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# Olympic champ clears legal hurdles
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/olympic-champ-clears-legal-hurdles/
- Published: 2005-01-08T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:57:47.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Crime, Sunset Park, #archive-import

*Prosecutors dismiss charges against Danny Harris nearly two months after he was arrested for kidnapping*

LAX COURTHOUSE — A judge on Friday ordered Olympic silver medalist Danny Harris freed, after prosecutors said they no longer could prove Harris committed a pair of Santa Monica kidnappings last fall.

Harris, who earned the silver medal in 1984 in the 400-meter hurdles, spent nearly two months in custody for the kidnappings, even after DNA evidence was recovered that linked a different man to the crimes.

Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the seven felony charges against Harris after the 75-year-old kidnap-ping victim, who was assaulted twice in her Sunset Park home, positively identified the other suspect in a live police lineup this week.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Katherine Mader apologized to Harris during Friday’s proceedings, saying innocent people sometimes get trapped in the legal system.

“I know you’ve been in for a while … and I apologize on behalf of the court system for having you in for this length of time,” Judge Mader said.

Dressed in a jail-issued blue jumpsuit, and standing with his wrists bound behind his back, Harris turned to a small group of friends and relatives in the courtroom, smiled and mouthed the words, “I’m coming home.”

Police arrested Harris in November after trained bloodhounds following the scent of a hat left by the kidnapper led authorities to Harris’ room at the Clare Foundation, a rehabilitation facility located off of Lincoln Boulevard south of Interstate 10\. Harris tested positive for drugs in 1996 and was barred from competing in the Olympics. He has struggled for years with a cocaine addiction.

Subsequent laboratory tests showed the kidnapper’s hat contained the DNA of Alonzo Taylor, a three-strike criminal who was arrested in late November for allegedly stealing a car in East Los Angeles. The two men, who share similar physical characteristics, claimed not to know one another.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 8, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/010805.pdf?ref=smdp.com)