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Speaker to discuss wrongful conviction

Orange County man recently freed after spending 16 months in prison

March 30, 2007 By USC Gould School of Law
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-By Cecilia Hong

USC Law students, staff and faculty are invited to hear defense attorney Scott Borthwick share his experiences representing a wrongfully convicted client, during Prof. Dan Simon’s “Wrongful convictions seminar” on April 5,  from 2 to 4 p.m. in Room 7 of the law school.

Borthwick, of Meyer & Villalobos in Santa Ana, last fall appealed the robbery and carjacking conviction of Buena Park resident James Ochoa and won Ochoa’s freedom after the man had spent 16 months in prison.

Two years ago, then-20-year-old Ochoa was charged with a robbery and carjacking he didn’t commit. When a judge threatened to send Ochoa to prison for life if Ochoa sought a jury trial, the man pleaded guilty. Read more about the police investigation and Borthwick’s appeal of the case in the OC Weekly.

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