Jury to Hear Lawsuit in Boy’s Slaying by Policeman

Former Stanton Police Officer Anthony Sperl, who accidentally shot and killed a 5-year-old boy in 1983, can sue his two police supervisors for alleged fraud and deceit but cannot sue them for allegedly violating his civil rights, an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Friday.

Judge John J. Ryan ruled that a jury should decide if Robert Ohleman, then Sperl’s supervising sergeant, and ex-Police Chief Ronald Johnson committed fraud and deceit when they ordered the officer to break into an apartment to check on Patrick Andrew Mason on March 3, 1983.

However, Ryan found that Sperl had not presented enough evidence to support his claim that his civil rights were violated on the grounds that he allegedly was forced to sit five hours in his blood-soaked police uniform while being interrogated by his supervisors.

The rulings came during a special hearing Friday morning among several attorneys involved in a $20-million negligence suit brought by the boy’s mother, Patricia Ridge. Sperl, who retired on disability five months after the shooting, and Ridge, who now lives in Chicago, did not attend the hearing in a Santa Ana courtroom.

Trial Date Set

A Dec. 2 trial date has been set for the case, which consists of a number of suits and countersuits by Ridge, Sperl and the City of Stanton that have been consolidated.

Patrick Mason’s tragic death and its aftereffects have spawned nationwide publicity and have been the basis for several episodes of the popular “Hill Street Blues” television series.

Ridge, a single working mother, had gone to her job at a Sears auto repair shop, leaving her son alone in their Stanton apartment with cookies and milk and only a small television for company. She couldn’t afford a baby-sitter and was unable to reach a friend who had been watching Patrick.

Sperl, who had been on the police force 15 months, responded to a call from a neighbor to check on the family’s welfare and got a manager’s passkey to enter the apartment. He heard a noise coming from the bedroom, called out and got no response. He then kicked open the door, which had been tied shut. The officer saw in the dimly lit room a “figure” pointing a gun at him and fired a single shot. The officer then discovered that the “figure” was young Patrick holding a toy gun.

Several Suits

Ridge has sued Sperl and Stanton, alleging negligence and wrongful death. Sperl filed a cross-complaint against the city, alleging improper training and negligence for providing him with particularly dangerous bullets. The boy’s father, Larry R. Hewitt, a felon in an Illinois state prison, then sued Stanton, Sperl and Ridge, with whom he lived but never married. In addition, the maker, seller and distributor of the toy gun that Patrick was holding when he was shot has been brought into the suit.

During the hearing Friday, Ryan’s actions amounted essentially to deciding not to rule on any of the attorneys’ motions, which sought to have the court rather than a jury decide some of the issues of the case.

A jury will be allowed to decide whether Ohleman and Johnson committed any fraud and deceit in the incident. By ordering him to enter Ridge’s locked apartment--which the officer and Ridge contend was an illegal entry made without the probable cause of imminent danger--Sperl claims in his suit that Ohleman deceived him because the former sergeant’s order carried the implication that the entry was legal.

Ridge’s attorney, Richard Farnell, had asked the judge to rule that Sperl’s entry into the apartment was illegal, and Nancy Zeltzer, an attorney representing Stanton in the Ridge suit, asked that Ryan rule the entry legal. However, the judge denied both requests, stating that a jury should decide the facts.

Though the trial date is set to begin in December, attorneys involved in the suit expect the trial to actually begin in early 1986.