Prosecutor and Wife Sued by Man Accused of Molestation

SANTA ANA â€”  The former family gardener for a Los Angeles County prosecutor has sued the lawyer and his wife for $2 million, contending that they wrongfully accused him of molesting the attorney’s child.

Rony F. Rubio, who used to work at the couple’s Orange home, said in a Superior Court lawsuit filed Thursday that the couple knew there was no evidence to prove the molestation but pressed charges against him anyway.

Rubio was charged with child molestation in December, 1987, and ordered to stand trial a year later, but he was acquitted in February, 1989, after a judge ruled that he could not receive a fair trial because a key piece of defense evidence had been destroyed.

Rubio’s lawyer contended that the couple’s daughter was not molested but made up the allegations after seeing a videotape of her father and her stepmother having sexual intercourse.

The tape was made shortly after the prosecutor’s marriage to the child’s stepmother, several years before the alleged molestation. It had been recorded over a commercial video of the movie, “Superman.�

Rubio, thinking he was going to watch “Superman,� began to play the tape on a television set in the couple’s home and the 7-year-old saw part of it when she was playing in the room, the defense argued.

The prosecutor and his wife, who were not identified, were ordered to preserve the tape for trial, but it later came out that the woman had already erased it because she felt it was too personal to reveal.

Rubio was in jail for a year while the parties fought over the admissibility of the tape.

He seeks damages against the couple for emotional distress, saying the wife intentionally destroyed the tape, a piece of evidence that she knew could result in dismissal of the charges against him.

The couple could not be reached for comment.