A wrongfully convicted man who spent more than 30 years behind bars will receive $19.1 million as part of a settlement with the city of Baldwin Park, officials said.
Daniel Saldana, 56, was convicted in connection to a 1989 drive-by shooting outside a Baldwin Park high school football game that left two students injured. But for years Saldana maintained he was innocent, insisting he wasn’t at the shooting.
Saldana was was freed from prison in 2023 after a judge declared him factually innocent and, on Friday, the Baldwin Park City Council agreed to pay $19.1 million to settle a wrongful conviction federal lawsuit.
Attorneys for Saldana argued in the lawsuit it was the “egregious misconduct” of a Baldwin Park detective that led to the wrongful conviction in 1990.
Saldana could not be reached for comment, but his attorneys released a statement blaming the wrongful conviction on a Baldwin Park detective.
“Mr. Saldana’s wrongful conviction resulted from the egregious misconduct of a Baldwin Park detective who systematically fabricated evidence and pressured witnesses throughout a fundamentally flawed investigation,” said Amelia Green, one of Saldana’s attorneys.
The case against Saldana began to unravel when one of the codefendants, Raul Vidal, told the state parole board in 2017 that Saldana was not present at the shooting.
A deputy district attorney had been present at Vidal’s parole hearing, but the testimony didn’t spark a review of the case at the time. It was not until 2023 that the state’s parole board turned over transcripts of the hearing to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit.
The district attorney’s office then moved to have Saldana’s conviction overturned, and a judge found him factually innocent in May 2023.
In February 2024, Saldana and his attorneys filed a suit against the city and former Baldwin Park Police Detective Michael Donovan, alleging the former detective coerced witnesses and falsified reports to get Saldana convicted.
Donovan allegedly pressured a teen witness to testify that Saldana was the second shooter in the incident, although the teen originally testified there had been only one shooter, according to the lawsuit.
In a statement, the city of Baldwin Park confirmed the settlement and said the incident did not involve any current city employees.
“The city sincerely hopes Mr. Saldana can now move forward in his new life,” the statement read.
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