a couple months old, but i just found this:
\'Curb Your Enthusiasm\' clears murder suspect
Tuesday, June 1, 2004 Posted: 10:20 PM EDT (0220 GMT)
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "Curb Your Enthusiasm," an HBO show known for its acerbic wit, accidentally helped deliver a happy ending to a man who had been charged with murder.
Juan Catalan spent 5 1/2 months in jail on murder charges before his attorney found video footage taken by the show at Dodger Stadium that backs up his client\'s claims of innocence.
Police arrested Catalan in August, alleging he killed Martha Puebla, 16, in the San Fernando Valley on May 12, 2003, because she had testified against his brother in another case.
Catalan insisted he and his 6-year-old daughter were watching the Los Angeles Dodgers lose to the Atlanta Braves, 11-4, minutes before Puebla was killed about 20 miles north of the stadium.
He said he had ticket stubs from the game and testimony from his family as to his whereabouts the night Puebla was killed. But police still believed he was responsible, saying they had a witness who placed Catalan at the scene of the slaying.
Catalan said he asked to take a lie detector test, but was refused.
Defense attorney Todd Melnik subpoenaed the Dodgers and Fox Networks, which owned the team then, to scan videotape of the televised baseball game and footage from its "Dodger Vision" cameras. Some of the videotapes showed where Catalan was sitting but Melnik couldn\'t make him out.
Clues on the cutting room floor
Melnik later learned that HBO had been at the stadium the night of the killing to tape an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," a comedy starring "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David. The lawyer found what he was looking for in footage that had not made the final cut.
"I got to one of the scenes, and there is my client sitting in a corner of the frame eating a hot dog with his daughter," Melnik said. "I nearly jumped out of my chair and said, \'There he is!"\'
The tapes had time codes that allowed Melnik to find out exactly when Catalan was at the ballpark. Melnik also obtained cell phone records that placed his client near the stadium later that night, about 20 minutes before the murder.
The attorney said it would have been impossible for Catalan to get out of the parking lot, change vehicles and clothing and play with his daughter as well as kill Puebla during that span.
Catalan, who could have faced the death penalty had he been convicted of murder, was released in January because a judge ruled there was no evidence to try him.
"To hear the words from the judge\'s mouth, I just broke down in tears," Catalan, 26, said Tuesday. "It was the happiest moment in my life."
Catalan, now raising his family and working with his father as a machinist, has submitted a claim against the city of Los Angeles, alleging false imprisonment, misconduct and defamation of character. Puebla\'s murder remains unsolved and the case against Catalan\'s brother, who is accused of being the driver in a drive-by shooting, is still pending.
Prosecutors and police did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Other evidence also helped dismiss the case against Catalan, but the videotape "had extreme dramatic effect," Melnick said.
The show was hardly about the ballpark crowd that night. It focused on David hiring a prostitute, not for sex but to be a passenger in his car so he could travel in the carpool lane and escape traffic on his way to the stadium.
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" is a series on cable network HBO, whose parent company is Time Warner Inc. which also owns CNN.com.
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update:
Man With Ballpark Alibi Sues Over Murder Arrest
Man Was Wrongly Imprisoned For Five Months
POSTED: 3:15 pm PDT August 4, 2004
UPDATED: 3:48 pm PDT August 4, 2004
LOS ANGELES -- A man jailed for months in a murder case claims in a lawsuit that police failed to properly investigate his alibi, which was confirmed when he was found in scenes taped for a TV series during a Dodgers baseball game at the time of the killing.
"What they did to me was very wrong," Juan Catalan, 26, told a news conference announcing his lawsuit against the city, the Police Department, four detectives and police officials.
"I was arrested at gunpoint in front of my 4-year-old daughter when she was crying. I was in jail for five months for nothing," Catalan said.
The lawsuit, filed July 29 in federal court, claims false arrest, false imprisonment, negligence and defamation. It seeks unspecified damages.
"No amount of money can replace a loss like this," said Gary Casselman, Catalan\'s attorney.
A call seeking comment on the allegations against the department and its officers was referred by spokesman Officer Eduardo Funes to the city attorney\'s office. Matt Szabo, a spokesman for the city attorney, said the office had not seen the lawsuit and had no immediate comment.
Catalan was arrested Aug. 12 for investigation of the murder of Martha Puebla, 16, who was shot outside her San Fernando Valley home on May 12, 2003. Police alleged he killed Puebla because she testified against his brother in a homicide case.
Catalan maintained he was at Dodger Stadium at the time with his daughter, and had ticket stubs and testimony from his family as to his whereabouts. He also claimed he asked to take a lie-detector test but was refused.
Police claimed to have a witness who placed Catalan, who lives only blocks away from Puebla\'s home, at the murder scene.
Defense attorney Todd Melnik subpoenaed the Dodgers and Fox Networks, which owned the team then, to scan videotape of the game and footage from its "Dodger Vision" cameras. Some of the tapes showed the location of Catalan\'s seats but Melnik couldn\'t make him out.
Melnik then learned that an HBO crew had been at the stadium taping an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." He found his client in a scene that hadn\'t made the final cut for the show.
Tape time codes allowed Melnik to find out exactly when Catalan was there. Melnik also obtained cell phone records that placed his client\'s phone near the stadium about 20 minutes before the murder.
Catalan was released in January after a judge ruled there was no evidence to try him.
Specific officials named in the suit were Chief William Bratton, North Hollywood station commander Capt. William Sweet, and Detectives Mike Coffey, Martin Pinner, Juan Rodriguez and Tim Shaw.
The suit claims the city failed to properly train the detectives or discipline them, that Catalan was held for six hours before being told why he was arrested, and that his rights were violated when detectives continued to question him after he asked for a lawyer.
It also claims that police wrongly described him as a gang member, and that Puebla had in fact testified against a co-defendant in the other homicide case and not against Catalan\'s brother.
The suit also alleges that a tape recording shows that a detective suggested which photograph a witness should identify in a photo lineup as the suspect in the Puebla shooting.
