Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS. : COURTS : Suit Settled in Boy’s Shooting by Former Officer in Stanton

For a time, the welter of legal proceedings following the shooting death of Patrick Andrew Mason threatened to run as long as the 5 years the boy spent on earth.

Patrick’s shooting, by then-Stanton Police Officer Anthony Sperl in a dimly lit apartment where the boy’s mother had left him alone for the day, was dramatized on the NBC television series “Hill Street Blues,” and the incident appeared as a segment on CBS’ “Sixty Minutes.”

On March 3, 1983, Sperl was dispatched to the apartment complex after a parent of one of Patrick’s classmates phoned to say the boy had not been in class for several days. Admitted to the apartment by a manager, Sperl then kicked in the bedroom door, which had been tied shut from the outside, and fired his revolver at a figure who he said appeared to be pointing a gun at him. The gun was a toy, and the boy--shot in the neck--died on the floor.

An Orange County grand jury considered indicting the boy’s mother, Patricia Ann Ridge, on charges of child endangerment and Sperl for negligence, but took no action.

Suits were filed by Ridge against the city and Sperl, and by Sperl against the city and several police superiors. A man, now in prison, who claimed to be Patrick’s natural father attempted to join the litigation.

Last Friday, four days before the $20-million lawsuit brought by Ridge against the city was scheduled to go to trial, the suit was settled. The city agreed to pay Ridge, who has since moved to Chicago, $395,000. The suit filed by Sperl, who is unemployed and on disability, is still pending but may be dropped.

On advice of her lawyer, Ridge did not comment on the settlement. Nancy Zeltzer, the city’s attorney, said, “It’s just a very, very sad story. And I think no one really wanted to go through that publicity” that a lengthy trial would entail.