Molester sues his accusers, seeking $1M
He has been arrested on more than 80 counts of child molestation.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Dean Arthur Schwartzmiller, who's as adept as a jailhouse lawyer as he is as a child molester, has sued his accusers in federal court for more than $1 million.
The 64-year-old convicted molester -- now awaiting trial for abusing two 12-year-old cousins in San Jose -- filed a suit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on July 28, which just recently came to light.
In five states over 35 years, Schwartzmiller had been arrested on more than 80 counts of child molestation involving at least 13 boys. He was convicted on nine of those counts, and four were eventually overturned by appeals courts.
Jailhouse lawyer
Part of that may be because he's a standout jailhouse lawyer.
Schwartzmiller, who has been bound over to trial after his preliminary hearing last week, has always kept busy with law books while locked up.
For example, while in prison in Idaho on child molestation charges in the 1980s, he was a key plaintiff in a string of prison overcrowding cases that led to major reforms in the state's penitentiaries.
This time, he finds fault with the Washington state detectives who arrested him, the Santa Clara County sheriff, Laurie Smith, and the San Jose police detectives who arrested him, among others.
Yet he's not having much luck with his lawsuit.
The file in federal court in San Francisco -- to which the case was assigned by computer -- shows only the last few pages of his amended complaint. The original, which would detail most of his complaints, apparently never made it to the court. And Schwartzmiller has written to the court a couple of times asking about its status.
When the court has written back, the mail has been returned unopened, including the last one, on Nov. 16.
Steve Fein, the deputy district attorney who is prosecuting Schwartzmiller in Santa Clara County, said the man is following his pattern.
"I know he's filed civil complaints during his pending criminal trials, but I didn't know about this one," he said.
Accusation
In the last pages of his amended complaint, Schwartzmiller accuses San Jose detective David Gonzalez of stealing his truck. The truck was apparently impounded.
Gonzalez did not answer a call for comment.
Schwartzmiller also complains that he is wrongfully "chained and shackled." And he wants the court to award him $100,000 for not being allowed to answer an eviction complaint, apparently for the house in San Jose where he used to live with Frederick Everts, also awaiting trial on molestation charges.
Because Schwartzmiller claims he doesn't have "adequate access to courts," he wants $500,000 in damages.
Mark Cursi, spokesman for the Santa Clara County jail, said he'd had no record of grievances about such things from Schwartzmiller. He also said the county had not seen the suit so he could offer no comment.
In the suit, Schwartzmiller also alleged that there was no warrant to seize his Ford E-250 van, so he wants an additional $500,000 in punitive damages.
Schwartzmiller is facing seven felony counts that could put him in jail for 105 years. He is set to be arraigned Monday. His attorney for the criminal case, Melinda Hall, is on vacation and could not be reached for comment.