Bruce Lisker (born 1965) was arrested by Los Angeles police in 1983. According to the LAPD, he was guilty of a serious crime: they said he had killed his mother Dorka Lisker.
Bruce Lisker denied the accusation. He said he was innocent, but the police did not accept his claim. Detective Andrew Monsue and his colleague Howard Landgren, who were working on the murder case, insisted that Bruce was guilty.
The local prosecutor believed the police report and began to prepare a trial against Bruce Lisker. In 1985, Bruce Lisker was tried in a court of law where he was found guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison.
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Over the following years, Bruce tried in different ways to appeal his case, but he was not successful. He hired a private investigator to look into the case. The investigator wrote a detailed report which he sent to two reporters at the Los Angeles Times:
** Matt Lait
** Scott Glover
When Matt and Scott read this report, they became interested in the case and began their own investigation of the case. While working on the case, Matt and Scott were contacted by Albert James (Jim) Gavin who worked at the department of internal affairs of LAPD
Gavin was looking at the career of Andrew Monsue, because allegations of corruption and misconduct were connected with his name. Gavin shared some of his information with Matt and Scott which helped them with their investigation of the case.
In 2005, Andrew Monsue resigned from the LAPD. Perhaps he decided to resign because allegations of corruption and misconduct were connected with his name?
In 2009, Bruce Lisker was finally granted an appeal. His case was heard once more. During the trial, many details which had been uncovered by Matt and Scott and by Jim Gavin were presented in court.
The judge took this information into account when he made his ruling. According to the judge, the LAPD had not acted in a professional way while working on this case:
** Exculpatory evidence had been suppressed in order to make Bruce look guilty
** Fabricated evidence had been used to implicate Bruce in the crime
According to the judge, Bruce was a victim of a wrongful conviction. He was released and exonerated. He had served 26 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
Since he was exonerated, he was entitled to economic compensation. The negotiations regarding economic compensation were difficult. They took several years.
In 2015, a tentative settlement of 7.6 million dollars was negotiated. In 2016, the city of Los Angeles confirmed the settlement of 7.6 million dollars.
PS. Detective Andrew Monsue was never punished for the way in which he had conducted the investigation of the murder case.
When he retired in 2005, his right to a pension from the city was still intact. As far as I know, he is still alive.
REFERENCES
Matt Lait and Scott Glover,
“Detective accused of misconduct to retire,”
Los Angeles Times
07 June 2005
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A podcast:
“A deceitful detective and manipulated evidence: The wrongful conviction of Bruce Lisker,”
Legal Talk Network
07 October 2025
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A podcast:
“The collapse of a conviction: How an LAPD cop and two journalists unraveled the case against Bruce Lisker,”
Legal Talk Network
21 October 2025
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48 Hours Mystery (CBS)
(Season 24 episode 03)
The Whole Truth
(2010)
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Survivors Guide to Prison
This documentary film was released in 2018
The case of Bruce Lisker is one of two cases
discussed in this film
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