Calif. Man's 378-Year Prison Sentence Overturned After Judge Rules Accuser May Have Falsified Charges

A judge overturned a California man’s 378-year sentence for sexual assault on Friday, May 23.

According to Superior Court of California, Yolo County court records reviewed by PEOPLE, Ajay Dev, 58, who had 76 convictions, was released on Friday, May 23, on his own recognizance (OR). A trial setting conference and motion hearing date has been scheduled for Friday, June 13.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the District Attorney’s Office will decide whether to retry Dev.

The ruling came down after Superior Court Judge Janene Beronio said that there was substantial evidence that Dev’s accuser, his adopted daughter Sapna Dev, had fabricated the charges to “punish him and improve her prospects of remaining in the United States,” per the outlet.

“I have read the court material for seven years and believe there is a substantial likelihood that he didn’t do this. I don’t think $60,000 is reasonable… I think OR is reasonable,” said Beronio, per DavisVanguard.org.

Sapna was adopted from Nepal in 1998 when she was 15. Dev, an immigrant from Nepal, was visiting the country with his wife. According to The San Francisco Chronicle, citing Beronio’s ruling, in early 2004, Sapna’s boyfriend broke up with her, and she claimed it was Dev’s fault.

She then proceeded to tell police that Dev “had sex with her two or three times a week for three or four years until she moved out of his home,” per the outlet.

Four witnesses, however, testified during a recent hearing that Sapna stated the accusations were lies or were motivated by her anger towards him, according to the judge.

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One of the witnesses whom Beronio classified as “credible” said Sapna said she made the accusations against her adopted father because she “was determined to return to the United States and needed to use the criminal charges to do that.”

According to The San Francisco Chronicle, Beronio also noted there was evidence showing that between 1999 and 2004, Sapna gave Dev and his wife cards and sent them texts and emails “expressing her affection and love and a desire to continue to be part of their lives.”

Beronio said that if jurors had heard that evidence, “the result of this case could have and most likely would have been different.”

During court, Dev’s attorney, Jennifer Mouzis, emphasized that Dev had no prior criminal record before the case and had maintained a clean disciplinary record over his 16 years of incarceration, according to DavisVanguard.org.

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Patricia Purcell, a member of the advocacy group that has held demonstrations in support of Dev, told The San Francisco Chronicle, “Judge Beronio was the first judge to really look closely at the evidence and read every document.”