Family Gets $1.3 Million in Wrongful Death Case

The family of a man shot to death by sheriff’s deputies on New Year’s Eve, 1980, has been awarded $1.3 million by a Compton Superior Court jury for his wrongful death and the wounding of his 3-year-old son and teen-age nephew.

Jildardo Plasencia, a 33-year-old furniture factory worker, died of a single gunshot in the converted garage of his rented Willowbrook home, where his extended family had gathered to welcome in the new year.

The circumstances of his death remain in dispute.

Spoke Only Spanish

The district attorney’s office, in an investigation, found that Plasencia, who spoke only Spanish, was tragically shot to death by deputies because he apparently did not understand their demands, made in English, that he drop his unloaded gun.

However, an attorney for Plasencia’s family, R. Samuel Paz, said that testimony at the civil trial, which concluded July 11 with the verdict against Los Angeles County, showed that Plasencia was “seated in the back of the (garage) and the (garage) door was closed sufficiently so that officers could not see inside the room when they fired.”

Paz met Wednesday with Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven A. Sowders, who oversees investigations of police shootings for the district attorney’s office, to ask him to reopen the probe and consider charging the deputies with Plasencia’s death.

Sowders said afterward that he will assign a prosecutor to review the case.

Plasencia had gone into his backyard with relatives about 9 p.m. to fire a gun into the air to celebrate New Year’s Eve, a practice common in Latino neighborhoods. The deputies, Sandra Jones and David Anderson, were patrolling the neighborhood when they heard shots and decided to investigate. Plasencia and his family members had returned to the garage, which had been converted to a rumpus room, by the time the deputies arrived.

Family members contend that Plasencia was unarmed when the deputies began firing into the room. The deputies say they fired in self-defense.

Both Have Recovered

The 3-year-old boy, one of Plasencia’s six children, was wounded in the buttocks and stomach. The teen-age nephew was wounded in the legs. Both have recovered physically, but the small child remains emotionally scarred, Paz said.

Assistant County Counsel S. Robert Ambrose said the county has asked Judge Kurt Lewin to set aside the verdict and grant a new trial because the award was “excessive.”