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“There’s an excellent short documentary about his case called Long Shot if anyone’s interested!”
What happened: In August 2003, Juan Catalan was arrested for the murder of a 16-year-old girl named Martha Puebla who had been shot and killed outside of her home. Prior to her killing, Martha had testified in court against a man named Mario Catalan, which eventually led to police arresting Juan, Mario’s brother (assuming revenge as a motive). However, Juan’s alibi was that he had been at a Dodgers game with his daughter and some friends at the time of the murder, but it couldn’t be proven.
Luckily for Juan, he remembered a film crew had also been at the game shooting footage for a TV show. Indeed, a crew for Curb Your Enthusiasm was also there, filming establishing shots for an episode called “The Car Pool Lane.” Juan’s lawyer was able to track down footage from that night, “inspecting every person like a grain of sand,” and eventually found footage of Juan (and his daughter) proving his story to be true.
A judge dismissed all charges against Juan (who, by this point, had spent six months in jail awaiting trial), and a jury awarded him $320,000 for the false accusation. The true killer was finally brought to justice in 2008.
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