints, “recalled the worker who visited the officers.

The two days he spent in police custody were only the beginning of future experiences. A man accused of violence was accused of causing physical pain and threatening to kill a family member. During the interrogation, he denied guilt, claimed that he had not been violent and that he did not have a knife in his hands and that he had not threatened his wife, but these arguments did not seem to interest anyone.

A police investigator empathized with the role of a judge.

The next day, an investigator from the Kaunas chief police station sentenced Jonas to a detention center, prohibited him from communicating with his wife, from visiting her home, and from leaving the Kaunas shelter.

“When asked by a human researcher if he would have a place to stay, he said he had nowhere to go. Why was the hostel address entered? I can not imagine. He was not there for a day, after he was banned from visiting his home, he went to his sister in the Vilkaviškis district, ”said K. Česnauskienė, a lawyer who defended Jonas, to the Delfi portal.

However, the most interesting thing is that, according to K. Česnauskienė, a police investigator who ordered this preventive measure and prohibited him from returning home, had no right to do so. According to the lawyer, this indicates lack of competition, total ignorance of the law.

In fact, the Code of Criminal Procedure establishes that “arrest, intensive care, house arrest and the obligation to live separately from the victim and / or not to approach the victim closer than a specific distance can only be ordered by a pre-trial judge or court order. “

It also states that “pre-trial detention can only be imposed if there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the suspect has committed a crime.”

However, those data, which unequivocally demonstrate that John had actually beaten his wife and threatened to kill her, were not collected.

Later, the Kaunas District Court, which examined the claim prepared by the worker’s lawyer Jonas K. Česnauskienė and partially examined it, also ruled on it, and the Kaunas Regional Court confirmed this decision.

He was unable to return home, he was left without the necessary medication

Although he was released from police custody, John was unable to return to the home where his wife lived, who had written a statement about the violence to the police. With no place to stay, the man took refuge with his sister in the Vilkaviškis district.

Finally, after the lawyer’s complaints, the preventive detention measure was adjusted, changing the place of residence where he should be, but he was not allowed to return to his home. Although the man could live on the next floor of a private house, not to communicate with his wife.

Jonas lived with his sister in the Vilkaviškis district for almost two months. Later, he assured that the distance of 70 kilometers to Kaunas caused him many inconveniences. I had to go to the doctors, due to constant stress I developed anxiety and sleep disorders.

The sister of the wrongfully accused man later testified in court that the brother, who had lived with her for less than two months, felt unwell, cried and did not sleep. These allegations were also corroborated by a certificate from a psychiatrist that he had been treated for the disorders.

The man who brought Lithuania to court also stated that when he was unable to return home, living with his sister 70 kilometers from Kaunas, he had no medicine that he used regularly. I had to go to Kaunas more than once: visit the doctors, get prescription drugs, contact a lawyer.

The police did not even try to search for evidence

During the examination of Jonas’s claim in the Kaunas District Court, several defects in police work were found. After evaluating all the circumstances of the case, the court found that John’s arrest was illegal.

“The pre-trial investigation file confirms that there was no objective evidence at the time of John’s arrest warrant, other than his wife’s statement that she had been convicted of a criminal offense; there were no signs of bodily violence in the victim, as confirmed by the victim, in the afternoon the police also questioned him, “the court said.

Attention was also drawn to the fact that the woman had filed a statement with the police against a possible violent attack and threat of murder four days later. However, there is no evidence that he resorted to the police, medical facilities, neighbors, lawyers, etc., immediately after the alleged incident.

“The person was sober at the time of his arrest and no signs of conflict were identified.” Taking into account that the spouses lived together in the same house for four days after the crime, the victim went to work two days after the incident, her freedom was not restricted, the decision of the investigator for the reasons and conditions of unfounded detention ” , the court ruled on the ruling.

By examining the circumstances of the story that ended with the illegal arrest of a person, the court found much evidence of a defect in the police job. When they arrived to arrest the alleged abusive husband, they did not try to gather any evidence that could corroborate the allegations of the wife who complained to him.

“There were no witnesses to the incident, no signs of a fight were found during the scene inspection, and no items of evidentiary value were found.” Assessing 2018 December 7 In the inspection report of the scene of the incident, it is clear that no objects were registered (in this case, the knife with which the victim was threatened) and the kitchen wall was not repaired in which, according to the victim, the knife was placed.

Although pre-trial investigative officers reached the person himself and arrived at his family’s home knowing the circumstances specified in his wife’s statement, that is, and. The fact that the physical violence and the threat of murder took place in their home, officials did not interview neighbors living in another part of the same house, which, according to the court, meant that no measures were taken to collect data to corroborate the statement of the spouse. ” The defect was named by the court.

Not only the police but also the prosecutors did not function properly

The court evaluated not only the person’s illegal detention, but also police investigators who exceeded their authority to prohibit him from living in his own home.

