Mehinovic v. Vuckovic
CJA represents four Bosnian clients in a case against Nikola Vukovic for torture and other atrocities at detention facilities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. On April 29, 2002 the judge found Vukovic liable for torture, arbitrary detention, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and ordered him to pay our clients a total of $140 million. Several courts have cited the judgment, which constitutes the first published opinion in the U.S. holding a defendant liable for crimes against humanity.

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Cabello v. Fernandez Larios
In 2003, a Florida jury found Pinochet operative Armando Fernandez Larios responsible for the torture and murder of Chilean economist Winston Cabello. Fernandez Larios, in his role as a member of the “Caravan of Death,” was held liable for torture, crimes against humanity, and extrajudicial killing. CJA's clients - Cabello's siblings and mother - were awarded $4 million dollars in compensatory and punitive damages. The trial marked the first time any Pinochet-era perpetrator was tried in the United States as well as the first jury verdict for crimes against humanity in a contested case in the United States.

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Doe v. Liu Qi
In 2002 CJA filed a complaint against the former Mayor of Beijing Liu Qi for his role in the state sponsored repression of the Falun Gong in the 1999. Both the Chinese government and State Department submitted statements urging that the case be dismissed. The Judge in the case rejected the Governments arguments and entered a default judgment against Liu Qi. He declared that Liu Qi had violated the rights of Jane Doe I and Jane Doe II “to be free from torture and arbitrary detention” and the right of Petit to be “free from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”

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Doe v. Lumintang
CJA, together with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, represents six East Timorese torture survivors in a suit against General Johny Lumintang for abuses committed by the Indonesian military during the violent aftermath of the September 1999 independence referendum. In September 2001, in Lumintang's absence, the court found in favor of the survivors and awarded them damages totaling $66 million. After Lumintang asked the court to vacate the judgment, the magistrate judge issued a Report & Recommendation recommending that Lumintang's motion be denied. However, on November 9, 2004, District Judge Gladys Kessler rejected the magistrate's recommendation and granted Lumintang's motion to vacate the default judgment.

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Chavez v. Carranza
In November 2005, a federal jury in Memphis, Tennessee found Colonel Nicolas Carranza, the former Vice-Minister of Defense of El Salvador, liable for torture and extrajudicial killings suffered by four Salvadoran plaintiffs. The verdict represents the first time that a U.S. jury in a contested case has found a commander liable for crimes against humanity. Carranza was ordered to pay $6 million in damages to four of CJA's clients.  During the trial former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Robert White testified that Colonel Carranza was a paid informant for the CIA while he was Vice-Minister of Defense in 1980.

Doe v. Saravia
In September 2004, in a historic decision, CJA won its case against Alvaro Saravia, one of the perpetrators of the assassination of revered Archbishop Oscar Romero. Until he fled, Saravia had been living freely in Modesto, California. Archbishop Romero was a momentous figure in the struggle for human rights in El Salvador until his death on March 24, 1980. The judge determined that the assassination was a crime against humanity and ordered Saravia to pay $10 million to the plaintiff, a relative of the Archbishop. Until this ruling, no one had been held responsible for the assassination, one of the most heinous and shocking murders of the last part of the 20th century.

Romagoza v. Garcia and Vides Casanova
In January 2006, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld our $54.6 million jury verdict against Generals Jose Guillermo Garcia and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, two former Ministers of Defense who oversaw the worst period of human rights abuses in El Salvador's history.  This case was originally filed by CJA on behalf of three Salvadoran torture survivors in 1999.  In 2002, after a four week trial, a West Palm Beach jury found the generals responsible for the torture of the three plaintiffs.  In July 2006, with the judgment final, Defendant Vides Casanova was forced to relinquish over $300,000 of his own funds. This collection represents one of the first human rights cases in U.S. history in which survivors have recovered money from those found responsible for abuses.

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Guatemalan Genocide Case
CJA along with the Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchú and others filed a criminal complaint in Spain against former head of state General Efraín Ríos Montt and other senior Guatemalan officials charging them with terrorism, genocide, and systematic torture stemming from a number of notorious incidents in the 1980s.  The case is modeled on the Chilean General Augusto Pinochet case which was also brought in Spain and represented the first time that a former head of state was investigated and an arrest warrant and extradition request executed in a case arising from the victims’ initiative. 

