Local News in Brief : Woman Wounded in Tarzana Shooting Awarded $475,000

A Northridge woman who was wounded while delivering newspapers won a $475,000 judgment Wednesday against a former Tarzana resident who said he fired his rifle at the woman because he thought she was a burglar.

A jury in Van Nuys Superior Court granted the award for Lorraine Geller, 26, a bookkeeper who said she was earning extra money by delivering papers in Tarzana when the incident occurred in July, 1982.

The judgment was against John J. Brophy, 46, an electronics engineer now living in Newbury Park, who fired several shots at Geller’s car with a Winchester rifle.

Although not hit directly, Geller was wounded in the left shoulder by bullet fragments and glass from the driver’s side window, which was shattered by one of the bullets, said Larry Grassini, Geller’s attorney.

The plaintiff said she cannot sleep on her left side because of continuing pain in her shoulder.

Brophy pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon in the case. He was sentenced in November, 1983, to one year in jail and five years’ probation, court records show.

Geller testified that she was driving on a Tarzana hillside street at 3 a.m. when Brophy and two people he was living with ran out of their house and tried to force her to the side of the road.

According to testimony, the burglar alarm in the house had gone off and the trio suspected she was a fleeing burglar, Grassini said.

When she sped off, Brophy fired at her, Geller said. Brophy told police he was trying to shoot out her tires.