Cornelius Police Department

CORNELIUS, OREGON - NOVEMBER 1, 2013 - The Cornelius Police Department has struggled with internal problems within the agency for years. The turmoil intensified last fall when four Cornelius officers submitted a 15-page letter to city officials alleging ongoing corruption in the department. During the past year, officers say, the agency has come a long way, and the force wants to move forward. But communication between officers remains a problem. The patrol staff doesn't feel quite like a team. Benjamin Brink/Staff Photographer

(Benjamin Brink/The Oregonian)

This post was updated at 3:54 p.m., Sept. 8.



A federal jury has found that former Cornelius cop Miguel Monico fabricated evidence in a 2010 drug case and awarded $30,000 to the man he arrested on drug charges.

The verdict came Monday in Diego Mata-Gonzalez's lawsuit against Monico and the City of Cornelius.

The U.S. District Court jury in Portland began deliberating Friday morning and reached a decision in the early afternoon on Monday.

Jurors rejected the plaintiff's first two claims of malicious prosecution, according to court staff. But they agreed with his third claim that Monico fabricated evidence.

The case went to trial last week in Judge Michael Mosman's courtroom. In his opening statements, Mata-Gonzalez's attorney John Devlin told jurors that Monico falsified drug evidence and a confession to support charges of possession and delivery of cocaine. Prosecutors dropped the charges against Mata-Gonzalez three months later, when white powder seized from Mata-Gonzalez's home tested negative for cocaine at the state crime lab.

Devlin said Monico lied in his reports about field test results indicating the white powder was an illegal substance. The officer further lied, Devlin said, when he documented that Mata-Gonzalez had confessed that the white powder was cocaine.

"Mr. Mata-Gonzalez is happy that justice was done in this important case," his lawyers Devlin and Michelle Burrows said in a statement Monday. "The jury made clear that a police officer who fabricates evidence will be held accountable."

Monico's attorney, Robert Wagner, denied the allegations in his opening statements last week.

"He did not go out of his way to try to make Mr. Mata-Gonzales's life miserable," Wagner said.

Monico had good reason to be investigating the Mata-Gonzalez home, the attorney said. At the time, gang violence was on the rise in the county's western suburbs. And the plaintiff's teenage son was suspected in a gang shooting.

Wagner said during a search of the family home, police found strong evidence of gang and drug involvement. Inside a dresser in the master bedroom, officers found a bag of white powder. Investigators believed it was cocaine or meth, Wagner said, and two field tests showed the powder was an illegal substance.

According to the plaintiff's attorneys, the white powder was a bath product used by Mata-Gonzalez's wife.

In his lawsuit, Mata-Gonzalez sought more than $1 million in damages. On the claim of fabricated evidence, jurors awarded him $5,000 in economic damages and an additional $25,000 in non-economic damages, according to court staff.

The City of Cornelius dissolved its police department this summer after years of internal problems, which officials deemed unfixable. Monico is one of four officers who in 2012 submitted a letter to city officials alleging ongoing corruption in the Cornelius Police Department.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office began policing the city July 1. Since his department disbanded, Monico has continued working in law enforcement, now as a county employee.

-- Emily E. Smith