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Doe v. Constant
CJA represents three Haitian women in a lawsuit against Emmanuel "Toto" Constant for his participation in the wide range of human rights abuses committed in 1993 and 1994. On October 25, 2006, U.S. District Court Judge Sidney H. Stein of the Southern District of New York ordered Constant to pay $19 million in damages to CJA’s clients. The judgment against Constant holds him responsible for torture and crimes against humanity, specifically the systematic use of violence against women, including rape, for the purpose of terrorizing the Haitian population during that country’s brutal military regime in the early 1990s. The case marks the first time that anyone has been held to account for the campaign of rape that destroyed so many families in Haiti.

Jean v. Dorélien
CJA brought a lawsuit on behalf of two courageous Haitian plaintiffs against Colonel Carl Dorélien, former member of Haiti’s Military High Command, for a wide range of human rights abuses committed by his soldiers in 1993 and 1994. Dorélien’s presence in the U.S. became widely known when he won $3.2 million in the Florida lottery in 1997. In February 2007, a federal jury in Miami found Dorélien liable for torture, extrajudicial killing, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity, and ordered him to pay $4.3 million in damages to CJA’s clients. In August 2007, CJA successfully recovered $580,000 of Dorélien’s remaining lottery funds after enforcing a Haitian judgment in a parallel action in Florida state court. Dorélien has exhausted his appeals in both federal and state courts. In January and April 2008, the $580,000 was distributed to our clients, Lexiuste Cajuste, Marie Jean and her children.  Due to safety concerns, the fact of the distribution was not made public until May 2008.

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Reyes v. Grijalba
On March 31, 2006, CJA received a default judgment and concluded a trial on damages in our case against former Honduran military intelligence chief Col. Juan López Grijalba. The court held López Grijalba legally responsible for torture, extrajudicial killings and disappearances and ordered him to pay $47 million to six plaintiffs. This is the first case in which a Honduran military leader has been held liable for human rights abuses committed during the 1980s. López Grijalba was deported to back to Honduras in 2004. The Attorney General of Honduras approached CJA in May 2006 to assist in a criminal prosecution of López Grijalba for human rights abuses based on evidence developed in our U.S. civil case. As first step to initiating the prosecution, CJA trained 80 Honduran prosecutors on bringing successful human rights cases in national courts in December 2007.

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Ochoa v. Hurtado
Ochoa v. Rivera Rondon
CJA represents two women in lawsuits against two Peruvian Army officers responsible for the killings of their relatives during the notorious Accomarca Massacre in 1985.  The women have filed these cases to seek justice on behalf of all the members of the Association of the Relatives of the Victims of Violence in Accomarca who lost loved ones in the massacre.  Defendants Telmo Hurtado Hurtado and Juan Rivera Rondón, who now reside in the United States, commanded the patrol units involved in a military operation that resulted in the killings of 69 innocent civilians.  These cases mark the first of their kind filed in the United States for atrocities committed during Peru’s twenty year civil war between 1980 and 2000.  The lawsuits are proceeding in federal courts in Florida and Maryland.

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Doe v. Ali
CJA is prosecuting a lawsuit against Somali military official Colonel Yusuf Abdi Ali (nicknamed “Tokeh”), a former officer in the Somali National Army, for war crimes and other human rights abuses committed by his troops in Somalia in the 1980s. CJA represents two members of the Isaaq clan who were brutally tortured by soldiers under Tokeh's command. The judge referred the case to the U.S. State Department for its input. CJA is awaiting a response from the State Department.

Yousuf v. Samantar
CJA represents five Somali individuals in a suit against General Mohamed Ali Samantar accusing him of a wide range of human rights abuses committed during the regime of Siad Barré during the 1980s.  Mr. Samantar currently resides in Fairfax, Virginia.  The lawsuit alleges that, as Minister of Defense from 1980 to 1986 and then as Prime Minister from 1987 to 1990, Samantar's subordinates in the Armed Forces committed targeted civilians for widespread abuses, including torture, extrajudicial killing, and war crimes.

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Luis Posada Carriles
Posada Carriles faces criminal charges in Venezuela for his involvement in the 1976 bombing of the Cubana de Aviacion Flight 455 that killed 73 people. CJA represents one victim's family in their struggle to bring Posada Carriles to justice. Despite a request by the Venezuelan government, the United States government has refused to extradite him. Although the Department of Homeland Security detained Posada Carriles on deportation charges, an immigration judge has likewise refused to send him back to Venezuela.

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