The Region - News from Nov. 3, 1985

A judge in Santa Ana threw out allegations by a former Stanton police officer that his civil rights were violated in 1983 when he was forced to sit “drenched in blood” for five hours after mistakenly shooting to death a little boy. The former officer, Anthony Sperl, made the allegations in a civil cross-complaint filed in 1984 against his former supervising police sergeant and then-Stanton Police Chief Ron Johnson. Superior Court Judge John Ryan, who issued the ruling Friday, also threw out Sperl’s contention that Johnson and Sgt. Robert Ohleman violated his civil rights by having him interrogated for five hours after the shooting of a 5-year-old boy. The boy, who was left alone in an apartment by his mother, was shot as Sperl conducted a search of the residence.