“The pre-trial investigation file confirms that the investigator’s unlawfully imposed prohibition on residence and the incompetent handling of complaints by the Jonas representative by prosecutors significantly restricted the applicant’s rights for a sufficiently long period (almost two months) without any legal basis, “the court found. .

According to the court, the mere fact that the imposition of a preventive detention measure falls within the exclusive competence of a court or judge means that pre-trial investigative officers are not competent to even consider the reasons and conditions for granting such detention. preventive.

These circumstances established in the case allow the court to conclude that the additional obligations imposed by the pre-trial investigation officer indefinitely – not visiting his residence and not communicating with his spouse – were performed without authorization and were excessive and disproportionate.

The complainant’s representative’s complaints, which were examined incompetently by prosecutors, resulted in the fact that the detention measure unlawfully and unreasonably imposed lasted almost two months, ”the Kaunas District Court ruling went into effect.

In recounting his story, John recalled a rather important detail. Police questioned whether he had in fact used violence against his wife and threatened to kill her with a knife. As stated in the woman’s statement, they did not limit themselves to interrogations. It was decided to summon both angry spouses to the confrontation in order to compare their testimonies.

“It just caught our eye then. She indicated that she was afraid of violence on my part. Forgive me, what kind of violence can there be when the confrontation takes place at a police station? She probably realized that she had pretended and feared that all your lies come to light, “said the man.

No attention was paid to the essential circumstance (conflicting relationships between spouses).

The Kaunas District Court, which examined the case, also saw a fundamental problem: When examining the complaints of divorced spouses, officials must be extremely objective, but this has not been done in this story.

And the fact that the relationship between the spouses has been strained for some time, they are preparing for divorce and disagree on which of them should go to earth, the cops knew immediately after John’s arrest. These circumstances were pointed out the same day by a wife who had accused him of violence during an additional interview.

“These circumstances mean that, in such a case, pre-trial investigative officers had a duty to evaluate with great care and caution the circumstances mentioned in John’s wife’s statement, considering that in such a conflict situation, participants cannot legally act, improperly assess the situation, have no legitimate reasons. “

It is obvious that neither John’s arrest nor his suspicions or pretrial detention measures were taken into account, the prosecutor spoke of that only when making the decision to end the pre-trial investigation, “the court stated.

The pre-trial investigation against Jonas ended in late February 2019, when the sixth division prosecutor from the Kaunas District Prosecutor’s Office stated that the crimes with which he was suspected had not been committed: the violence against his wife and the threatens to kill her.

Prosecutors tried to defend themselves: John himself was to blame for what had happened.

The Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s Office, on the other side of the barricades, presented an interesting argument when the man, who was slandered by his wife and was not detained at home and was unable to live at home, filed a lawsuit on the other side of the barricades. John himself is to blame for what happened to him. According to the prosecution, it was his “irresponsible behavior that led to the start of the trial, the statement of suspicion, the imposition of procedural measures and preventive detention.”

This prosecutors argument was rejected by the court as completely unfounded.

“If the court determines that the actions of the officials mentioned in this case were illegal, there is no reason to claim that the plaintiff’s conduct was irresponsible,” the court stated.

The witnesses may have said nothing and questioned the witnesses about whether his family could have been abused against his family. A woman who lived nearby told investigators that she had never heard beatings, cries, or other signs of violence at a neighbor’s home, nor had she seen John’s wife with bruises or abrasions. She admitted to hearing about the woman’s psychological violence and the conflict that ended with her husband’s arrest. But she learned all this from the woman herself.

Another witness mentioned that he never saw manifestations of violence in John’s behavior. Another woman said she had heard of the conflict, but the husband’s wife, who said so, did not mention any signs of violence or injury.

Therefore, in the court’s opinion, these data do not confirm the existence of physical violence, and information about John’s psychological violence against his wife is known to witnesses to herself.

“Therefore, no objective data has been established to confirm the plaintiff’s irresponsible or inappropriate conduct, as a result of which the disputed actions of the officials were carried out,” stated the Kaunas District Court, which partially satisfied Jonas’s claim against Lithuania.

Law enforcement errors must be paid by the state

In the lawsuit against the state, worker Jonas assessed the moral damage suffered by 2,000. and material damages of 204 euros. The Kaunas District Court did not contest the compensation requested for pecuniary damage and awarded the full amount claimed. And the compensation for the experiences of being illegally detained and being unable to return home for almost two months was reduced twice, instead of asking 2,000. € 1,000 was awarded to Jonas from Lithuania. euros

The State also ordered the husband to pay most of the costs, EUR 412.50. The police and the prosecution, who disagreed with this decision of the Kaunas District Court, appealed it to the Kaunas Regional Court. However, on June 9, the panel of three judges who heard the appeal dismissed it and upheld the ruling of the lower court.

“We just realized that the truth had finally prevailed. It is a little disappointing that he has awarded only half the amount, although I did not ask that much,” said Delfi Jonas, a 61-year-old worker who does not live with his wife but she has not yet been officially divorced.